Every year, regardless of circumstances, the Michigan-Ohio State football game takes on epic proportions. This year, more than any year in a while, it mattered even more because it looked like the Wolverines were ready to turn the tables in this bitter rivalry.

It didn’t happen, of course, and that ugly 62-39 loss in Columbus on Nov. 24 will be scorched into Michigan memories for years. This looked like a Big Ten champion type of team, a Playoff team, a team for the ages.

And now, nothing.

Well, almost nothing.

There’s still a bowl game to go this season, and that’s a New Year’s Six game in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 29 against Florida. It’s not what they wanted, of course, but it’s a high-profile game against a big-time SEC opponent in Florida that they are familiar with.

Considering Michigan’s horrible track record in bowl games,  there is some added significance to this one. This year, it really is important to end this season on a high note and take some motivation into 2019, both on the field and on the recruiting trail.

“We had a lot of big goals — national championship goals — at the beginning of the year. Obviously those now are unattainable,” Michigan junior guard Ben Bredeson said. “But we’re definitely very motivated to try to win that last game.

“It matters. We’re really sick of losing the last game of the year. This team, we’ve had adversity worse than any team I’ve been on since I’ve been here. So if there’s one group that will bounce back and get a big win at the end of the year, I think it’ll be this one.”

This is the third time in four years that Michigan will be getting together with Florida. Michigan has won both times — 33-17 to start the 2017 season and 41-7 to end the 2015 season in the Citrus Bowl —and another win this time around would give them 11 wins on the season, which is something special, losses to Notre Dame and Ohio State be damned.

“Nobody came here with this gloomy, drowned face,” junior tackle Jon Runyan said last week when the players returned to the football facility.  “We know what happened, we’ve got to move forward from that, pick each other up, and go forward and get this win that everybody wants. That’s the cure for it — another win.”

Michigan’s team is already going to be slightly different for the bowl game. Junior defensive lineman Rashan Gary has announced his intentions to go pro, and he won’t play in the game. Other stars still have NFL decisions to make too, most notably junior linebacker Devin Bush, junior cornerbacks Lavert Hill and David Long, and junior quarterback Shea Patterson.

Michigan lost last year’s bowl game to South Carolina, a 26-19 defeat in the Outback Bowl in Tampa that hurt for a lot of reasons. For one, it was an uninspired performance. Secondly, the Big Ten had the chance to run the table and win every single bowl game. Michigan let the conference down, taking the only loss. Those bragging rights matter.

Finishing a season strong also matters, and the Wolverines haven’t done that, either. Despite the seven straight losses to Ohio State, Michigan has only won one bowl game since the 2012 season, that win over Florida.

They would like that to change this year. Bredeson, who has hinted that he will return for 2019, is maintaining a positive attitude as well.

“We’ve lost to two rivals and everyone tries to make it out like we had a bad year, but we finished 10-2,” Bredeson said. “It’s not the year everybody wanted, but it’s a great year nonetheless.

“I think we really just need to cap this off with a great bowl win, and everybody will remember it as a great year.”

Yes, an 11-win season is a good thing and, in this case, it’s a good step forward to a very important 2019 season.