All eyes on Harbaugh on opening night
College football starts Thursday night and all eyes will be on the team in blue. And no offense, San Jose State, but we don’t mean you.
Michigan opens at Utah, beginning Year 1 of the Jim Harbaugh era. If it goes like other Jim Harbaugh eras, it will be wild, weird, successful and over after 2018.
We have plenty of football in the Bay Area to keep us entertained, yet Michigan will be an unofficial local team this season. As front-row witnesses to the Harbaugh saga for the past eight years — first at Stanford and then with the 49ers — the Bay Area has an investment in the man. And a strong curiosity as to whether he can turn around the fortunes of another program, this one at his alma mater.
The Wolverines were 6-10 in the Big Ten under Brady Hoke the past two seasons. There are big expectations that the Michigan Man can restore the program to glory and give Ohio State a run — at least, eventually.
No one will be watching more closely than the folks at 4949 Marie P. DeBartolo Way in Santa Clara — though they’ll say they aren’t. If Harbaugh continues his pattern and wins, especially if the 49ers struggle, it will be some bitter jive turkey gobble to swallow. If the Wolverines flounder, the 49ers’ brain trust will high-five behind closed doors.
Michigan has treated Harbaugh as the savior in khakis. With good reason. He saved the past three programs he has led, making the University of San Diego relevant, turning Stanford into an unlikely BCS power and giving the 49ers the three best years they’ve had since the 1990s.
At Michigan, they’re selling T-shirts that say “Ann Arbaugh,” and “Maize, Blue, Khaki.” There are legions of khaki-wearing students, willing to pay homage despite the fashion faux pas. He has captivated the campus all offseason, with tweets and heroic deeds (He gave medical assistance to a motorist injured in a car crash! He captured a mouse in a public restaurant!).
Now comes the hard part: the winning part, which for most of his coaching career, Harbaugh has made look easy.