Are Jim Harbaugh and Michigan a headliner, or is this the opening act?
CHICAGO — He wore a gray sports coat with a blue shirt and a navy tie. Oh, and a blue baseball hat. So yeah, naturally someone asked Jim Harbaugh about it. His answer included something about needing a haircut — it had been five weeks — and how he only had to wear suits at weddings, but someone told him he also had to do it at Big Ten football media days.
“I just felt more comfortable,” the Michigan coach finished, “with the hat. And I like the ‘M.’ ”
In other words: because Harbaugh.
And if the overall look was of an introductory news conference — the school welcomes the new coach, he tugs on a cap, the camera strobes flash — it was somehow fitting. It’s very possible that's what this whole thing has been so far with Harbaugh in 19 months at Michigan:
An introduction.
All the tweets. The satellite camps. The spring break practices in Florida. The shots fired at other coaches and athletic directors. The sleepovers with recruits. More recently, the rap video. And so much more.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh appeals to ‘cool people’ in rap video
Even the actual football last season, which came complete with a gut-wrenching loss on a crazy final play to Michigan State and a blowout loss to Ohio State (“It stings a lot,” he said) but showed plenty of promise that Harbaugh would very quickly return the program to prominence.
All of it feels like prelude. Soon we need to see substance.
The Wolverines, bristling with defensive talent and brimming with confidence, are expected to be very good in Harbaugh’s second season. Check the various preseason predictions, which have Michigan maybe ready to win the Big Ten championship, perhaps good enough to reach the College Football Playoff. If that seems like a reach, well, Harbaugh’s more than fine with that.
“You should set your dreams so big that everybody laughs at ’em,” he said Monday. “If nobody’s laughing at ’em, you didn’t set your goals high enough.”
The opening session of Big Ten media days needed a subtitle: “an afternoon with Harbaugh.” He’s a football coach through and through, with the clichés to prove it. But in Monday’s entertaining, offbeat and occasionally oddball hour with reporters, he was also extremely confident.
Harbaugh announced in late June that his wife Sarah is expecting. He admitted Monday he was a little rueful about having told a group of football campers.
“I was a little premature, I guess,” he said. “But I was excited! I was attacking it with enthusiasm unknown to mankind, this pregnancy!”
The exclamation points — when Harbaugh is engaged he doesn’t just use them, he essentially is one. Whether it’s expounding on why he believes the kickoff should not be eliminated (“It’s one of those great thrills in life!”) or jousting with a reporter asking about his offseason Twitter spats (“When somebody talks about somebody you love, something you love or makes a personal attack, you have a right to shoot one back over their bow!”), he’s simply attacking the subject with, well, you get the idea.
Not long ago, Harbaugh appeared in a rap video: “Who’s Got It Better Than Us?” But of course, there’s more. He also wrote some of the lyrics.
“We did not embarrass ourselves with that,” he said. “It’s a respectable song and video. All cool people like it.”
And the lyrics?
“Roughest team in the B-I-G (Ten)!” And “Who’s got it better than us?”
As everyone laughed, Harbaugh added:
“It’s only uptight white people that don’t like it, man.”
Everyone laughed again, and probably not because the line came from a guy who’s often wound very tightly. It was clearly another shot fired (though in this case, at no one in particular).
Harbaugh insists that none of the brash, sometimes edgy, occasionally zany sideshow is, well, done for show. He says he’s not intentionally promoting the Michigan brand (or his own). But he’s definitely building something.
Five ways Jim Harbaugh has tested rivals and the NCAA rulebook
Like he did previously at Stanford, Harbaugh has very quickly infused the Michigan program with his personality, a quirky amalgam of confidence, toughness and enthusiasm. Senior tight end Jake Butt called Harbaugh “the most competitive person I’ve ever met and probably will ever meet. … I try to match that competitiveness, for sure.”
And for sure, that’s Harbaugh’s goal. Whatever he’s doing, it’s certainly intentional.
“A lot of us probably don’t understand the reason behind all of the things that he does,” Butt said, “but I can assure you there’s a reason behind everything he does. There’s a plan for everything. He’s doing most of these things for the betterment of our team and our program.”
At least so far, it seems to be working. The Wolverines were better than expected in 2015. They reeled in a recruiting class last February that ranked fifth nationally in a composite of major recruiting services. They return a talented nucleus (though the starting quarterback position hasn’t been settled yet). There’s a buzz about Michigan football that is unlike anything that’s ever been. Now all they have to do is meet the soaring expectations.
“That’s why most of us came here,” Butt said.
2016 college football TV schedule
But are they ready? Not many doubt Harbaugh will bring Michigan back. But as we consider the preseason hype gathering about his second season in Ann Arbor, here’s a dose of reality: Michigan’s biggest games this season are all on the road. The Wolverines play at Michigan State, Iowa and Ohio State. Which according to Harbaugh, is almost perfect.
Almost.
“I’m hard-pressed to think of anything better than to go into another man’s stadium, to have to compete against their team and their fans,” the coach said. “If you can throw in cold or rain or some kind of weather that you had to beat as well and then come out a victor — there’s nothing better in life that I’ve found!”
Except for maybe that one thing. Harbaugh is 52. The baby — no due date yet — will be his seventh child (from two marriages; his oldest child, Jay, a Michigan assistant coach, is 27). And yeah, Harbaugh is stoked about the accomplishment. As he left the podium Monday afternoon, a reporter noted Harbaugh will be 70 when the newest addition turns 18.
“I really feel good about it,” he said, smiling. Then he stopped, turned and added: “I feel PRET-TEE good about it! How’s that!”
It wasn’t a question.
Contributing: Nicole Auerbach.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S BEST PLAYER AT EACH POSITION
