The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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and the senior staff. We try to keep up with him." Turning to the team, Schlissel added: "The success was basically your hard work, you guys, and the coaching staff's commitment, your responsiveness to them. It really shows the difference coaching makes in athletics. It's really a night-and-day difference." A 9-3 season and an almost spot in the Big Ten title game isn't enough. It's not enough for the coaches, and it's not enough for the players. The Wolverines didn't have the horses to get that job done in year one. But it's Norman Bates crazy, how close they were to sending a 100,000- volt shocker through the college foot- ball world. Turn around one play at Utah — a touchdown pass, rather than a pick- six — and this team starts 6-0. Get off a punt with 10 seconds remaining and it starts 11-0. The Wolverines didn't, of course, and the second half of the Ohio State game proved a sobering reminder of the hard work still ahead. Harbaugh reminded the players of it himself, insisting there's no other way to get where they're going. He described the process as an in- tense, demanding, punishing pace. That's all he knows. That's what his players are learning. Some of those at the Bust might not make it to spring ball, even with eligibility remaining. Some are say- ing bring it on, having embraced the cavalry and toughened up for a hard, exhilarating ride. Junior tight end Jake Butt said count me in, one day after the Bust and roughly 24 hours after he acknowl- edged considering a jump to the NFL. Butt has unfinished business at Michigan, insisting he came to win a championship. He also stressed that he became a better tight end by the mere knowl- edge that the cavalry was on the way. "I was like, wow, now I have the op- portunity to reach my full potential," Butt recalled. They've got a bowl game to win, first, of course, against a rugged Florida defense that won't bow easily. But next year, Butt and a whole host of Wolverines will go into the season expecting more than they ever have in their Michigan careers. They'll feature a different defensive coordinator, a different quarterback, and several new components to what Harbaugh described as a locomotive, picking up steam. That's okay. The new boss knows where to find them and what the Wolverines need to keep on chugging. In business, Hackett always pulled out a slip of paper and wrote down significant events, then revisited the note a year later to recall how he felt. "I saw the season that we had, and I realized I didn't need to wait a year to feel how I value this team … our pro- gram is in fantastic hands," he said. Saddle up. The ride is just begin- ning. ❏ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB _ Wolverine.