The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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cial, perhaps a little bit of all of the above. Michigan interim athletics director Jim Hackett, realizing this, set his sights on San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh the moment he let Brady Hoke go, and he seemed intent on not taking "no" for an an- swer. In landing Harbaugh, Michigan now has a chance to be what the school has wanted to be for seven years — Stanford at its peak under Harbaugh, a top-five program with high character kids, an edge and a coach former Cardinal athletics di- rector Bob Bowlsby called "the most competitive guy I've ever met." "The guy is an absolute steam- roller," CardinalSportsReport.com writer Andy Drukarev said. "He runs over everything in his path. He calls himself a 'jackhammer,' but he works in a way that's so detail ori- ented where everything is nuanced, too. "It's hard to find the right word to describe everything he does. He really wills a program to being suc- cessful. He doesn't really care who doesn't like it or the scars that result from his actions sometimes. He's about results." That rubbed some people the wrong way at Stanford, again at San Francisco and will quite possibly re- sult in the same at times at Michigan. And guess what? That's exactly what the program needs at this point. If there's a coach not carrying his weight, Drukarev said, Harbaugh's going to let him go. He did it in the college ranks to a coach who hap- pened to be a good friend, Drukarev recalled. And if a kid isn't perform- ing in the weight room, there's likely to be a chart in the lunchroom adver- tising his deficiency. "He's going to ruffle some feath- ers," Drukarev said with a laugh. "People need to be prepared. This isn't love, sunshine and peace here — that's not what you get with Jim Harbaugh. He's not going to accept the status quo, and he's not going to be afraid to do things to transform or disrupt it." He arrives in Ann Arbor to face the enemy with a wooden sword, but also is armed with great leadership skills and a brilliant football mind. The NCAA has essentially set the precedent that, yes, cheaters can prosper, and they often do. Michigan won't play that game (and please, spare the talk of the re- cent probation for excessive stretch- ing under Rich Rodriguez — we can still hear the chuckling in SEC coun- try over that sham). But in hiring Harbaugh, Hackett proved Michigan is intent on staying in the game. Stan- ford at its peak under Harbaugh was good enough to finish 12-1 and No. 4 nationally in 2010. Just think of what he might accomplish at Michigan. Rest assured, OSU head coach Urban Meyer and the rest of the Big Ten have. ❏ Chris Balas has been with The Wolverine since 1997, working part time for five years before joining the staff full time in 2002. Contact him at cbalas@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter at Balas_Wolverine.