ORLANDO, Fla. — The Michigan football team has run out of things to say.

In 2016, after the Wolverines’ last-minute Orange Bowl loss to Florida State, an open locker room vowed that the next generation of Jim Harbaugh’s players would come back even stronger.

In 2017, after Michigan blew a 16-point lead to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl, eight Wolverines players stood beneath the Raymond James Stadium bleachers and vowed a young team would be back stronger.

In 2018, after Florida trounced Michigan by 26 points, seven Wolverines players discussed how defensive players skipping voided some of the result, and how a new-look offense could open things up for everyone.

On Wednesday, after Alabama scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to snag a comfortable Citrus Bowl win, Michigan made three players available. Fifth-year senior Jordan Glasgow answered one question at the podium, while fellow senior Shea Patterson and sophomore linebacker Cameron McGrone spoke for a combined 12 minutes, with no answer lasting more than 30 seconds.

As a reporter, it’s frustrating, especially as other Big Ten teams like Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana made at least five players available after their bowl defeats. But as someone who has covered the team closely for five years, it’s understandable.

The Wolverines’ 35-16 loss to Alabama looked staggeringly familiar. And until something changes, Michigan has run out of things to say.

"It's a hard-fought game,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said when asked for an opening statement. “Congratulations to Alabama. I thought both teams played extremely hard, and congratulate them on their victory.”

In the last three seasons under Harbaugh’s direction, Wednesday’s game has slowly become something of the norm. In losses to Ohio State — along with losses to Florida last season and Penn State and Wisconsin the season before that — it has been almost scripted. Michigan has two or three strong drives in the first-half, surprising its opponent. It enters halftime with a chance to pull off a key win despite leaving some points on the board early. Then gets boat-raced in the final two quarters. The opposing team’s stars make big plays, and Michigan’s defense bleeds to the finish line while its offense largely disappears.

Even to the players, there’s somewhat of a pattern.

“Ohio State had a whole bunch of passes down the field, quarterback scrambling. Alabama, same thing,” McGrone said. “It was like we were looking in the mirror.”

The Wolverines have been mostly good under Harbaugh, with only 10 teams averaging a better postseason poll finish the past five years and only eight power-five teams having more wins. Michigan seems impressively stable moving forward, too, with a lot of its core coming back next season and the nation’s No. 8 2019 class and No. 11 2020 class begin to enter the mix. It’s hard to imagine the Wolverines losing more than two or three games the next several seasons barring a drastic change in health or coaching.

But at the same time that Michigan has been consistently good, it has also consistently failed to be great. The Wolverines are the only team to not win as an underdog since the 2015 season began (even Alabama and Ohio State, who have combined to be an underdog three times in that span, each have wins). Michigan will finish its second consecutive season undefeated against teams outside the postseason top 10 (19-0), and winless against teams in it (0-7).

Just as nine or 10 wins in the 2020 regular season seems like a safe bet, so too does a loss to Ohio State and one or two road defeats to good teams. In fact, that exact scenario has happened to Harbaugh’s teams five years in a row, and a bowl loss has followed the last four seasons, too.

Michigan’s Citrus Bowl showing, much like the regular season, showcased plenty for fans to grow excited about next year. The Wolverines seem to be in great shape at receiver and running back, while defensive standouts like McGrone, Aidan Hutchinson, Ambry Thomas and Dax Hill should be able to lead the next generation of Michigan’s defense.

But the Wolverines’ loss — their seventh by at least two touchdowns in the last three seasons — also showed why no one is currently forecasting next season to be different. Michigan made a bevy of mental and physical mistakes that soured what appeared to be an edge in preparation early on. Its best quarterback in Harbaugh’s tenure wasn’t nearly good enough to pull off the upset, as he missed seemingly every downfield throw and would say himself later that it was “not my best game.”

The Wolverines needed to play their absolute best to hold the edge for 60 minutes and snag an upset, and they didn’t.

“It just comes down to players making plays,” Patterson said after the game. “And we didn’t make enough today.”

Be it recruiting or development, Michigan’s seems to always have some holes. This year, it was the Wolverines’ lack of consistent run game, defensive interior, covering downfield passing and firing those same throws themselves.

Against some teams, it doesn’t matter. Against the teams the Wolverines measure themselves against, it’s all that matters.

Ultimately, as the Crimson Tide pulled away, the story was essentially already written. Alabama’s big plays mounted because they always mount; the Wolverines’ didn’t have a comeback against a team they weren’t supposed to beat because they never do; Michigan entered the offseason deflated and seeking change because, for the last four years, that’s just what it does.

Wednesday's loss was frustrating for Michigan, while familiar and predictable to everyone. Until something changes, there just isn’t much else to say.