12
Thursday, August 6, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
Michigan coach
steals show in
Chicago before
season begins
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
CHICAGO — Jim Harbaugh
raised his arms, as if celebrating
a touchdown, when he headed
toward the exit of the Hyatt
Regency McCormick Place on
Friday evening. He had just
completed an entire day as the
center of attention at Big Ten
Media Days.
Harbaugh’s afternoon press
scrums consisted of dozens of
media members, rivaled only
by those of Ohio State coach
Urban Meyer, months removed
from
winning
the
national
championship.
Northwestern
coach
Pat
Fitzgerald
fielded
two questions about Harbaugh
in his press conference before
he was asked about his team’s
quarterback competition.
And while conference media
days are often known to be
haphazard
affairs,
Harbaugh
was in seemingly unchartered
territory with the interest media
members took in every facet of his
life and career.
Throughout the day, Harbaugh
was asked about events relating to
the 2000 San Diego Chargers, the
1986 Michigan Wolverines and
the 2015 South
Florida
Bulls,
coached by his
close
friend
Willie Taggart.
At one point,
he even paused,
for a moment,
to look up at the
ceiling
while
envisioning
a
hypothetical
Twitter
conversation
between
Bo
Schembechler and Woody Hayes.
He explained how his Twitter
account has helped his spelling
and
grammar,
and
whether
or not he was able to blend
in with the crowd during his
recent vacation to France, even
during an offseason in which he
has dominated the discussion
surrounding college football.
“I
was
a
Frenchman,”
Harbaugh said.
When
Harbaugh
wasn’t
meeting with the media, other
Big Ten coaches and players were
being asked about him in their
own sessions.
Michigan
senior
linebacker
Joe Bolden estimated that he
had been asked questions about
his coach’s personality in 5,000
different ways, noting that he
never gets tired of answering
them.
“I frequently
wonder
why
you
guys
are
so
obsessed
with our head
coach,” Bolden
said. “And you
look at the guy
and he’s very
interesting. But
you look at what
else
is
going
on in the world, and you’ve got
to think, there’s a lot. I know it’s
specific to your reporting, (but)
there’s a lot going on. Why Coach
Harbaugh? Why not (Texas A&M
coach Mike Sumlin)? Why not
Coach Meyer? Why not one of the
coaches in the Pac 12?
“You guys love it, and I love that
you guys love it. It’s awesome.”
Last
season,
Bolden
and
other team leaders frequently
shouldered
the
burden
and
pressure from the media and
fans after losses during the
Wolverines’ 5-7 season. Now, the
focus is squarely on Harbaugh,
even when the players walk
around campus going about their
days.
“That’s like the number one
question,” Ross
III said. “If they
find out you play
for
football,
it’s like ‘How’s
Harbaugh?
How’s
Coach
Harbaugh? How
is he?’ ”
Two
tables
over, a crowd of
reporters
had
already
begun
to wait for Harbaugh’s arrival to
his final media session of the day.
He answered questions for 36
minutes, some about this year’s
Michigan football team, even
more about himself.
He
was
amused
by
the
spectacle at times, reflecting at
length on his Twitter account
and expressing surprise that
the time he removed his shirt
at Michigan’s satellite camp in
Alabama was such a big deal.
“Shirts and skins,” he said,
interrupting a reporter. “It was
shirts and skins! How does not
everybody understand that?”
Toward the end of the session,
Harbaugh’s
three
players
in
attendance stood up on chairs
behind the media and asked
their coach a burning question,
about who was the best-looking
player on the team. They laughed,
disappointed
by
Harbaugh’s
answer that he only finds beauty
in his wife, Sarah.
Later,
when
Harbaugh
straightened his tie and left his
seat at the table, Fitzgerald was
the only remaining coach still
talking to the media, sitting two
tables away. He had answered
questions about
Harbaugh
throughout the
day. From his
perspective,
Harbaugh’s
situation
is
ideal.
Because
everyone
asks
about the coach,
the players are
spared difficult
questions.
“I’d rather have them go to
class, Snapchat away and play
ball,” Fitzgerald said. “Have fun,
it’s college.”
The chairs around Fitzgerald’s
table were filled, but he did not
command
the
standing-room
only crowd that Harbaugh did.
He joked about different ways to
create Twitter buzz, including
creating a hashtag that would
encourage fans to blame him for
losses.
Harbaugh claims his Twitter
account consists of his thoughts,
that nothing has been contrived
by advisors or for marketing
purposes, but it has fed the
attention surrounding him all the
same. To others in the conference,
it seems like everything has.
“As a peer and as a colleague,
I would say I think he’s handled
it really well,” Fitzgerald said. “I
think he’s embraced it and had
fun with it. I think he goes home
— I’m speaking me, my opinion —
I think he probably goes home at
night and laughs his ass off.”
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has yet to coach a game at Michigan, but was followed by a media swarm last week.
Harbaugh mania hits peak
for Big Ten Media Days
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Jim Harbaugh will make his Michigan coaching debut against Utah on September 3rd.
“Why Coach
Harbaugh?
Why not Coach
Meyer?”
“I bet he goes
home and
laughs his ass
off.”