I am no fan of Colin but all he wanted is some colorful answers which makes for good radio. Colin and his producers should have known they weren't going to get much from Jim. That interview, for people who understand talk radio, was horrible and why Colin cut it short.
Fuck Colin Cowherd and ESPN. He's a ratings whore douche bag.
Don't and won't listen to his show because there are better shows on at the same time on other sports radio stations.
#ESPNsucks
Welcome to reality.
Just putting that BA in English from MICHIGAN to work!
No need to beat around the bush about it. Cowherd was staying at the same hotel I was in Scottsdale during the SuperBowl week (as was SVP and Mike2) and was a complete assbag to the hotel and restaurant staff.
Van Pelt, on the other hand, was totally cool and approachable and Golic seemed like a classic happy fat guy when talking with fans.
Cowherd sucks and I'd gladly say that to his face.
Douchebag is one word. Not two.
Upvoted anyway.
Other thing to remember is the Tiger's game went 14 innings last night... and I doubt Harbaugh left before it was over. Combine little sleep with lazy questions (how many times does he have to answer why he chose to come to Michigan?) and that's the interview you are going to get.
I didn't think it was that bad. Harbaugh was just being Harbaugh. Colin wanted a more enthusiastic responses. I don't think that Colin should've cut it short. However, the interview could've been handled better on both sides.
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The interview seemed poorly done by Cowherd as well as questions meant for speed dating
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Of course this is now the front page headline on ESPN NCAAF. Anything Harbaugh does is HUGE.
Cowherd, happy: Ratings.
Harbaugh, happy: Sowed discomfort and diplayed no fucks given.
This is a win-win.
Cowherd: "I wanna play for Jim?"
Harbaugh: Do you have any eligibility, Colin?
Cowherd: "I'm a 4.3 wide receiver. Why should I play at Michigan?"
Harbaugh: "You are!?"
Harbaugh's responses weren't talking points and weren't formuIaic. In fact, he came across as geniune. But I do think Harbaugh got a bit annoyed at Cowherd's schtick, which is that of being a pompous asshole. So Harbaugh began toying with him.
The result was rather amusing to me!
After listening to that interview, Harbaugh seemed to answer the questions like he would any interviewer. It appears to me that Harbaugh didn't want to respond with specifics to the questions about how he is coaching the team. Also, it seemed like Harbaugh felt that Cowherd was rediculous to assume that Harbaugh would use the interview to show how he would sell Michigan to recruits. In my opinion, It was more about the questions Cowherd asked.
Harbaugh seems to love to share generalities such as: how he enjoys building relationships with recruits, loves coaching, and loves the University of Michigan. I can't remember ever hearing Harbaugh discussing specifics with what he would say to recruits for recruiting or specifics for how he coaches the players, other than with enthuisiasm unknown to mankind. That interview was bad because of Cowherd.
You are definitely wearing blinders. Not great questions by any stretch, but some of them were pretty open ended. Like the question about how the NFL is different from college. All Harbaugh could say is how they are more similar than different with no specifics. Now, we all undersand that this is just Harbaugh being Harbaugh. He is an awkward person with a little bit of a crazy streak. Everyone accepts this and knows this. Michigan knew that when they hired him. He is a great football coach and his coaching abilities far outweigh his odd personality. Nobody denies he is a great football coach, but when you listen to an interview like that you have to be objective and say it was a disaster. Colin may be a jerk, but Harbaugh was literally an empty suit and left Colin with no other choice. It was a horrible interview for Harbaugh but will have zero impact on recruits. Only consequence will be that other ESPN radio personalities will be hesistant to put Harbaugh on. Which may be a good decision for both parties involved.
In my opinion this was not nearly as bad as some here think. Cowherd asked some pretty lousy questions. Harbaugh did generally give minimalist answers.
It did get off on the wrong foot when Cowherd didn't greet Harbaugh, who then said hello. The "when are you at your least intense" question went flat. Clearly Harbaugh was not remotely interested in discussing that topic nor where it might lead. Harbaugh clearly misunderstood the "buy" question thinking that it referred to treating the BIg Ten as one might a bye week (or in other words taking a pass). That interpretation would not fit the context of the question in which Cowherd expressed his interest in Big Ten football and the improving quality to coaching and programs. So maybe Harbaugh was deliberately being uncooperative. Then Cowherd basically asked Harbaugh to "recruit him" to demonstrate how Harbaugh approaches recruiting. Harbaugh joked with him a bit about his eligibility and then didn't cooperate. Cowherd said something like I'm giving you the chance to sell MIchigan. Harbaugh apparently decided he didn't need to sell Michigan in that forum and didn't.
Better questions might have resulted in a more informative interview. For, whatever reason, Harbaugh chose to answer or not answer the questions as asked, and not engage in converstation around the topics suggested by the questions. He gave Cowherd zero help.
I'm disappointed that I didn't get a new tidbit about what Harbaugh is up to or how he sees the team's progress, but I really didn't expect him to say anything of substance. Other than that worrying about any fallout is mountain from molehill territory.
Could Harbaugh / should Harbaugh have given a better interview? Yes. Do you have to take the bad with the good with Harbaugh? Also yes.
We shouldn't be talking out of both sides of our mouths about this one. Harbaugh is going to Harbaugh really hard, at all times, and we're all just going to have to learn how to live with that.
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Edit-
delete
I'm more pissed off at Brendan Quinn and his tweets that keep getting embedded and forwarded around than I am at Harbaugh's interview or even Cowherd. For him to conclude that a kid listening would likely go with Urbs because of the interview is ridiculous and infuriating. A recruit doesn't care one bit how a coach interracts with the media, only the media does. Quinn's criteria for choosing a school is seemingly based on how a coach interviews with a radio host. What a fucking idiot.
[Edit: I'm the fucking idiot. Brendan was quoting Colin Cowherd regarding a hypothetical recruit who would go with Urbs based on the interview. It was not Quinn's opinion, but Cowherd's. My apologies to Quinn. Not that he, or anyone else, is going to read this.]
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People tend to like a person they have admiration for, or at least general respect for, trolling someone that is generally thought of as a nincompoop.
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Nice word selection.
Will understand why Colin did what he did.
I'll give ESPN some credit. On the SportsCenter Facebook post regarding this, the headline is, "Harbaugh not amused with Colin Cowherd's questions." When scrolling through the newsfeed, that comes off like Cowherd was the no talent interviewer and Harbaugh was pulling a Pop/Belicheck response to lazy interviewing.
1st, Cowherd is a tool so this was hilarious to listen to. 2nd, Harbaugh was giving short, terse answers and honestly didn't sound any different to me than his hiring presser, so it seems thats just how he is. Colin's questions were inane and rather than make any attempt to be a real journalist, he just gave up. And as for whether or not any recruits will not choose Michigan based on this interview, I imagine Jim would rather not have anyone playing for him who puts stock in a Colin Cowherd interview over what is said in recruiting discussions.
Sounded like typical Harbaugh answers and Cowherd didn't like it.
Harbaugh actually has great traits for responding to interviews - he pauses to think about a question before just blurting out an answer. Unfortunately that doesn't play that well for media and especially for radio. You could tell by the end Cowherd was sick of it. Harbaugh paused for a second after Cowherd went on a rant and that was it. Cowherd even complained about the "pauses" at the end. In an in-person interview you can see Harbaugh is just taking a second to respond.
Of course, the other issue is that I just don't think Harbaugh is the type of coach to give some fluffy open-ended spiel on national radio on why Michigan is good. He's going to give that to the kids he wants to recruit. Watch under a minute of Jim Harbaugh interviews and you'd know that about him. Cowherd didn't do his homework to understand how to task questions.
That, and I just don't think Harbaugh likes giving interviews that much.
Colin Cowherd. Crappy radio host does a crappy interview. This is hilariously non-newsworthy.
...I doubt anyone reads this since it's 300 responses into a thread about a radio interview, and honestly, I skipped down here to make a point that's likely been made around response #153 but:
- I don't know if:
- Harbaugh's a genius that knows the best way to get the most attention is to give a terrible interview that will go viral, or
- if he just believes that any publicity is good publicity and that, once on air, he can just be himself and not give a damn what people listening think, a la Bo
- Regardless of which it is (or something else, like getting back at Colin for ripping him at some point or pontificating about something from a place of total ignorance), it was, in fact, a "clunker."
- That said, what is the downside here? Every non-Michigan sports fan in the world thinks Harbaugh is a bad interview? Okay, so what? This does nothing to hurt his ability to recruit serious athletes (those that do their due diligence in researching where to perfect their craft for the next 3-5 years) nor his ability to win games.
Good day.
The media morons are comical and rarely offer anything other than the same generic questions three different ways, ask subjects they know the coach won't touch (ex. injuries) or in the case of "shock jock" sports shows (ex. Cowherd, Mike Valenti) just make noise. More coaches should go the route of Harbaugh today, Popovich at the half or Dantonios "next question" because many of the reporters deserve it.
I expected something far worse. What I heard was just Harbaugh responding to banal, unimaginative questions by being himself. Reminded me a little bit of Lloyd saying stuff like "that's the dumbest question I've ever heard" while heading off to the locker room at halftime. Harbaugh said the same thing, just not in so many words. I think he handled it pretty well.
Well Mike and Mike ...aka, Weenie & the Lump blasted Harbaugh following the Stanford Orange Bowl win because he blew off the postgame-Mic in the face question about the MICHIGAN JOB (which he'd already declined prior to kick off and with SF open).
All the ESPN NFL honks like Shefter were insisting he was staying in the NFL ...
I think Harbaugh gives ESPN the middle finger at times and fucking love it!
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Who is Cowherd?
I think it is interesting to see Cowherd put in this position. I mean he's not a fan of loyalty, or tribalism. He's the sort of guy who backs "winners." His guiding principle seems to be "pro-success." To hear him say he "likes" anything means that it is successful. So now his principle is tested because Harbaugh is successful and just did this to him. It made me laugh to hear him say repeatedly at the end, "I love you to death!" and "I love you!"
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he thought he was. Cowherd thought Harbaugh would give him easy answers. Sorry Colin do your homework next time. He's moving his show to LA, guess it will be easier for him out their.
Just listened to the interview. This one was fun. Most of my points are obvious, or can be explained by "duh CC is a douche", but I don't think just because it's expected, it's ok to give free passes.
1. Regardless of how "poorly" (ie not creating any drama / media fodder) the interview is going, it is rude of CC to throw up his hands and end it without mutual consent. If JH had been asked if he also wanted to end it, or actually given the initiative to "improve" the interivew on mutual terms and THEN JH blew it, then sure. But this is rude, you don't just walk away from someone if you invited them to speak even if they don't satisfy what you want.
2. All CC's questions had implied agenda of getting either drama, JH looking bad, or requiring JH to spin them to his own agenda. Instead of playing CC's game, JH played his, which is wise (but doesn't "sell" -- see point 1). Of course this will result in a "bad" interview. If someone's first question was when am I soft / not myself, I'd also rather stick to my own game.
3. CC comments of "I love JH, but..." when you hear someone say that, you know what they are made of. Especially when they are kicking you out the door.
4. You don't ask people questions like this unless you are trying to create a power mismatch. Harbaugh was being reasonably defensive because he was on the short end of a power game.
5. I was so happy that JH didn't try to "sell" (in the used car salesman stereotype way) Michigan. We have nothing to sell right now, except for the one thing JH did say -- HARD WORK. Trust me, in 5 years, he could have the same interview and those questions won't be "needed" -- JH is building a program that sells itself.
6. JH didn't do this to troll anyone or have a hidden agenda other than get air time for his program and build a relationship. JH answers were totally reasonable and respectful. Instead of answering the first question, he first asked how CC was doing. JH was just put in a reasonably unfair and disrespectful position by CC (although JH probably should have / did know this would happen). People who do this to others always spin it as the other persons problem anyway, so of course CC says it's JH's fault for a "bad" interview.
BAUGHLER!!!
Did anybody find out when Harbaugh is cupcake though?
Did anybody find out when Harbaugh is cupcake though?
This comment referencing an exchange between Harbaugh and Tim Kawakami was priceless:
Q: So what’s your standard? Is it 10 felony counts the standard? Do you have a standard?
-HARBAUGH: I know you probably worked really hard on asking that question. Probably stared in the mirror and thought about just the way you could [ask] that.