Michigan Football: Top 5 wins for Jim Harbaugh as Wolverines head coach

No. 3 The embarrassment of Penn State

Michigan football put together some impressive wins during the 2018 season. At one point, the Wolverines won three consecutive games against ranked teams, beating Wisconsin, Penn State and Michigan State.

All of those were big wins, even if some want to discount the wins over the Badgers and Spartans because they didn’t end the season ranked. That’s Michigan football fans for you, even when they get a big win, it’s still not good enough.

With Penn State though, it was hard to make that argument and it was one of the most satisfying wins of the Harbaugh era. Beating Wisconsin after losing in 2017 was sweet, but Penn State humiliated UM in that same season with a 42-13 win and it wasn’t something Michigan forgot.

In a game that proved to be pretty important, as it ended up deciding who would go to the Peach Bowl as part of the New Year’s Six, Michigan blew the doors off of Penn State.

On the Wolverines first drive, they called nothing but runs and finally scored on a walk-in touchdown run by Shea Patterson. UM ran for 259 yards and had more than 400 yards of total offense compared to 186 for Penn State led by Trace McSorley.

Despite being in control throughout, or at least feeling that way, Michigan led just 14-0 late in the third when Patterson found Zach Gentry for a touchdown. However, less than a minute later, Brandon Watson iced the win with a 63-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Michigan won the game 42-7 and that was when people started to believe the Wolverines could be a playoff team, which they ultimately weren’t.