2C — January 7, 2015
SportsWednesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Childhood aspirations become reality

S

ince he was a child, Jim 
Harbaugh has imagined 
leading Michigan to a win 

over Ohio 
State.

“I’ve been 

thinking 
of (playing 
Ohio State) 
since I 
was eight 
years old,” 
Harbaugh 
told the 
Daily before 
the 1986 season. “Playing against 
the Buckeyes in Ohio State’s 
stadium for the Big Ten title 
— that would be a dream come 
true.”

During the week before The 

Game that year, Harbaugh 
guaranteed Michigan 
would beat the Buckeyes in 
Columbus. So confident was 
the quarterback that he and 
co-captain Andy Moeller had 
purchased a plaque for coach Bo 
Schembechler commemorating 
his 166th victory in Ann Arbor 
— a result that would put him 
ahead of Fielding H. Yost as the 
Wolverines’ all-time leader.

And Harbaugh backed up 

his guarantee, playing game 
manager for Jamie Morris as 
the running back slashed Ohio 
State for 210 yards to key a 26-24 
victory.

“I didn’t say it to be cocky or 

arrogant or anything,” Harbaugh 
said of his promise after the win. 
“I just said what I felt.”

Then he and Moeller 

presented Schembechler with 
his plaque.

* * *

N

ow that he’s Michigan’s 
coach, Harbaugh isn’t 
making any more bold 

predictions.

“I made a guarantee a long 

time ago, and I’ve learned from 
that,” he said last Tuesday.

But it isn’t hard to imagine 

greatness with Harbaugh at the 
helm. After all, he has succeeded 
everywhere he has been, 
including at Michigan as a player 
from 1983-86, 
at San Diego 
and Stanford 
as a college 
coach from 
2004-10, and 
with San 
Francisco fom 
2011-14.

And there 

is returning 
talent across 
the board. The offensive line, 
which was passable despite its 
inexperience in 2014, returns in 
its entirety. The running back 
trio of Derrick Green, De’Veon 

Smith and Drake Johnson will 
be joined by a former five-
star recruit, Ty Isaac, who 
transferred from Southern 
California and sat out last 

season. The 
secondary 
corps is solid, 
as are the 
linebackers 
and the 
receivers — 
though the 
Wolverines 
will need to 
replace Devin 
Funchess.

Get a decent defensive line 

and forge a reliable quarterback 
out of either sophomore Shane 
Morris, freshman Wilton 
Speight or early enrollee Alex 

Malzone, and suddenly you have 
pieces for what could be an elite 
team.

And have you seen Harbaugh’s 

track record 
of improving 
quarterbacks? 
Can you 
imagine 
how good 
Michigan’s 
defense could 
be with D.J. 
Durkin at 
coordinator 
and Greg 
Mattison coaching the 
linebackers?

“There are no turnarounds 

at Michigan,” Harbaugh said 
during his introductory press 
conference last Tuesday. “This 

is greatness and a long tradition 
of it.”

Maybe Harbaugh hasn’t been 

following the Wolverines since 

2008. Then 
again, maybe 
Harbaugh’s 
Michigan will 
look more like 
the Michigan 
of 1986 than 
anything we’ve 
seen lately.

* * *

H

arbaugh can’t win the 
big game. That’s what 
his critics say.

His 49ers reached the 

NFC Championship in three 
consecutive seasons but never 

won the Super Bowl. He didn’t 
go out a winner at Michigan, 
either — he lost the Rose Bowl 
his senior year.

But he’s the right man for 

the job. And — with apologies 
to Jim Hackett — it’s not just 
because he’s a “Michigan Man,” 
either. He turns mediocre 
quarterbacks into great ones 
and turns losing teams in 
championship ones.

“There is no quarterback in 

the country that I’d rather go 
into the season with than Jim 
Harbaugh,” Schembechler said 
in 1986.

There’s no coach Michigan 

would rather go into the 2015 
season with, either.

One recruit expects 

Harbaugh to land several big-
name recruits before signing 
day. Many current players 
expressed their disbelief and 
excitement that Michigan had 
hired such a big name. A former 
player said he wished he could 
re-enroll and run onto the Big 
House turf again.

What would Schembechler 

say of Michigan and Harbaugh 
now?

“ ‘You got the right guy,’ ” 

Lloyd Carr imagined. “ ‘Hackett, 
you did a great job. Harbaugh, 
get to work.’ I think that’s what 
he’d say. He’d be awfully happy.”

As for Harbaugh? Well, he 

isn’t making any promises. 
But it’s time to get to work — 
starting with a team meeting 
Wednesday night. After all, 
Michigan hosts Ohio State in 
just 325 days.

Harbaugh has been preparing 

for that moment since he was a 
child.

Alejandro Zúñiga can be 

reached at azs@umich.edu or 

on Twitter @ByAZuniga.

ALEJANDRO 

ZÚÑIGA

Michigan appoints 
Harbaugh as coach

By MAX BULTMAN AND 

GREG GARNO 

Daily Sports Editor and Daily 

Sports Writer

Jim Harbaugh’s first press 

conference as Michigan football 
coach was filled with laughter 
and clapping from the players, 
coaches and family looking on.

But the room of hundreds went 

quiet when Harbaugh was asked 
if he was inheriting a turnaround 
program.

“This is Michigan,” Harbaugh 

said. “There are no turnarounds 
at Michigan. This is greatness.”

He added in his statement: 

“Throughout my life I have 
dreamed of coaching at the Uni-
versity of Michigan. Now I have 
the honor to live it.”

The Michigan Athletic Depart-

ment announced the hiring of 
the former San 
Francisco 49ers 
coach on Tues-
day afternoon, 
the 20th coach 
in 
program 

history. 
Har-

baugh 
agreed 

to a seven-year 
contract paying 
a base salary of 
$5 million per 
year.

Hoarse-voiced from a gatorade 

bath in his NFL-finale Sunday, he 
handled his first press conference 
nearly an hour after address-
ing his team for the first time. 
Harbaugh didn’t give a timeline 
for when he planned to name a 
coaching staff.

A former quarterback under 

Bo Schembechler, Harbaugh was 
an All-American and Heisman 
Trophy finalist, but he’s been part 
of the Wolverines’ program since 
he was nine years old. Harbaugh’s 
father, Jack, was the defensive 
backs coach at Michigan while 
Jim was growing up.

It was then, Harbaugh said, 

that he first dreamed of coaching 
at Michigan.

“When I was nine to 10 years 

old, there was a time when I was 

sitting in coach Schembechler’s 
office. I was sitting in his chair; 
I had my feet up on his desk,” 
Harbaugh recalled. “He walked 
in and said, ‘How ya doin’, Jim?’ 
And I said, ‘I’m doing great Bo, 
how you doin’? He said, ‘Whatta-
ya doin?’ and I said, ‘I’m sitting in 
your chair, coach!’ ... There’s just 
been times in my life where I’ve 
thought about it, dreamed about 
it, and now it’s time to live it.”

In addition to his $5 million 

base salary, Harbaugh’s contract 
includes incentives for playing in 
($125,000) or winning ($250,000) 
the Big Ten Championship Game, 
a $50,000 bonus if he is Big Ten 
Coach of the Year and a $150,000 
bonus for each year the team’s 
Academic Progress Rate is 960 
or higher. He can also earn 
$300,000 for playing the Col-
lege Football Playoff or $500,000 

for 
winning 

the 
national 

championship.

His 
con-

tract includes 
a $2 million 
signing bonus.

Michigan 

marks 
Har-

baugh’s fourth 
head coaching 
job in the last 

10 years, most recently in San 
Francisco, where his base salary 
is roughly the same as it will be 
with the Wolverines.

“I kind of think of myself as 

a construction guy,” Harbaugh 
said. “You build this home, and 
hopefully it’s a great cathedral, 
and then afterwards they tell you, 
‘Go build another one.’ And I feel 
like that again. … But I’d really 
like to live in one permanently. 
And that’s what I’m really hope-
ful for here.”

Harbaugh insisted his decision 

to take the Michigan job had little 
to do with his salary or financial 
considerations.

“I really made a decision from 

the heart, which I thought was 
best for myself and my family,” 
Harbaugh said. “I’m very excited 
by it and very challenged by it.”

“There are no 
turnarounds at 
Michigan. This 
is greatness.”

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Jim Harbaugh once guaranteed a win over Ohio State as Michigan’s quarterback. Now he has a chance to deliver as its new head coach.

FOOTBALL

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

“Hackett, you 
did a great job. 
Harbaugh, get 

to work.”

For all Harbaugh coverage
Check MichiganDaily.com’s foot-
ball page

“I made a 

guarantee a long 
time ago, and I’ve 
learned from that.”

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

TOP: Jim Harbaugh was introduced as Michigan’s head football head coach with his family in attendance.
BOTTOM LEFT: Interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett hired Harbaugh away from the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers just two months after taking over.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Harbaugh stands with his youngest son, Jack, 2.

