The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
To run a show of his own, Har- baugh dropped to then I-AA San Diego, putting up consecutive 11-1 seasons and a 29-6 record over three years. He made the huge leap to head coach at Stanford, which had endured five straight losing seasons and a 16-40 record from 2002-06. The very first team meeting with the Cardinal players, Harbaugh chal- lenged them to raise their hands if they thought they could win the Pac- 10 championship. Those who didn't were immediately ordered out of the room … and presumably off the foot- ball team. Harbaugh called them back, but didn't want anyone to doubt the turnaround he foresaw. In his four years there, the Cardi- nal went from 4-8 to 5-7 to 8-5 and finally 12-1, Harbaugh coaching An- drew Luck to Heisman finalist status and guiding Stanford to its first bowl win since 1996 — a 40-16 pummeling of Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Harbaugh didn't back down to anyone, including USC's Pete Car- roll, with whom he engaged in an infamous on-field exchange. Stanford buried USC, 55-21, in 2009, the Cardi- nal executing a two-point conversion late in that blowout. Carroll approached the postgame handshake with a "What's your deal?" challenge. Harbaugh shot back: "What's your deal?" offering up some of his ever-present competi- tiveness. Before long, both were dealing in the NFL, Harbaugh taking the San Francisco 49ers to three consecutive NFC Championship games and the 2013 Super Bowl. There was no post- game acrimony with brother John Harbaugh after the Baltimore Ravens beat the 49ers in the pinnacle of the sport. But there weren't any hugs, either. John Harbaugh, speaking at Mi- ami University during his induction to the school's Cradle of Coaches, recalled it this way: "They make an unbelievable comeback. That's what a Jim Harbaugh-coached team is all about … they come roaring back, like we knew they would … "There's a split second there where you realize that your team is the world champion, that you have won the Super Bowl. That's an exhilarat- ing thing … I realized I had to go across the field and shake the other coach's hand, but it was my brother. "That's a little different. That's a little tougher … I walk across the field and I go to shake his hand, and he's a big, strapping guy. I shake his hand, I look at him, and I'm going to give him a little man hug, a little bro hug and say congratulations. "He steps in just like that [demon- strating a stiff-arm handshake] and says, 'There will be no hug.'" Safe to say, there will be no hugs with Urban Meyer, Mark Dantonio, or other opposing coaches in the days to come. Harbaugh has always played with, and coached with, a hard-edged toughness that simply cannot accept anything short of vic- tory. RIGHT INTENSITY, RIGHT TIME Michigan appeared desperate for