The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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66 THE WOLVERINE APRIL 2017 W ith each day that goes by it becomes more and more clear that the anti-Michigan faction's worst nightmare is coming true — Jim Harbaugh isn't going anywhere. No, the Michigan head coach is in his element in Ann Arbor, and with year three quickly approach- ing — spring ball opens March 24 — it's become abundantly clear that San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York won't be coming off the Michigan fan's Christmas card list anytime soon. It was his shortsightedness, after all, that helped make Harbaugh to U-M possible. Harbaugh, meanwhile, recently joked that someone owed him something, too, for having worked at the circus that is the 49ers organization. After leading the moribund franchise to three NFC title games and a Super Bowl in four years, he was unceremoniously shown the door after the 2014 season. Through it all, he kept his sense of humor, on display again when he joined The San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami for a February podcast. "I think I set the record for longest acting head coach under current own- ership. Maybe there should be an en- durance medal, a courage medal for that," Harbaugh joked. In hindsight, he never should have been there. Back in 2010, when we caught up with Harbaugh for an ar- ticle in The Wolverine Football Preview on the 1985 team he quarterbacked to a 10-1-1 record and No. 2 national finish, it was clear how much he still loved Michigan. He was in Peru help- ing build houses with Habitat for Humanity, but took the time to call and spend 30 minutes talking about that team, his memories of Bo Schem- bechler and more. Harbaugh was coaching Stanford at the time, and anyone who has cov- ered him at all understands his loyal- ties will always — always — be with the team he's coaching. It seemed clear, however, that like a first love, the Wolverines would never be off the table. Michigan missed its shot to get him in 2011, Harbaugh telling friends he "didn't feel the love" from then- athletics director David Brandon. In hindsight, getting the NFL out of his system before he arrived in Ann Arbor might have been the best thing that ever happened. Timing is ev- erything, and Harbaugh has made it clear there's nowhere he'd rather be, no NFL itch left to scratch. "I didn't know exactly what it would be," he said when asked if coaching his alma mater was every- thing he thought it would be, "but I'm just having a blast. It's been so much fun coaching these young guys. We're getting ready for spring ball now, and we're going to have a really young team — even younger than normal — but they're focused on making the team better." But there's a lot of fun stuff outside of just coaching the team, he added. "Being in Ann Arbor, having my parents live right next door to us, hav- ing the recent addition to the family [in infant son John]. My kids go to the same school I went to. I'm a swim dad now. The unbeliev- able satisfaction of my 8-year- old daughter on the swim team … I take her to practice, and it's all 'we' know. There are a lot of other things than coaching the team I'm having a lot of fun with." Coaching the team, though, is what he's paid for, and he can't wait until next season. Several behind the scenes believe this year's team can be every bit as good as last year's, even with the huge turnover in talent, much of it headed to the NFL. "We lost three of our last four games? Good. That's really heated the waters here for winter conditioning and it will for spring practice, as well," Harbaugh said. "We didn't win a national cham- pionship. … We have to get a lot better. It's been competi- tive around here and our young play- ers are responding and focusing on making the team better. "That has me excited." He's also motivated and serious about "putting the 'college' back in college football," he said, and the "student" back in student-athlete, on the same page with the adminis- tration, the A.D., the President and everyone else at the university in that respect. As Kawakami wrote after his inter- view, Harbaugh gets it. "You think he can be stubborn, and he can, you think he doesn't like pro- viding a lot of information to the me- dia, and he doesn't," the scribe wrote. "But he gets the process, he's honest, he's fascinating, he's smart, and he happens to be an incredible football coach, too." Something everyone but York seems to know very well. ❏ Chris Balas has been with The Wolver- ine 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. INSIDE MICHIGAN CHRIS BALAS One More Fruit Basket For Jed York Jim Harbaugh went 44-19-1, with a Super Bowl bid and two other conference championship appearances, in four years with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. The club has gone 7-25 in the two years since with a pair of last-place showings in the NFC West. PHOTO COURTESY SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS