LA Times: How Harbaugh is upending CFB
"Among recruits, Michigan has “become kind of the cool, hip school,” said Brandon Huffman, national director of recruiting for Scout.com. “And that’s almost 100% attributed to Harbaugh.”
Harbaugh is considered among the best football minds in college or the NFL — Michigan had a record of 10-3 in his first season, up from 5-7 the year before — but his approach to coaching tends to the conservative.
His rebellious side comes out in recruiting, and he has changed the way college programs operate. Harbaugh’s innovations come at a rapid speed, and some explore the boundaries of NCAA rules, but they all share the same aim: to stay in the news and, therefore, in the consciousness of top recruits.
That approach, Huffman said, has made Michigan a recruiting powerhouse."
Source: Zach Helfand, 8/25/2016, LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-michigan-harbaugh-20160824-snap-htmlstory.html
August 25th, 2016 at 8:17 AM ^
There is no question that Jimmy hasn't raised the bar for us. So refreshing to have the national attention back on us.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:03 AM ^
So refreshing to have the *right* national attention back on us.
August 25th, 2016 at 2:14 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 11:12 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
I couldn't give less of a shit about national attention, but winning more is pretty nice.
August 25th, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
Kurpit: you need to know something about national atttention.
National attention = better recruiting = more wins = more national attention, etc...
August 25th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^
It is critical we remain front and center. I don't think there's such a thing as overexposure when the appetite for Football is so huge. Personally, I like when my team is on Sportscenter - with highlights from a huge win. (Which will happen a lot this fall).
August 25th, 2016 at 8:21 AM ^
We can't have national attention until we beat msu and osu
August 25th, 2016 at 8:25 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 9:18 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
The horse isn't dead until we beat MSU and OSU!
August 25th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^
Well, you know.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^
You double post. Dammit.
August 25th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^
To get to the other side.
August 25th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
*To beat MSU and OSU
August 25th, 2016 at 8:55 PM ^
To prove to the armadillo it could be done.
August 25th, 2016 at 11:36 AM ^
1. We beat MSU and OSU and...
2. Oakland is no longer in play.
If we're going to carry one with over used joke, we may as well carry on with two over used jokes.
August 25th, 2016 at 1:14 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 1:59 PM ^
Papal Infallibility so I guess it is ok to counter-disagree.
Both of those are over-used jokes that were initially funny, but lost their luster.
An over used joke is over used regardless of target.
August 25th, 2016 at 2:10 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 5:52 PM ^
We haven't seen any other Pope Humor since.
August 25th, 2016 at 6:23 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 8:23 AM ^
I really, really hate the "Donald Trump of college football" lazy moniker that seems to have caught on among lazy writers looking to make comparisons.
Harbaugh is out there being himself trying to do whatever he can to improve the Michigan program. Trump is out there putting on a show trying to incite controversy to gain media attention, to put it delicately.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:07 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 9:20 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
I've always thought the comparison missed the mark by quite a bit (even without politics). Harbaugh's motivation is not self promotion or the Harbaugh brand.
JH is motivated by promoting the pursuit of excellence (especially when it comes to UM's FB program). He defaults to "yes" when asked to do something especially when it involves athletes and teams striving for excellence (and winning). He's motivated by UM-promotion (FB and university alike). He's motivated by spreading the gospel of FB in general.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:52 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 9:56 AM ^
The "Donald Trump" analogy starts and ends with the fact that both of them choose to speak publicly with more candor--and, most importantly, the media's choice to run stories and create headline's on it--and with a frequency and tone previously unheard of coming from positions of such power and representation.
After that, there is literally zero comparison or similarity. Zero.
One is an innovative, fun-loving, and kinetic football coach.
The other is the canary in the coal-mine for the state of the American media-system.
August 25th, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
August 25th, 2016 at 10:09 AM ^
I'll try to avoid the politics stuff as best as possible:
It is an apt comparison in that both Harbaugh and Trump are genuinely and publicly authetic; they are who they are and don't try and be someone else. In Harbaugh's case, he's someone who is so engrossed in his craft (coaching football) that he maybe loses touch with the mainstream 'outside' world. He's the eccentric artist so to speak. But it's an authetic eccentricity.
Trump is authentically himself too and is unapologic about it. But for the sake of the board, I won't say exactly what Trump's 'authetically himself' actually entails.
August 25th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 11:07 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^
was applied here by Paul Finebaum, who I think most would agree, is a "get off my lawn" type of old esseesseee-loving curmudgeon.
liked the piece overall, and am glad it put us in a positive light in the major SoCal paper (likely doesn't hurt that Helfand is a UM alum)...
August 25th, 2016 at 9:55 PM ^
The Most Yost. This man truly believes in the religion of Michigan Football and will spread the word to anyone who will listen.
August 25th, 2016 at 11:16 PM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 8:32 AM ^
I like the way he presents the "Michigan Brand"! DB had it all wrong!
August 25th, 2016 at 8:33 AM ^
“This is where Harbaugh has rankled some folks because he’s making people work, and not just his own coaches,” Huffman said.
I can almost hear Hugh Freeze complaining from here.
August 25th, 2016 at 8:40 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 8:56 AM ^
After getting called out by Harbaugh, I'm not so sure Hugh's fake funeral was intended to be fake.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:09 AM ^
Complaining from his fake grave.
August 25th, 2016 at 9:13 AM ^
Hugh Freeze should not be coaching major college football.
August 25th, 2016 at 8:35 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 8:38 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
Saban is available for the right price. Texas couldn't come up with it recently. There is no way Michigan was going to make a run at Saban, expecially when Harbaugh was available. For those at tOSU, you should know that our AD only went after one guy for our head coach. We got him and we're going to catch up to (and pass) Meyer. You may want to watch Meyer's health (again) should the L's pile up like at Florida.
August 25th, 2016 at 8:43 AM ^
"... msu loss really hurt your momentum ..."
That's laziness on the level of "They need to start playing together as a team." -1
August 25th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^
I'm not sure Florida would agree with that statement.
August 25th, 2016 at 10:54 AM ^
When you think about how tough a game that was and how hard it was going to be on either team to lose it, that's tough enough. But to have the game in hand at home and lose it on a million-to-one play? Gut-wrenching.
However, I couldn't be any prouder of how the team came back and finished the year. No quit. No crying. That's the kind of game that haunts you and the fact the team was able to move on? Pretty incredible.
August 25th, 2016 at 8:51 AM ^
August 25th, 2016 at 8:53 AM ^
Wow! What an analysis of the end of that game! I don't think we ever realized any of that, thanks for sharing your superlative knowledge!
And no, there is no chance in hell that Michigan would have picked Saban (a UM bitch when he was at MSU, and an NFL loser) over Jim Harbaugh (a UM football legend, creator of Stanford football, and Super Bowl coach with the best first 4-yrs NFL coaching record in history). But nice try trolling...