The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
as any of them at his position." Nothing was ever good enough, Hanlon noted. While Schembechler's staff underscored that message in the big picture, Harbaugh oozed compet- itiveness through every situation — so much so that he and Hanlon spoke only of football for a long stretch of Harbaugh's senior season. "He was so competitive," Hanlon recalled. "He would do anything. You'd throw a pass down the field, and it would be 20 yards over the receiver's head. He'd get on the re- ceiver, because the receiver would say 'I can't get to that,' so he would slow down, save his energy and go back for the next play. "Well, Jimmy wanted to know why he didn't keep running and dive to get the ball. Because he would have done that, knowing him. He would get on the kids, and they would get a little perturbed about how he'd hol- ler at them." Hanlon put up with the player- coach aspect of his hot-wired quar- terback for a bit, but eventually called him on the dual-role approach. "Finally I called him in the office one day," Hanlon noted. "I said, 'All right, Jimmy. I want to ask you a couple of questions. First, who is the quarterback on this team?' He kind of looked at me and said, 'Well, I am, Coach.' "I said, 'Okay, now who is the coach on this team?' He looked at me and he said, 'Well, you are, Coach.' So I said, 'Well, let me say one thing, Jimmy. You quarterback, and I'll coach. Now, do you under- stand that?' 3rd Place HARBAUGH (shown, above, wearing the No. 4 jer- sey) finished in the 1986 Heis- man Trophy voting. He is one of only seven Wolverines, includ- ing three winners, to finish in the top three of the Heisman voting. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN