The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1516256
24 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MARCH 2024 a transfer and going 10-3 with a Capital One Bowl win over Florida in Year 1. However, a fluke loss to Michigan State in the "trouble with the snap" game and a blowout home loss to Ohio State put a damper on his initial year at U-M. Year 2 was a heartbreaker with a con- troversial loss at Ohio State with the Big Ten East title on the line. While the Wolverines were in the hunt in subse- quent years, even capturing a shared Big Ten East title with Ohio State in 2018, they still couldn't beat the Buckeyes. Harbaugh fell to 0-5 against OSU with a second consecutive blowout loss in 2019, and the bottom fell out a year later in a 2-4 COVID-19 season. The Wolverines lost to a terrible Mich- igan State team at home and canceled the remaining schedule before having to play the Buckeyes in what likely would have been a sixth straight loss. After the season, Harbaugh was under increasing scrutiny. He had his pay cut significantly, and many started to won- der if he'd lost the edge that had made him one of the nation's elite coaches. "I look back at how he was recruit- ing and the guys he was bringing in. The first half of his tenure in Ann Arbor, we were recruiting and competing in some instances for the best athletes in America to come to Michigan," former Michigan All-Big Ten lineman Doug Skene (1992) noted. "And yet the results weren't working, and we were getting Ohio State rubbing our nose in it every year, losing by 30 points, and it wasn't close. "There was just something missing. Part of that was the X's and O's on de- fense." They were at a crossroads, and the next few years seemed to be make or break both for Harbaugh and the pro- gram. But he didn't seem deterred. "We're going to beat Ohio State or die trying," he said at 2021 Big Ten Media Day in Indianapolis. STILL ALIVE And that brings us to the present. Har- baugh leaves Michigan with three con- secutive victories over the Buckeyes, three straight Big Ten titles and a national championship, the program's first since 1997 and first outright since 1948. A Nov. 27, 2021, win over the Buckeyes on a snowy Ann Arbor day would prove to be the victory that not only got Harbaugh over the scarlet and gray dominance, but also propelled the program to incredible heights. Two more wins over the Buckeyes would follow, including a 45-23 blowout in Columbus in 2022. Harbaugh would be forced to sit the third one out, this sea- son's 30-24 win, but he was 100 percent involved in the preparation. Defense would prove to be the differ- ence. Bringing in defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald from the Ravens for a year and then Jesse Minter for the last two finally got the Wolverines over the hump. "But I also think there was a change in the way they recruited football players," Skene insisted. "They went from great athletes who play football in the uniform to finding great football players. "You look at [defensive back] Mike Sainristil. Here's a guy who may not have been at the top of all the recruiting lists, but he leaves as one of the greatest foot- ball players to ever wear the uniform in Ann Arbor." It helped, too, to have a "generational" quarterback in J.J. McCarthy, a veteran offensive line anchored by All-Ameri- can Zak Zinter, elite running back Blake Corum, etc. But the unselfishness of the team and the blend of stars and role play- ers made Team 144 arguably the best in school history. They made it so not even an NCAA in- vestigation into "illegal on-site scouting and sign stealing" and Harbaugh's three- game suspension to end the season — on top of a school-imposed three-game sus- pension to start the year over allegations he wasn't forthcoming with the NCAA on another issue — could deter the 2023 team from reaching its ultimate goal. The Wolverines capped a remarkable season with a 34-13 victory over Wash- ington in the College Football Playoff Na- tional Championship game following a 27-20 overtime win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl a week earlier. In nine seasons at Michigan, Harbaugh guided the Wolverines to a record of 86-25 and became the first head coach in Big Ten history to win three straight outright conference titles. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER ❱ Jim Harbaugh's father, Jack Harbaugh "He's fulfilled the wish and desire he had to come back to make Michigan right."