Clay Davis doesn't give a fuck if there's an Open Thread for this sort of stuff.
Crawl, walk, then run.
b.....but he claimed that michigan football players aren't rhodes scholars (argh!!!!), completely negating his 21-3 record as QB, guaranteed victory over Ohio, and meteoric rise to the upper echelons of NCAA and NFL coaches, bringing a lot of pride to the University.
It wasn't the fact that what he said had some truth to it, it was the fact that Stanford is essentially in the same boat. Harbaugh recruited plenty of kids who otherwise would have had no shot at getting into Stanford. I doubt he would have been pleased if his 4-star blue chip recruit who had a 3.1 GPA in high school got to campus and decided he wanted to major in electrical engineering. Stanford competes in the Pac-12, not in the Ivy League, so they don't have much of a moral high ground over us or any other BCS school.
Having said that, I agree that his previous comments don't negate everything he did for Michigan. He is and always will be one of the best to have ever worn the winged helmet.
FWIW, the Ivies really don't have as much of a moral high ground in this matter as people think. It's much, much easier to get admitted to an Ivy League school as an athlete than as a non-athlete. (They also mysteriously have ways of awarding academic scholarships to talented athletes.)
Do Ivies hand out 85 academic schollies to athletes for the football team?
They definitely find ways to lighten the tuition burden for them. And they lower their standards quite a bit to let them in. Anyone who thinks Ivy athletes are all 4.0 GPA/1550 SAT guys coming out of high school would be very surprised to see the actual data.
They have a good mix. Knew some guys who played hockey at Dartmouth and Yale, and football guys at Cornell. All pretty smart, but there were a couple that lets just say, not as smart.
I had two high school classmates who went on to play sports in the Ivy League - one at Columbia, one at Princeton. Aside from being good at sports, they were very ordinary students, not even close to being the best and brightest in our class.
I have a friend who played football at Harvard, and honestly, he was a mediocre student...frankly, I thought he was kind of a tool when I first met him.
whether it was true or not wasn't the issue. He had no reason to call out his alma mater. It brought negative attention to the school in front of a national audience, and then he got into a shouting match with a 20 year old kid (Mike Hart). It was completely uncalled for.
He had a reason. He wanted to differentiate Stanford from the large public universities that make up most of the BCS conferences. I suppose he didn't have to mention Michigan by name, but it was the only university he'd attended, so he didn't have firsthand knowledge of anyplace else.
I think fans need to accept that this kind of stuff is going to go on in recruiting. Coaches will use every angle they can find. At the time Harbaugh arrived at Stanford, they were in terrible shape. The academic angle was about all they had.
You don't crap on the people who helped you get to where you are.
Harbaugh said what he said for the sole purpose of making Stanford and himself look better by comparison. It doesn't matter whether what he said was true or not. Being a fan, being an alum, being a member of a club requires a certain measure of loyalty that Jim Harbaugh fundamentally lacks. He's a shameless self-promoter that threw the institution under the bus in the national media so that he could make a buck, then bolted to the NFL when Michigan needed him most. He's Fredo, and it burns me to hear that he's still pretending like he's part of the family. Go Blue? Go count your NFL money and get bent Jim.
Vitriolic. I like it.
Impressive rant. Respect.
He's a shameless self-promoter that threw the institution under the bus in the national media so that he could make a buck, then bolted to the NFL when Michigan needed him most.
Why did we "need him most" then? It seems to me that we're getting along fine with Hoke as our coach.
Also, while I don't think his comments were necessary, I don't know why people seem to think that just because a story gets printed on ESPN.com for one day that it's a "national story." Few people unaffiliated with Michigan ever paid attention to that story.
If loyalty means never being able to say anything that you don't like without getting a bullet in the back of the head, then count me out. Your Fredo comparison is unintentionally appropriate--the "loyalty" that he lacks by not always falling directly within the party line is only worthy of complete disassociation if the organization he is disloyal to is run by a corrupt, wife-beating murderer like Michael Corleone.
Is that what we are?
I wonder how many "Michigan Men" run afoul of your stringent regulations for orthodoxy. Frankly, I don't require 100% mindless support from a person to care about them or appreciate their contribution. It is possible to be a part of a family or group without agreeing about everything. I disagree with my mother from time to time, but under no circumstances do I cease to be her son.
Glad you're not my Don, Michael.
Stanford is a better school. I have a lot of pride in Michigan, but if you're just talking academics, the schools don't compare. There are many people on Michigan's undergrad campus that could have gone to Stanford, but I can near guaranty you that there isn't one person on Stanford's undergrad campus that couldn't have come to Michigan. Sure there are some world rankings out that have us close, but that is due to the grad programs. Considering that we're talking about football players who go to undergraduate institutions, the places don't even compare from an academic setting stand point.
Harbaugh could have come out and said Stanford was a better school. Instead, he simply said that there is more of an academic mind set in Stanford's athletic department. Get over it.
Sorry to break it to the "Fredo" comparison author, but a former QB who teabagged Ohio in Columbus his senior year after a guaranteed victory will forever be more a part of the Michigan football "family" than we will ever be. What a joke. Erase everything the guy did and continues to do to bring pride to this school just because he told a truth that everybody in this country knows.
Didnt he say he wish he went to Stanford, but he didnt get in. I thought I read that somewhere.
He was coaching Stanford at the time. What else would he tell recruits?
OK, i was just wondering. I am glad you confirmed that for me, because I thought I was going senile.
That's a nice strawman you've constructed there, Stephen. Dissent is fine. Public dialogue is fine. I don't have a problem with a famous alum criticizing the university, particularly if the goal of the criticism is improving the university.
This isn't about orthodoxy. This is about intent. More specifically, it is about Harbaugh's intent, which was, in no particular order, to prop up Stanford's reputation, make his job look harder, and make himself look better--all at Michigan's expense. This is about publicly putting your self-interest over the interests of the university, which is precisely what Harbaugh did. Go back and read his comments again. The objective is manifest. He's a snake.
Feel free to define your membership in the institution however you like. If you think that it is appropriate for a famous alum to trash the university in print solely for personal gain, ok. If you think that it is not at all disingenuous for that same alum to later publicly suggest an allegiance or a loyalty to that same institution, fine.
I don't define my membership the same way. Loyalty matters. Integrity matters.
I'd like to discover in what way Harbaugh damaged the family with his remarks. Did they bother me? Absolutely. Does it damage my life in any way? No. Has it harmed the school or the football team? No. Does it cancel out what he did as a quarterback for the team? No.
Your hatred of him evokes the emotions Ohio State fans express toward people like Kirk Herbstreit, who had to leave the state for his family's well-being. I would like to think that the Michigan fanbase is more civilized than that, but perhaps not.
I understand emotions were pretty high when Harbaugh made his comments; the reactions of Carr and Mike Hart were rather vehement. That's also their right. After the way the Carr regime undercut his successor, though, I would be wary of taking their word as gospel. What Carr's folks did to RR was worse than anything Harbaugh ever said. And that still does not invalidate his position as a Michigan Man or as a coach who brought us a national championship; it is simply an unfortunate event.
If we start cancelling someone's Michigan card every time they offend us, we're going to wind up with a pretty small list of alums that are true "Michigan Men."
UM has not always been loyal to its "family members".
draft a Michigan player!
I am personally shocked (shocked!) that David Molk hasn't been picked up yet. Didn't he win the award for the best offensive center?!
seems to be the problem of many of our players this year.
Jim Harbaugh can eat a dick.
Classic Michigan-Ohio State game, winner wins the Big Ten and goes to the Rose Bowl.
All debts paid in full by Jim Harbaugh.
If you listen carefully as they are waiting to run in at 3:16 mark, you hear lets kill these guys. I think it was JH. God, brings back the memories for JH. Love it Love it.
How many Spartans does that make?
I think Albion and Presbyterian have more picks than you guys lol
This draft is proof why Dantonio owned Dick Rod and will continue to own scUM!
proves how you can't pay attention.
Don't you have a welfare to check to collect or something?
I wonder if kirk is gonna sit on the bench in washington like he "sat on the couch" watching Michigan in the Sugar Bowl and seeing Mike Martin get drafted before.
what you're saying is, despite all those draft picks, Mork Dantonier can't even make a BCS bowl?
The Albion guy ran a 4.34 and posted a 42" vertical at the Michigan Pro Day I believe. Pretty good athlete.