Harbaugh picks up another win
Rival coaches not allowed to watch his open practice
During one of the water breaks Thursday in the middle of Michigan’s third spring football practice at IMG Academy, coach Jim Harbaugh snacked on a peanut butter-and-jelly pastry and casually mingled with reporters off to the side.
The truth about Michigan’s highly controversial (at least in some corners) excursion to Florida in the middle of spring break is that it has been pretty normal and tame.
It’s just ... gasp ... football practice transported from snowy Michigan to 70-degree weather.
But apparently Harbaugh is saving the real heat for Twitter.
Roughly 45 minutes after he left the field Thursday, Harbaugh sent a salvo directed toward Tennessee’s Butch Jones, who had joined a Twitter conversation Wednesday with Arkansas’ Bret Bielema and Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio about the possibility of flying to Bradenton to watch Michigan’s open practice Friday that is expected to attract a number of coaches and prospects.
It was a subtle but unmistakable shot at Jones and the current federal Title IX lawsuit against the University of Tennessee that alleges, among other things, a culture of sexual violence toward women has been fostered specifically within the football program.
Included among those allega- tions is an affidavit signed by a former Tennessee player who said Jones called him a traitor for helping a woman who alleged that she was raped by two Tennessee football players.
Jones has vehemently denied the allegation.
Harbaugh, however, is clearly not afraid to use that narrative in a direct jab at Tennessee or Jones. In what may or may not be a coincidence, Tennessee reportedly offered scholarships to 20 current players at IMG Academy.
Either way, neither Jones nor any other coach will be at the open practice.
As Bielema tweeted Thursday morning, it is against NCAA rules for those coaches to be at IMG during a “quiet” period on the recruiting calendar.
Michigan is allowed on campus, according to an IMG staffer, because it paid to use its facilities.
Chalk up another win for Harbaugh.