A Collegial Gesture Comment Count

Ace

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!

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 happily ante up, as well.

4. ADD TO THE HARBAUGH LEGEND

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.

Comments

Don

April 25th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^

He knows how the game of retail politics is played, regardless of the arena.

But all of this hooha about Exposure U will be irrelevant unless we win lots of games, esp. against our biggest rivals. Until we take the field against Utah, all of this stuff is just words.

ElBictors

April 25th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

Wonder if Hackett played any role in the reply to Saban, et al in suggesting the move..? Very high level executive sort of move to take the high road. You not only look like the bigger man, but by begin open to anyone and everyone you are endearing sentiment towards your program/company. Tactically brilliant and funny too.

BlueCube

April 27th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^

we also have an AD who is on top of PR as well as very capable assistant coaches and support staff. I'd love to know who actually came up with the idea. It may well be Harbaugh but it goes to show the night and day difference on the PR front between the old regime including Dave Brandon and the currect regime.

I would also love it if we had recruits waiting for this event to commit. With all the media that will be hanging around out of curiosity the commits would get a lot of publicity.

 

Hab

April 28th, 2015 at 12:20 PM ^

So, last Friday, I was fired for what I suspect to be quasi-political/bullshit reasons.  In the future, as I look back on April 24, 2015, I'm going to remember JH's brilliance first.  Hail.