The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
present team, overseeing the start of winter conditioning, hiring a staff to surround him and ramping up recruiting in a class that dwindled to barely more than a handful. He and his staff have a month to fill out a roughly 15-man class, but a buzz began almost immediately among recruits upon his hiring. It will only grow, according to for- mer Wolverines sizing up the impact of a Super Bowl coach at the helm. "Tremendous … incredible," Mor- ris said. "He'll bring some players here. It will have a ripple effect for the next three or four years. You're talking about a guy who has com- peted at the highest level, who went to the Super Bowl. He knows players. "If you're a kid sitting at home, who has got talent, you want to come here and showcase your talent, because you want to go to the next level." Former captain Jon Jansen said: "It's going to be huge. You've seen Twitter, you've seen Facebook, you've seen all of the social media. Guys are going to want to come play for Jim Harbaugh, and why wouldn't you want to come play for a guy who knows what it takes to be successful in the NFL? "If he knows what it takes to be successful there, he'll know what you have to do to get from Point A to Point B. Everybody wants to play in the NFL, if they're in college football. So why wouldn't you want to play for a guy like that?" Former captain Jarrett Irons be- lieves Harbaugh's recruiting will take off immediately as well. "It's going to be fast," Irons in- sisted. "It's going to be faster than a lot of people might expect. Right off the bat, it will be a good test — watch how quickly the recruits are coming here, the recruits we get in the next month. That will be an indication of what kind of turnaround he's going to have. "Right now, if you look at the guys that have de-committed, or guys we didn't have a shot at, we will have a shot at them now." Former Michigan tight end Der- rick Walker insists Harbaugh carries a presence that will work in every facet of the task ahead. He's the type of coach for whom assistants will want to work. He's the sort that will command the team meeting room in Schembechler Hall, without question. He's also someone that can at- Harbaugh told a story about a time around the age of 11 when he sat in Bo Schembechler's chair and put his feet up on the legendary head coach's desk. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN