Muted, calm Harbaugh surprises Big Ten media
Fourth-year Michigan coach changes tack after hype and subpar return
CHICAGO – It was a long question, but a good one. Paraphrased, it was asked of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh: After all the hype and all the subpar returns — three seasons in a row no higher than third in the Big Ten Conference East Division — what do the Wolverines have to achieve in 2018?
“Improvement will lead to success, which will lead to championships,” Harbaugh said. And that was all he said. Next question, please.
The fourth-year Michigan coach is an artist at saying something yet saying nothing. In that sense, Monday’s performance at Big Ten media days resembled his masterpiece. It still felt off.
Meet the muted, quiet, docile Jim Harbaugh. There were no fireworks during his appearance, no great quote, no statement of confidence, let alone cockiness. Reporters goaded Harbaugh, trawling for responses; he wasn’t biting. The Harbaugh who spoke for 15 minutes was subdued, and a distance removed from the bombastic new hire who took this conference by storm three summers ago.
Is this the new Harbaugh? Was his staid question-and-answer session a purposeful tactic designed to tamp down the fire, not feed it? It also makes you wonder: What, if anything, does Harbaugh’s appearance say about Michigan in 2018?
This might not be the new Harbaugh on a permanent basis — he could return to form should Michigan beat Notre Dame in its opener, for example. But it’s hard to not view his performance here as part of a larger design.
Maybe Harbaugh is humbled by the Wolverines’ inability to defeat the program’s two great rivals, Ohio State and Michigan State, let alone the program’s failure to rise into the upper deck of the Big Ten. Michigan was expected to be an immediate factor in the Big Ten championship conversation. That hasn’t been the case.
Suggestions that his job security has wavered are fiction. Yet the heat is on for Harbaugh and his staff heading into September, particularly given the renewed attention paid to the Wolverines’ postseason goals with five-star transfer quarterback Shea Patterson’s arrival from Mississippi.
Maybe Harbaugh is tamping down his tone for an even more direct reason: Michigan isn’t built to contend. That seems a stretch; the Wolverines have compiled multiple top-tier recruiting classes that rival all but a select few programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
It might very well be part of Harbaugh’s continued evolution. In a way, it could indicate an increased belief in his program’s ability to contend: Harbaugh could feel his team will do the talking come September, so a tamped-down approach will do for now. This was a different Harbaugh. Maybe that signals a different Michigan.