The University of Michigan Wolverines are in Houston, Texas, for the National Championship game of college football.
The players got off the team plane as soon as it touched down at the airport.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh met with members of the media for a brief press conference after landing at the airport in Houston.
In his opening statement, Harbaugh stated, “Excited to be here, just tremendous, exactly where we wanted to be.” “Exactly where we had hoped to be. Thank you so much for the warm welcome; our guys have worked really hard to get here.”
“We’re thrilled to be here and we’re in a good place,” Harbaugh went on.
On Friday afternoon, U-M took to the skies in the “Queen of the Skies,” a Boeing 747-400 equipped with a custom interior designed for luxurious travel, as part of a charter flight out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The jumbo jet, owned by Atlas Air, offers its passengers “an exceptional VIP experience.” Compared to the Boeing 757 the program used for its regular-season flights earlier in the fall, it is larger and probably more comfortable.
It’s been a hectic travel week for the Wolverines. In the early hours of Monday, January 1, the night after their Rose Bowl victory, they departed Pasadena for Ann Arbor. They returned home for a few days before leaving for Houston on Friday afternoon. They arrived at their hotel at 5:06 p.m. and were escorted there.
On Friday night, a different charter flight from Seattle will bring in the Washington Huskies. Nearing the CFP National Championship Game, both programs will then take part in a media day on Saturday and have their first practice in Houston.
Michigan and Washington will kick off on Monday, January 8 at 6:45 p.m. CST/7:45 p.m. EST. The game will be aired nationally on ESPN, with Chris Fowler calling play-by-play, Kirk Herbstreit handling color, Holly Rowe covering Michigan, and Molly McGrath covering Washington.
After thirteen games, Michigan and Washington have an 8-5 all-time record against their Pacific Northwest rivals. The two teams will face off again in Seattle this autumn after U-M prevailed 31–10 at the Big House in their most recent meeting in 2021.
The Wolverines are vying for their first national championship since the 1997 campaign and are making their first appearance in the CFP National Championship Game.
