As the red rose petals began to fall on Monday night in Pasadena, they weren't for the demise of the Michigan football program like everyone had suspected just a month or so ago. They were the complete opposite. In the midst of the bright red was maize and blue, and a smiling, gloating even, Jim Harbaugh at the center of it all.

Jim Harbaugh and Michigan's Rose Bowl victory almost never happened

It took Harbaugh nine years to reach the pinnacle game in college football, which is much longer than most programs have given head coaches in the current era. Even Michigan's greatest rival, Ohio State, is on their second head coach since Harbaugh arrived in 2015, and two national championship teams in that same stretch have gone through coaching changes as well (Georgia and LSU).

In the nine years since Harbaugh's arrival, many have questioned the quirky head coach. He's unabashedly like any coach in the country. He says things and acts in ways in which no other coach does, and yet he's beloved by his players and coaches. That should have been evident enough after Michigan's win over Penn State earlier this season when offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore was highly emotional after the Wolverines' win, insisting the victory was for his head coach.

But before all the drama of sign-stealing and the name Connor Stalions became a running joke, many were calling for Harbaugh to be fired well before the Big Ten and NCAA got involved. The former San Francisco 49ers head coach faced tons of scrutiny and criticisms over the years, where it was often considered that he had failed to live up to expectations.

His first two seasons in Ann Arbor, Harbaugh went a combined 20-6, with Michigan football finishing No. 14 and No. 6 with a Citrus Bowl win in 2015. From 2017-2019, Michigan went 27-12 but lost four straight bowl games, finishing unranked in 2017, No. 7 in 2018, and No. 14 in 2019.

In the 2020 season, which was impacted by the pandemic, the Wolverines only won two out of their six games. Finally, in 2021, the Michigan football team finally broke through and made their first College Football Playoff appearance, yet lost to Georgia 34-11. The next year was similar, yet much more alarming in that Michigan was heavily favored over a TCU team that would end up beating them in the Fiesta Bowl and keeping them out of the national championship once again.

It also didn't go in Harbaugh's favor that it took until Year 7 for him to finally beat Michigan's arch-rival in Ohio State, something that has now taken a turn in the opposite direction as most in Buckeye's nation are now clamoring for the removal of Ryan Day after losing three straight to the Wolverines.

Then here came the 2023 season, where expectation was once again high, coming off two straight seasons of playoff appearances and bringing in a team that was loaded with experienced talent. But it started with Harbaugh being absent from the sideline for the first three games of the season due to recruiting violations during the pandemic season. And then he was suspended for another three games, the final three of the season, which consisted of Michigan's biggest games against No. 10 Penn State, Maryland, and No. 2 Ohio State, by the Big Ten after the team was accused of improperly stealing signs thanks to now-former analyst Stalions.

But through all that, through all the losses to Ohio State over the years, the constant upsets, like the one last year to TCU, through a two-win season just four seasons ago, through one NCAA infraction and one pending, Michigan football walked out of Monday's Rose Bowl semifinal playoff game — their third in as many seasons — as the sun was setting, just not on their season.

Michigan football had to beat Alabama to silence the critics, no one else

Jim Harbaugh, Nick Saban, Rose Bowl

Harbaugh had to have this Rose Bowl victory as it will be the epitome of his entire coaching career in Ann Arbor, whether that's because he bolts to the NFL after next Monday's national title game or not. The 60-year-old head coach needed to prove every doubter, every critic — everyone who had ever questioned his coaching style and technique and that he and Michigan needed some unfair advantage over the competition — and everyone in the college football realm that he was indeed the right man to lead Michigan back to national prominence. And he did so in the best way possible.

You see, the Rose Bowl win doesn't quite mean as much if Michigan throttles a limping Florida State team that lost their star quarterback. It doesn't even mean that much if the Seminoles did have Jordan Travis. Harbaugh and Michigan needed to beat a team like Alabama and Nick Saban in order to prove they are without a doubt suited to be in the national championship. Why? Because Saban and Alabama will be forever known as the measuring stick during the four-team CFP era.

Alabama football has been represented in the CFP more than any other team, making eight appearances and going 9-5 while winning three national championships, playing for six. They have been a constant where Michigan has not. So much like Georgia had to do two seasons ago, overcoming their SEC rivals and winning their first national championship since 1980, the Wolverines had to make a statement by beating Alabama.

It's not as if Alabama was Michigan's rival. But the fact that Michigan, after being labeled as the greatest cheaters in college football, had to take on the most accomplished buttoned-up team in the past two decades and beat them in a game with the highest stakes, makes everyone have to give Michigan their flowers, or in this case, roses.