MGoBlog Throwback - "Destroy Harbaugh"
Thanks to this post on the board, I was reading the Harbaugh article published by "The Ringer". At one point it mentions that the M football family was "pissed off" at Harbaugh after he took shots at Michigan's academic standards for athletes. I thought about it, and I do remember being pissed off. Hell, Mike Hart even said this about Harbaugh:
So what did the blog say at the time? That's when Brian posted "Destroy Harbaugh" circa August, 2007. He tells Harbaugh that he's full of crap, and a "verbal moron".
I mean, Jim Harbaugh has to be some sort of verbal moron but he's still in the 99.9th percentile when it comes to being a quarterback. In one particular aspect of his life, Jim Harbaugh is indisputably brilliant. We shouldn't look down on him just because there are six-year-olds with a better sense of what an appropriate public discourse is.
I think it's pretty interesting how our opinions of this man have changed over the years. I was probably inclined to agree with Mike Hart back then (maybe not to that extent). Maybe Harbaugh still doesn't have a good sense of appropriate public discourse, but that's what makes all the Harbaugh-isms great. Or maybe everything's okay now since he's our guy.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:38 AM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
Mike Hart made one comment which MSU has successfully used as bulletin board material for the last 8 or 9 years.
So...thanks for saying that bruh.
September 7th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 12:39 PM ^
The fact that it is so accurate is the reason it still makes any spartan fan/players blood boil all these years later, even with their recent success.
September 7th, 2016 at 12:42 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 12:49 PM ^
No doubt what Hart said was undeniably true. Sparty continues to prove that they are little brother. Little brother does beat big bro sometimes, but even with all of their success over the last 10 years they still act like little bro.
September 7th, 2016 at 4:04 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 12:09 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 12:19 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
September 7th, 2016 at 11:34 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
Yup, he said something stupid once and has basically said a number of times that it was dumb.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
Well, there are still six-year-olds with a better sense of what an appropriate public discourse is, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^
Call him a six year old or a moron all you want. He is OUR six year old and OUR moron, and a hell of a football coach who loves the University of Michigan.
Note: I considered using moran, but decided against it.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
I think the same thing about Harbaugh. He is a wild card with the press and not concerned about what other people think of his ideas. He talks. He says what he wants. He walks out of interviews and gives oddball answers. He is all about his team at the time.
Nothing has changed about him or my perception of his public discourse.
September 7th, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 6:37 PM ^
Nothing Harbaugh said then was inaccurate. May have painted with a broad brush but it wasnty inaccurate.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
This goes to Harbaugh being a blunt object in my opinion. He's inartful in his language at times and such was the case in 2007. In his mind, he may have been trying to say that each individual needs to push himself to great heights in all areas, both in the classroom and the playing field.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:05 AM ^
really. I think he meant to say pretty much exactly what he said. That is not to say that what he said was true necessarily, that he even really believed it, or that it is still true to the same extent today or was any different when he played, but his actual statements were not exactly ambiguous. Disclaimers apply that he and Michigan were not exactly chummy at the time but I don't think there can be any doubt about what he said and what he meant.
September 7th, 2016 at 2:04 PM ^
Harbaugh was very deliberate in his comments denigrating Michigan's academic standards with its athletes. The statements he made as Stanford's coach were not off-the-cuff stuff (like his recent comments about Colin Kapernick's national anthem protest), but were calculated statements meant to differentiate between Stanford and Michigan. He was looking to advance Stanford's cause at Michigan's expense. Plain and simple.
And like Harbaugh's comments about Kapernick, I don't begrudge his right to make the statements. But it was bush league and Hart (and Brian) were right to call him out on it.
What I'm now fairly certain of is that Harbaugh regrets making those comments at the expense of his alma mater. That's enough for me, given all the positives that Harbaugh has brought the progam over the past 20 months or so. Welcome home, prodigal son.
September 10th, 2016 at 8:44 AM ^
I don't believe for a second that every coach that tries to advance the cause of their team at the expense of other teams is "bush league." That is their job.
Harbaugh didn't use the example of Michigan shunting players towards General Studies because he wanted to attack Michigan, he usd that example because it was the only one he could credibly claim was based on personal experience.
I had no problem with Harbaugh speaking truth to power back then and I'd be disappointed if he regretted making those statements. I think his argument would be more nuanced today (because lots of Stanford players took degree paths that were less rigorous than that of the typical students, because duh!), but I think that the best outcome is that he uses those truths to motivate himself to change the system he decried, now that he has the power.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:35 AM ^
type of players. The pool of really good prospects that can get into Stanford is limited. They're very often going to be up against us for them.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:41 AM ^
When something benefits you, you tend to downplay its flaws.
September 7th, 2016 at 1:24 PM ^
I once gave a similar answer when an old college buddy and I were splitting pitchers one night, and he mentioned a girl I dated during my junior year. She was average-looking at best, a bit overweight, kinda loud, and a weepy drunk. All in all, she was nothing to write home about. Why in the world was I dating her?
I looked him square in the eye and said, "She liked to have sex, and she had her own apartment. When you're 21, that makes up for a lot of faults."
He paused, nodded in agreement, and ordered another pitcher.
Now I grant you, my liking of Harbaugh isn't for the same reason, but you get the drift.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:41 AM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 10:42 AM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^
Yeah I don't think our opinions have really changed much. What Brian wrote is just the grumpy version of what we would say now (using much rosier word choice).
Coach Harbaugh is a fantastic football coach, and he seems like a legitimately good person. The rest of the stuff doesn't really matter to me.
September 7th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^
Double Dragon
September 7th, 2016 at 9:45 PM ^
Y'all got anymore of them football games?
September 7th, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
MGoBlog user stephenjrking wrote on this a few years ago & was bumped to the first page then which was well received. Check it out:
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/jim-harbaugh-bo-and-michigan-family
September 7th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
We all say dumb things sometimes. Sometimes we all say dumb things.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:48 AM ^
Twitter had only been around for a year at that point. Harbaugh just needed the appropriate medium to convey himself.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:49 AM ^
I wondered how long it would be until someone dredged this up.
He is who he is.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
September 7th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
Maybe Harbaugh WAS making poop and fart noises, at his version of them.
September 7th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^
Was Harbaugh correct? Did Lloyd's Michigan funnel kids towards easy majors so they could play football? Did they not expect excellence academically?
September 7th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
water is wet man. There are likely very smart football players on any given team, but surprise(!), there are players on the team that would not be in without football and that don't major in Chemical Engineering with a 3.91 GPA. I don't think they are "funneled" into anything in particular and if a major recruit wants to major in something difficult and demanding I don't think you are going to find anybody to tell them they can't. But yeah, I think there are some "revised" expectations for high level football players and I don't think this is really news to anybody nor was it then.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:30 AM ^
At least when I was in school, they were funnelled into the Department of Kinesiology (I believe this is the "movement science" mentioned in a lower post). That is where they put all the athletes that couldn't hack it in LS&A.
I don't know if that is still the case, but it ABSOLUTELY happened back when I was in school (early 90's) Somehow Kinesiology has lower admission standards than the rest of the university, so they hid academic underperformers there.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^
As recently as Brady Hoke they were funnelling kids into easy majors. Remember the DaShawn Hand recruitment. The kid just wanted to major in civil engineering but Michigan wanted him to major in sports management. Low and behold he ends up at Alabama because at least they didn't say no to civil engineering.
September 7th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
am sure there were no other reasons he ended up at Alabama. None I tell ya!
September 7th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
I don't think they were funnelling them into an easy major--I think there was probably no way the school of engineering was going to let him in either because of his math/science pre-reqs/test scores.
September 7th, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/dashawn-hand-a-vaunte…
According to this WaPo article his dad pulled him out of football weights and conditioning when his grades slipped. Also he had a 3.71 GPA at the time of the writing. So it appears that he had a strong focus on academics growing up.
So maybe his grades/test scores weren't good enough but focusing on sports management during his visit probably didn't help either.
September 7th, 2016 at 3:31 PM ^
What should they have done? Lied to him and told him that he probably would have been admitted to the engineering school? Even if he had a strong focus/high GPA that doesn't mean he was taking calculus in high school/scoring in the high 30s (or SAT equivalent) in the math portion of the SAT/ACT.
September 7th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^
You don't know that he wasn't taking calculus or scored highly on college admissions tests. That is all conjecture on your part and possibly prejudicial. Just because he is a top football recruit means he can't take high level classes and score well on tests?
What we do know is that the kid really wanted to major in civil engineering and UM told him he should major in sports management. I'd love to see if he really is majoring in civil engineering at alabama. It isn't listed on his bio from their website.
September 7th, 2016 at 3:32 PM ^
Double post
September 7th, 2016 at 1:03 PM ^
As a non-athlete, I totally dispute the notion that Kinesiology had "lower admission standards", at least for the regular student. I transferred in because the SM&C program had all of the applied communications classes after they scrapped the Journalism program in 1994-95. You needed a minimum 3.2 to transfer in, similar to Engineering. If someone doesn't have Movement Science, Athletic Training or Sports Management & Communications listed as their major, they are not in the School of Kinesiology.
And you're inaccurate about where academic underperformers go. Those guys ended up in the General Studies program.
September 7th, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^
Then again, Noah Furbush is currently majoring in aerospace engineering. And training to be a private pilot at the same time. You would have to be an exceptional student to do well in engineering while being a full-time footballer, but you have to be an exceptional student to do well in engineering (or to even get into engineering at Michigan) in the first place. Not everyone is... not even all the ones that think they are.
Honestly my biggest beef with Harbaugh's comments at the time (other than the pile-on factor, given the timing) was that it felt like sour grapes. Well Jim, maybe Bo was right... maybe you wouldn't have been able to hack it in a harder major AND be the star QB you were. (Then again I don't see why History would have to be be an unusually hard major. Lot more reading I guess?)
The reality is that a lot (but certainly not all) of the football scholarship players would not get a sniff at admission in the general populace. And some of those that would, would be marginal and would need to be full-time invested in their studies to succeed (and this second part at least is just as true at Stanford). Steering those type of students onto an easier track might be a harsh truth, but it's the best for them and the best for the team - being academically inelegible because you bombed your finals hurts both.
September 7th, 2016 at 6:27 PM ^