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.