A Collegial Gesture
Brian has already covered Jim Harbaugh's Troll God move from, uh, one perspective. Given this is now the biggest news on an otherwise quiet Friday in the college football world, I wanted to take a closer look, so here's a list of the various aspects of this that are just the best.
1. THIS IS BRILLIANT
Purely from a recruiting perspective, this is innovation at its finest. SEC coaches are publicly complaining about Michigan's cross-country tour of satellite camps, the one recruiting loophole the SEC can't exploit? Fine, make them all look petty:
There are two ways opposing coaches, SEC and otherwise, can react to this. They can sit out the camp, missing out on a recruiting opportunity and appearing afraid of competition in the process. Or they can attend, therefore contributing to Michigan's camp becoming a massive draw for recruits. This isn't a decision Nick Saban will enjoy making, and that goes doubly so for Urban Meyer and Mark Dantonio. Harbaugh essentially blackmailed the college coaching world into making his program's camp a premier event.
It's not just smoke and mirrors, either. If Michigan is able to get even a handful of well-regarded coaches to participate, it'll be hard to deny Michigan the "Exposure U" tagline they've attached to this project. Getting the program to have the reputation as the place to get noticed would be a huge boon for recruiting.
2. IT'S ALREADY WORKING
Bob Stitt is in! Somebody check on Brian!
@CoachJim4UM I'm in! Thx for the invite!
— Bob Stitt (@CoachBobStitt) April 24, 2015
In all seriousness, this move should attract plenty of innovative smaller-school coaches like Stitt, and it's always a positive to expose the coaches to new and different ways of doing things. Urban Meyer may not be down to discuss the finer points of running power out of the shotgun, but Stitt could give some advice about incorporating the fly sweep; recruiting doesn't have to be the only aspect of the program that benefits from this.
3. THIS COULD POTENTIALLY HAPPEN
I'll give $50 to MSU beat reporter who asks Dantonio after spring game if he'll go to UM's camp. Make it $100 if its first question of day.
— jamie mac (@justcoverblog) April 24, 2015
I'll happily ante up, as well.
4. ADD TO THE HARBAUGH LEGEND
Harbaugh is the rare college coach whose views and actions aren’t motivated by fear, particularly of what others are doing.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) April 24, 2015
Harbaugh made a power move (the satellite camp tour), SEC coaches pushed back, and instead of making any sort of concession, Harbaugh made an even bigger power move. As evidenced by Wolken's tweet, this is going to play well in the media, and you can bet recruits will take notice, as well. In the court of public perception, this is a decisive win. Harbaugh turned a nothing Friday into a day to grab headlines.
There will be no stake-related apologies.
5. MOTION TO MAKE THIS THE SITE TAGLINE
I'll be ending all my conversations, formal and informal, in this manner from now on.
I know this is a little trolling - but I really think he wants to turn this into an opportunity for people to get better about football
Harbaugh may be a little bit trolling, but he really wants to make sure football survives -
This is an interesting point. Harbaugh seems to genuinely enjoy open, head-to-head football competition and this may be a sincere move, without guile. This early in his tenure, I'm not sure, but I look forward to finding out - over the next 10 years or so.
It's not unlikely that several Michigan assistants are only a year or two away from an HC offer or other promotion. Attracting "plenty of innovative smaller-school coaches" may be an additional strategic benefit.
Harbaugh's turning Schembechler Hall into the Montparnasse - for football.
I never even considered that. Plus you need a replacement for Mattison when he inevitably retires. . .
It's a win-win for all involved. Great for the athletes, obviously. Great for the coaches, especially the small-school guys. And not coincidentally, great for us -- Harbaugh knows that when he succeeds in Ann Arbor, his staff's gonna get poached quite a lot by other schools w/HC or coordinator jobs open. This is just another way for him to network with other up-and-coming coaches and ID talented folks who he might want to join his staff someday. Brilliant stuff.
Harbs has turned this camp into a major media event. If the coaches turn out as expected and the recruits show up as well, this thing will be huge. Hell, they should start filming "the making of ExposureU" right now.
Harbaugh is schooling the college football world. Class on the grass.
Sincerely yours in football
I think that Harbaugh legitimately sees this as a way to get a lot of brillant football minds and have them work with young kids. That Michigan woud be leading this is probably just obvious to him. Those who have problems with it are simply not his concern.
In other words, Jim can't "troll" what he doesn't even care about.
This how I see it too FannMan. Plus 1
April 27th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^
I could agree with that, but the note about being a keynote speaker if you're restricted to camps within 50 miles of campus is 100% pure columbian trolling of the SEC. A troll for the ages.
I pledge allegiance to the united football of Harbaugh...
Nick's grandparents bought him a sandbox and told him he could take it with him anywhere he would like to play. However, Nick was playing in the sand box when his parents told him that he could only play in the sandbox if it is located in his own yard.
Little Jimmy was from very, very, far away and his parents were way cooler than Nick's parents, so they allowed him to take his sandbox anywhere he would like to play so long as he was invited there. So, Jimmy set his sandbox up (by invitation) across the street from Nick's house.
Nick was not very happy about this because Jimmy was actually pretty cool and some of the local kids were more interested in Jimmy than they were in Nick. So, Nick had a bit of a temper tantrum and pitched a fit.
Jimmy saw Nick pitch the fit and decided to totally fuck with him by inviting everyone from all over to bring their sandboxes to his house back home. Jimmy also said that "Kids" who weren't allowed to bring their sandboxes could use his. The End.
Yep, this made me laugh, too.
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Seriously, I like Harbaugh more and more every time day. Is that even possible?
The man is a genius.
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and Aye to the MGoshirt!
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that JH has drastically narrowed the gap between him and Urban Meyer in terms of followers.
JH is finding ways to become even more relevant than the coach who just won the National Championship.
And he hasn't coached a game yet for Michigan.
I'm anxious to see what our coach is going to do next.
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April 26th, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^
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Harbaugh made a power move (the satellite camp tour), SEC coaches pushed back, and instead of making any sort of concession, Harbaugh made an even bigger power move.
BOOM! Harbaughjutsu'd.
This is all so amazing. For all these years it's like we've been fighting with one hand tied behind our back. Now it's untied. We're throwing our institutional muscle all over the place. This is fun.
baller. Jimmy gives two shits about what other coaches think about him.
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PLEASE let this man have success on the field! He is such a winner in the PR wars.
Also-Aye to the New Tag
April 26th, 2015 at 10:43 AM ^
I actually think it would be smart to go...learn some things that'll make you a better head coach down the road (plus you secretly get to spy on Michigan).
But if I'm the Roy Manning's of college football? I'm THERE. No question.You get 2 per school, me and my other young aspiring coach could go together and learn a ton.
This is a big time toll move and fuck you to Saban and Co, but it's actually a REALLY sweet idea for assistant coaches.
Brilliant. I am a veteran sales rep who recently started my own company, which is a Rep Firm which I plan to morph and expand in to a distributorship. Coach Harbaugh is inspiring me on how to build business relationships and be the leader, rather than the reactor like Saban, Dantonio, etc. are.
April 26th, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^
Shoot for the stars CZ. And have mercy on me please.
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April 25th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
April 24th, 2015 at 11:39 PM ^
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