The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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that overflow their mailboxes to the personal, in-home visits by coaches," Murschel noted. "Families sometimes welcome coaches into their homes like long lost relatives, offering them a hearty meal and warm place to sit down and rest their weary bones after a tough day of recruiting. "So imagine the surprise when a coach of Harbaugh's status decides to come to your house and even is willing to walk the halls of your high school with you? It's no wonder some of these recruits would get a bit star-struck." Not just recruits, but regular stu- dents, as well. When Harbaugh went into one school recently and a few juniors — not football players or even athletes, just normal kids enjoy- ing their days — asked for a picture, Harbaugh had to decline due to NCAA rules prohibiting contact with underclassmen. Instead, he took a selfie on a phone that just so hap- pened to include some of them in the background. Last summer, the coach established satellite football camps on the cam- puses of schools around the country for teaching purposes — it so hap- pened, too, that several recruits attended, and that the Wolverines picked up commitments from a few of them. This spring, The Wolverine has learned, he plans to take his team through a week of spring ball on the campus of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy, a hotbed for southern talent. The camps alone have the SEC coaches up in arms, insisting the NCAA do something about it since their conference rules prohibited something similar. Anytime you've got the SEC coaches' attention on the recruiting trail, you're doing something right. Auburn head coach Guz Malzahn was so upset about the satellite camps he went out of his way to crit- icize his conference for not allowing its teams to go national. He later took a veiled shot at northern schools by saying that any good southern school was going to keep the best recruits in state regardless of who came down. All of it created great publicity for Harbaugh and the Wolverines, who continue to be the talk of college foot- ball. In Rockford, local establishment The Corner Bar even put up a bill- board on the freeway with a maize and blue block 'M' and #KeepQuin- nInMI hashtag, promising a free hot dog for lunch the Friday Harbaugh was in town to anyone wearing Michigan gear. So good for Harbaugh for shaking things up. Here's hoping he contin- ues to look for loopholes and force people to respond — it's how the Wolverines are going to be able to compete nationally, and it appears the Wolverines are well on their way. ❏ Chris Balas has been with The Wolverine since 1997, working part time for five years before joining the staff full time in 2002. Contact him at cbalas@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter at Balas_Wolverine.