The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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a five-star during Harbaugh's four- year career. Yet, they would go 8-5 and 12-1 in his final two seasons in Palo Alto, winning the 2011 Orange Bowl. Among the players he signed dur- ing his four seasons at Stanford, 14 would go on to be selected in the NFL Draft, while he coached an ad- ditional five players he inherited into NFL Draft positioning. "If you're someone who is great and can be an All-American with the right amount of coaching, and that's what is best for the team, then that will be his focal point," former Uni- versity of San Diego ball carrier James Rogan said. "You look at San Diego, and he coached multiple guys to the NFL, which that program hadn't done before he arrived and hasn't done since Coach Harbaugh left. "And then you look at Stanford, and it's a laundry list of guys that went to the NFL." Harbaugh develops players. He develops great players, like the four four-stars at Stanford that went on to the NFL, and he develops less-her- alded recruits, like the 10 two- and three-star recruits that would hear their name called on draft day. "If you look at the guys that he put in the NFL, not all of them were the blockbuster recruits, most weren't ac- tually, and yet they found success at Stanford and now in the NFL," said Rogan, who started two seasons for Harbaugh in 2005-06. "That's what Coach Harbaugh does — he grows these players from diamonds in the rough and makes them as valuable as possible. "He's very good at motivating and inspiring and leading and getting the best out of his players, but he recog- nizes that it is their ability to make the game-day result what it is, and he never forgets that. He never makes it about himself, but he lauds praise on those guys that perform on Saturdays and help the team win games. "He certainly identifies with a number of traits the players possess — extreme competitiveness, deter- mination, motivation. He recognizes that in his players because he has it in spades. "When the elite athletes find them- selves ready to be motivated, and to be coached, he really finds a way to connect with them and support them, and makes them impassioned to go out and achieve." Michigan will sign better classes — ones with higher average star rank- ings than the current 3.29, and with a bevy of five-stars and four-stars. And Harbaugh has proven that if an athlete has talent, he will bring that skill to the surface, doing the most good for the individual and for the team. And U-M stands to reap that reward. "I've never seen anyone better at getting the most out of his players," Rogan said. "It was that way at San Diego, that way at Stanford, and then in the NFL with San Francisco, and it will be that way at Michigan." ❑ Associate Editor Michael Spath has been with The Wolverine since 2002. Contact him at mspath@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @Spath_Wolverine.