The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/465847
2015 RECRUITING ISSUE It's a story so silly that it sounds untrue. With a Michigan scholarship offer on the line — though running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley had informally offered him more than a week earlier — Keith Washington offered to prove himself to Wolver- ines' head coach Jim Harbaugh by running a 40-yard dash during an in-home visit to the Washington resi- dence. "I asked him how fast he was and he said '4.3 [seconds] coach,'" Har- baugh detailed during his National Signing Day press conference. "I said, 'Come on! 4.3 — everybody thinks they can run a 4.3!' He said, 'I'll go out into the parking lot right now, Coach,' and he was serious. I liked him even more. I knew he was competitive and got a great, great feeling about him. You're going to like him." Given Harbaugh's quirky person- ality, it almost sounds like the sort of story he invented on the spot to give anecdotal evidence of not just Washington's physical talent, but also the hunger to prove himself. The prospect, though, confirmed if that was what it took to prove that he deserved the opportunity to play for Harbaugh and the Wolverines, he would have handed the coach a stopwatch walked out the front door to run. "He just talked to me about the game plan, and what type of defense they're going to be running," Wash- ington said. "Coach Harbaugh's a winner, and he wants to build the Michigan program back up to where it should be. That's what really won me over. "He didn't believe my 40 [-yard dash time]. He said, '4.3?' And I said, 'Yeah.' I told him, 'I'll go outside and run for you right now, Coach.' He just started laughing. He really liked that." Washington had to let the Uni- versity of California's coaching staff know that he'd be signing with Mich- Keith Washington's Drive Won Over Jim Harbaugh Rivals.com rates Washington as a four-star prospect, the No. 16 player in Alabama and the No. 26 athlete in the class of 2015. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM