The Wolverine

Obviously, Harbaugh is still draw- ing attention. He was swarmed at ev- ery turn in Chicago at the Big Ten foot- ball meetings, and Riley couldn't help but notice. Asked about the Harbaugh buzz going around, he quipped, "Is there a buzz?" drawing huge laughter. "Jim's hire at Michigan is a big deal," Riley said. "He was a quarterback at Michigan and obviously had a great quarterback career in the NFL. He had his coaching career after that, leading to that job … so it's a big deal. "It's probably good for all of us. At the same time, there's the rest of the league and the rest of our division. In the inside of what we do, we don't re- ally worry about that. It's what do we do to get back there and win?" Part of that involves the opener, the Cornhuskers' boss acknowledged. Ne- braska has its hands full to start the season, facing a formidable BYU squad that the Wolverines get in the third game of the season. Michigan will be back from Utah in plenty of time to settle in and watch that one, getting a jump on their knowledge of the Cougars. Riley noted his opener is one that keeps everyone's attention, just like Michigan's. "This is one you don't tinker around with," Riley said. "That's an older, experienced group, a team that has a Heisman-type quarterback and talent. It is going to be everything we want in the competition in the first game, for sure." Plus, he noted, the opener is huge for everyone involved, although it might be extra important for the coaches new to their teams. "We all want to get off to a good start, there's no doubt about that," Riley said. "It probably multiples by many fold, being the new coach on the block. "You want to set a good tone, make it look good, make it look like football and you want to win right off the bat. That's always an interesting thing — I haven't transitioned in a long time. I've been at one place [Oregon State] for a long time. "It's remembering how it is now. It's all been brought back. But it's also ex- citing. It's being new and having those expectations about winning, and want- ing to win that first game." The Cornhuskers boss insists the Wolverines are in very good hands, for the opener and beyond. "I've coached against him, when he was at Stanford and I was at Oregon State," Riley said of Harbaugh. "We played him a number of times. I had his son [Jay] as an undergraduate as- sistant with us for four years. I feel like I know Jim and his family real well. "He did one of the best coaching jobs in America when he went to Stanford. That team was transformed in a couple of years into a physical and really ef- ficient team. "Then when Andrew Luck started at quarterback, it really took off. It was one of the best coaching jobs, where you actually see a team become some- thing different — how they played strategically, how they played physi- cally. It was just a great job, well done." Chryst, meanwhile, guides Wiscon- sin into an opener representing a trap door over a pit of crocodiles rather than a welcome mat. The Badgers travel to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,

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