The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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when he rescinded the opportunity to play at Michigan for tailback Matt Falcon, offensive lineman Erik Swen- son, defensive end Rashad Weaver, linebacker Dele Harding and quarter- back Messiah de Weaver. Swenson's mid-January departure generated the most publicity, with a number of media outlets providing an opportunity for the disgruntled teenager to voice his frustrations. Of course, his side of the story was only one side, and it later came out that Michigan's staff had notified him and his family weeks earlier they needed to explore other options. However, that news came to light only after a multitude of national columnists had trashed Harbaugh and after U-M fans went back and forth about the integrity of their head coach and whether they were OK with running the Michigan program using "SEC tactics." Asked to explain himself again when addressing the media at National Signing Day, Harbaugh acknowledged there is room for im- provement, but he was content with the end results. "We did our best," Harbaugh said after U-M inked the nation's No. 4 overall class. "There were mistakes made, and I take full accountability for them. But I don't apologize." Nor should he apologize, analyst Doug Skene believes. "I can certainly understand how devastated I would have been if this happened to me or my son," said Skene, a former All-Big Ten offensive lineman whose own son signed a letter of intent with Northwood Uni- versity this year. "But it's easier for me at 45 years old to say these are life lessons, and you need to compete all the way up until you receive that let- ter of intent. "This is a view into the difficult side of the highest levels of football, and when a school like Michigan has a chance to upgrade to another player, the guy at the bottom of the list will be out. "Coach Harbaugh is doing what he thinks is best to improve this football team to win at the highest level." Swenson ultimately signed with Oklahoma, and Michigan filled his spot with three-star Stephen Spanellis. In future classes, there will be more decommitments, more hurt feelings and likely more debate among the fan base, but Harbaugh will proceed forward with a clear intention — to do whatever is necessary to lead Michigan to championships. "There was some negative backlash to the way he recruited at Stanford, but he was very effective at accom- plishing what he set out to do, and that was to turn Stanford into a win- ning program," Drukarev said. "Har- baugh did great things for Stanford, and he will do them for Michigan, and from what I can tell from my experience and what I suspect at Michigan, as long as you win football games, the rest of the stuff is back- ground noise." ❏ Associate Editor Michael Spath has been with The Wolverine since 2002. Contact him at mspath@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @Spath_Wolverine.