The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1386887
THE WOLVERINE 2021 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 39 nopoly on the College Football Playoff, hav- ing hoarded five-star talent to pull away from the pack. Barring something unforeseen, the Buckeyes aren't going anywhere, and on paper it appears the Wolverines still have a lot of catching up to do. That alone had some clamoring for change at the top, but director of athletics Warde Manuel had more on his plate than he bar- gained for in the COVID-19 climate … dwindling profits, for one. Football generated $122.3 million during the 2019 fiscal year, which was most of the athletic department's $197.8 million in rev- enue. The department enjoyed a surplus of roughly $11.6 million during the 2020 fis- cal year, according to USA Today, but while playing a handful of games reduced the pro- jected 2021 deficit from $100 million to an estimated $80 million, it was still painful. Manuel, basketball coach Juwan Howard and Harbaugh all took 10 percent cuts from their gaudy salaries, and the department reportedly laid off 21 people in cost-cutting measures. In short, even if Manuel had been look- ing for another coach — which he insisted he never was — it would have been a tough time to be searching. So … he took a chance on a guy who was once the "Unicorn" in interim athletics director Jim Hackett's "Project Unicorn" — that was what they called the effort to get Harbaugh back to Ann Arbor from the NFL — with the hopes he could replicate his past success. In the oddest of offseasons, Harbaugh signed on for an unprecedented half his sal- ary, approximately $4 million from $8 mil- lion or so (find us a time or place that's ever happened before in coaching), shifted his priorities and set forth to right his maize- and-blue ship. One of his changes was to move the staff toward a younger, more recruiting-heavy dynamic, a strategy some felt was overdue. It was nothing against a previous coaching staff that had proven plenty in Ann Arbor — Mike Zordich, Don Brown and Ed Warinner, among others, had enjoyed great success at times and are regarded as very good coaches — but something needed to be shaken up. Enter former Wolverines in Michigan leg- end Mike Hart as running backs coach and Ron Bellamy as secondary coach. Along with former Kentucky defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, Harbaugh added three guys with plenty of experience recruiting the state of Michigan and the Midwest. Those moves should help immensely on the trail, Rivals.com recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt said. "Michigan was able to recruit big-name players, but they just didn't have a great mesh," Helmholdt said. "It's a hodgepodge of people from across the country. When you're building your base of your recruiting class with those kids … those are guys that didn't grow up around your program, more or less, so they don't understand your tradi- tions. There's a high rate of transfers when you don't build that foundation with guys with connections to the program. "You start in your backyard, then go cherry pick top talents from around the country. But you need a foundation of strong home-state and backyard talent. Even Ohio kids can help with that. Michigan didn't do enough of that." Harbaugh has taken the steps to correct that, and he now enters the season with new faces all over the building and a new set of goals. The others he shared with the Michi- gan high school coaches: 1. Raise all those with whom I come in contact. Put players and staff in position to be successful in life and in football. 2. Create an atmosphere in the workplace that supports teamwork, friendship and win- ning (an atmosphere that brings joy each day we come to work). 3. Develop and administer a process (plan) that supports TEAM success and winning. 5. Treat others as I would want to be treated and create a personal relationship with all those I come in contact. We saved No. 4 of the six for last, in part because it's the most optimistic — "Be a member of the 2021 Big Ten and national champion Michigan football team." Had he said it six years ago, few would have raised an eyebrow. Now, though, he's got his work cut out for him. He's taken a pay cut, made wholesale changes and is truly "betting on himself" to turn it around again. Time will tell whether or not he's got it in him, but he's done it before. If that competi- tive fire remains, there's no reason he can't do it again. ❑ Harbaugh took a pay cut and had incentives added to his contract, shook up his staff and laid out a new set of goals, all part of his offseason efforts to push the Wolverines to winning championships. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN