The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1516256
MARCH 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 23 Rich-Rod's arrival, Brady had a good year in there, but there was a seven- year period where it felt like these were experiments. We weren't sure how they were going to turn out. "There was a gradual decay because of that. You could call it fan support, winning, enthusiasm for Michigan's history. "This is the winningest program ever in this sport, and it carried the day for a long time, but it certainly wasn't be- having that way then. I made the final decision that weekend and that Sunday night and called the president [Mark Schlissel] and said, 'I don't think we can experiment anymore.' "That's the thing that led me to thinking about the next candidate. There might be someone in an upstart program, a great candidate, young, probably wouldn't cost as much — but I didn't think Michigan could take that risk." That's when he set his plan in mo- tion that would lead to arguably the best stretch of Michigan football in its sto- ried history. MORE THAN JUST A COACH Fast-forward to April 2018, and a park bench in front of Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris. After watching his wife and kids board the carousel at an adjoining park, Harbaugh plopped down on a bench, and we struck up a conversation. With three seasons guiding U-M under his belt, he'd brought most of his team with him as part of his latest mission to educate his players "outside of the class- room" with trips around the world, and this was the most ambitious adventure yet. A year earlier, they'd been to Rome and the Vatican, where he met Pope Francis and presented him a Michigan helmet and pair of team-issued shoes. Meeting the pontiff has been a life-changing experi- ence for some, and it certainly seemed to have an effect on Harbaugh, as well. It was always going to be a tough one to follow, but tours of Notre Dame Cathe- dral and a day at Normandy, among other adventures, made it even better than the last. That, some would say, was Harbaugh in a nutshell, and he always admitted as much with his mantra, one he used at Michigan and that's now painted on a column inside the Los Angeles Chargers facility where he now works: "Be better today than yesterday … Be better tomor- row than today." Our informal discussion turned to our first-ever conversation back in April 2010 — one he thought he remembered, but probably didn't — when we were putting a piece together for our preseason football magazine on the 25th anniversary of the 1985 team he quarterbacked to a No. 2 national finish. Just gaining access to the longtime NFL standout and nation's hottest coach was a chore. But a mutual friend, former Har- baugh teammate John Ghindia, made it happen with a group text, and Harbaugh was not only willing, but excited to talk for the feature. First, though, he had some questions of his own. "Where do you live?" he asked. "Dexter," we responded (just west of Ann Arbor). "Dreadnaughts!" he said, citing the high school's obscure mascot. And with that he was at ease — "No wonder he's such a great recruiter," my friend and I would later agree — and we were off and running. Harbaugh was on his way to Peru to build houses for Habitat for Human- ity, he said, but he promised to find a place where he could get a signal, even if it meant climbing to the top of a small mountain, to share his memories. True to his word, he did, and his mem- ory was fantastic. He heaped praise on his teammates and the outstanding 1985 defense and shared stories about the late, great Bo Schembechler. Though he was Stanford's head coach at the time, it was clear Michigan still held a special place in his heart. He asked us how things were going with the U-M program, and we were blunt. Michigan was heading into the third year of the Rodriguez era, and it wasn't looking great. We wished him well and at the end of the conversation added, "Maybe we'll see you back here someday." "That would be great," Harbaugh agreed — not a slight to his current job at Stanford, of which he spoke glowingly. In fact, it seemed like more of an acknowl- edgment that he'd be open to the possi- bility if the timing ever worked out. Some would say a forward-thinking athletics director might have recognized his future greatness in 2007, the year Lloyd Carr retired, and taken a chance. But Harbaugh had ruffled feathers with the Michigan administration with some comments about academics, and while his first year at Stanford included a huge upset over No. 2 USC, he finished 4-8. The timing wasn't right. But that was all forgotten when Hackett approached him in 2014, and at that point, there was no more doubt. Harbaugh was one of the best coaches in the country, and he was about to become available. A QUICK START — AND FRUSTRATION Credit Hackett for making it happen. As a short-term athletics director, he had one goal and one goal only when he took over the program. He etched his own place as a titan in Michigan history by completing the hire after only a year on the job. The parking lot was packed and there wasn't a seat to be had in the Junge Cen- ter near Crisler Center when Hackett announced Harbaugh as Michigan's 20th football coach Dec. 30, 2014. Har- baugh spoke of the tradition and what brought him back when he might have been the No. 1 name for any NFL general manager looking for a coach. He talked about his memories, and made it clear he hoped to be at Michigan a long time. "I remember thinking about this as a youngster, 9, 10 years old. There was a time in Coach Schembechler's office — I was sitting in his chair, and I had my feet up on the desk. He walked in and said, 'How are you doing?' I looked at him and said, 'I'm doing great — how are you doing?' He said, 'What are you do- ing?' 'I'm sitting in your chair, Coach.' I couldn't think of anything better to say. "There have been times in my life where I've thought and dreamed about it. Now it's time to live it. I've thought about being coach at Michigan. My dad coached at Michigan. That was some- thing I really looked up to and wanted to emulate from the time I was a youngster." At Michigan, he did all that and more. It took a while to get going, but the Wolverines were immediately on the upswing when he took over, snagging quarterback Jake Rudock from Iowa as