OT: Congrats to Jim Harbaugh
In certain aspects, I'm still a little angry at Jim Harbaugh, but I'm happy that a "Michigan Man" has done so well in his first year as a coach in the NFL. It's incredibly rare to do what he has done, and he has done it the Michigan way, running the ball effectively, and playing stiffling defense. So again, congrats Coach Harbaugh, a lot of Michigan men are pulling for you.
Edit: For those that didn't see or hear about it, the 49ers beat the Saints in a fantastic game, 36-32.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
But when he called out the institution, I was done with him. So glad he's not our coach!
January 14th, 2012 at 8:50 PM ^
I agree with Mike Hart. This is NOT a Michigan man. Jim Harbaugh lacks any class, and I am thrilled that we have Brady Hoke and not him. I do not offer him congratulations. I do not wish him well. I hope he fails in every aspect of his life. Those who are entirely devoid of loyalty or appreciation for the institution that gives them so much deserve only the worst.
Ok, that being said, let's see how fast I can get flamed to -5 . . . .
January 14th, 2012 at 9:35 PM ^
You are a fucking idiot..... Harbaugh if anything, is far more a "MIchigan" man than Hart. What Hart said about him, AND about MSU, was worse. Does Harbaugh speak truth? Yep. Does the truth sometimes sting? Yep.
January 14th, 2012 at 9:41 PM ^
Sorry, but you are misguided....whether you like to admit it or not, most schools, including Michigan, DO steer players to majors that are less rigorous so they can concentrate on as much time as possible to football. Yes it hurts to admit it, but I was a trainer for the football team for 3 years when Harbaugh was there and challenging majors were the exception, not the rule. Players who come to mind were Stefan Humphries and Ken Higgins (a fraternity brother), who were excellent students and quite frankly destined to success outside of pro football. While Stefan ended up being a very good lineman for the Broncos, he is better known as a doctor now and Higgy is a venture capitalist after getting his law degree from Harvard (he still notes to this day that law school at Harvard was easier than undergrad B School at Michigan, when coupled with the demands of football). So get off your high horse.
I played sports against Harbaugh growing up in Ann Arbor and there was no question that he was a stud and a leader and was destined to go to Michigan and be successful there. It all came to fruition and he has quite the resume to attest to his excellence and stature as a Michigan man.
So spare me your bs about how Jim Harbaugh is not a Michigan man because he criticized his alma mater. He loves Michigan as much as any other Michigan man and deserves the respect and honor affored them with his proven dedication to Michigan. You can piss and moan becuase he doesn't kiss your ass and tell you what you want hear 24/7, but them's the facts and sometimes the facts hurt.
And BTW, hoping he is a failure in his career endeavors is quite the noble position. Grow up and save the whine for your next cheese party...
Go Blue! Those Who Stay Will Be Champions....
January 14th, 2012 at 10:44 PM ^
January 15th, 2012 at 12:48 AM ^
Bull. He was entering his first season at Stanford and as all coaches do in that time when they take over a struggling program, they sell a message publicly about why that place is special. Harbaugh chose to highlight the unique academic demands put on their players and used his own experience at Michigan to identify a norm that Stanford goes against. It's not like he was sitting around for years saying "Boy I can't wait 'til Bo dies I've got so much dirty to sling!"
Want to know the ironic part about all this? The story was a fairly small deal after his comment in the spring on that year. It caused a local ripple, was almost ignored nationally, and was largely forgotten until Mike Hart went on his (presumably) Carr-endorsed rant in Chicago a couple months later at the Big Ten media luncheon. He blew the story back up.
January 15th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
Bull. He threw Michigan under the bus to boost his credibility with his new employer and its alumni and donors, and he did it in a public forum. Sorry, that's not what I would expect from a "Michigan man". He also wouldn't have done it if Bo were still alive, because he knew damn well that Bo would have been on the next plane to Palo Alto to kick his ass. Jamie Morris told Harbaugh to "lose my phone number."
And you're right, the story was almost ignored nationally ... almost. It was not ignored in Ann Arbor or the Detroit newspapers. Hart may have revived the story, but that wasn't the first time that anyone at Michigan had heard of it.
January 15th, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^
Did you miss the "hpocritical" part of my post? He was doing the same thing at Stanford. If he really wanted to highlight something special about the program, he probably should have picked something that was unique to Stanford. If he was so upset about what happened to him at Michigan, he probably should have tried to do something different for his players. As I said - calling out Michigan (as he used us by name) for something he was doing at Stanford is hypocritical and a dick move.
January 15th, 2012 at 2:40 PM ^
It's all Carr's fault!!!
January 14th, 2012 at 11:11 PM ^
So what if its true? He had absolutely no reason to randomly come out and talk about this 20 years after his time at Michigan. Just because its true doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with saying it and that he "loves michigan as much as any michigan man" or has "proven dedication" to the university.
January 15th, 2012 at 12:38 PM ^
He had a reason. He was now the coach at Stanford. The "We'll let you major in what you want" bit was part of his recruiting sales pitch. The recruiting trail is a nasty place. Remember Miles' reported comments about Carr having Parkinson's?
January 15th, 2012 at 6:50 AM ^
...the personal knowledge of both Harbaugh & the inner workings of the program give you a lot of credibility here... certainly far more than the multitudes of F-bomb hurling "haters" posting.
Harbaugh was a great Wolverine as a player - Fiesta Bowl win & #2 ranking in '85, guaranteeing & delivering victory in Columbus in '86 - and clearly is nothin short of great as a coach.
As you point out, many (most, even all?) top collegiate athletic programs "encourage" players to pursue majors that will allow time to fully participate in their sport. Harbaugh's big mistake was to air this fact publicly, and try to imply he'd do, or they had done, it differently at Stanford.
With all his successes & skills, even his biggest supporters will have to concede he's got a big mouth and talks before he thinks sometimes. All that said, it's my prediction he'll succeed Brady Hoke as our coach sometime in the future... and bring Super Bowl winning experience with him.
I also predict that when this happens all these "ass-hats" ripping him now will be WAY on board.
We'll see... Go Blue, Go Jim, Go Tom... that'd be a whole lotta Michigan QBs in the bowl, huh!?
January 15th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
Harbaugh is a helluva coach, no doubt, but he has a closet full of skeletons that Michigan wants no part of. And if Hoke is here for 10 years or longer, Jim will be in his late 50s, early 60s by then. Presumably, he'll continue to be successful at the 49ers and will be making the kind of money Michigan could or would never pay him.
January 14th, 2012 at 11:39 PM ^
The guy is a 99th percentile football coach. Period. Anyone who says "I'm sooooo glad that guy is not our coach" is a flaming idiot.
And I'll take a big mouth who tormented Ohio State over a big mouth who could only get under the skin of MSU any day of the week. Mike Hart can't hold Jim Harbaugh's jock on the chain of Michigan greats.
January 14th, 2012 at 11:47 PM ^
If you'd take anyone in the world over Brady Hoke, you are the flaming idiot.
January 14th, 2012 at 11:54 PM ^
When wanting to be taken seriously in a discussion about sports, mimicking the attitudes of the Chicago Superfans from the old SNL probably isn't the best route.
January 14th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^
I can't bring myself to believe that calling out your institution on its faults is always a bad thing, a lot of times calling someone out on their faults can help them change their ways. However, the way he did it was not to my liking, but for me to say that I didn't want him as a coach during the search would be a lie. He would have done well as a Michigan coach. That having been said, I enjoy everything that Hoke has done so far and at this point I wouldn't have it any other way.
January 14th, 2012 at 10:14 PM ^
So you're not really on board with the whole gadfly thing eh?
January 14th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
The Michigan coaching tree is alive and well thank you.
Brady Hoke and Les Miles in college
Jim Harbaugh in the pros
All three learned from Bo.
January 14th, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that Brady Hoke ever coached or played under Bo. He would be considered a part of Lloyd or Moeller's coaching tree.
January 14th, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^
That's why I used "learned". Harbaugh didn't coach under Bo either. Brady tells interesting stories of his interactions with Bo and was definitely greatly influenced by Bo
January 15th, 2012 at 1:10 PM ^
...are part of Bo's tree. Just like Knight's are part of Iba's--the tree, and the influence, doesn't stop at one generation.
January 15th, 2012 at 2:10 AM ^
In his post game interview, Vernon Davis said, "It's not about me, its THE TEAM, THE TEAM, THE TEAM." Now where have I heard that before? The Bo tree is alive and well.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^
The ending of that game resembled the Under The Lights game.
3 touchdowns in the last 3 minutes. Instead of letting up and letting Akers kick the tying field goal with 10 seconds left, he calls a pass to the end zone. The good guys win.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:38 PM ^
My thoughts exactly. UTL has changed the way I view the last few minutes of games (and the corresponding clock management). I knew the Saints had left too much time on the clock (as the Niners had certainly done just before them). I wasn't completely surprised by the ending. I almost expected it.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
good guys my ass
January 14th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
He gets no support from me. He bashes the program after Bo's death so he wouldn't face that wrath and then toyed around last year. Just because he is a grad doesn't mean I will blindly support him.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:31 PM ^
For me, the fact that he waited intil Coach Bo died, is troublesome. But Harbaugh was always one to make bold statements, that Michigan fans loved when he played. To get angry that he still makes them after his playing days, is a bit hypocritical. Again though, my anger is that he waited until after Bo died, still angers me. I think that Bo would'e forgiven him though, because Bo knew that Harbaugh's true heart loves this University.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:49 PM ^
To be fair, it might be a coincidence that it happened after Bo's death, because he didn't get the Stanford job until a couple of months after Bo died. He made those comments as a way of differentiating Stanford from other schools on the recruiting trail. I'm not sure if he really would have kept quiet if Bo had been around.
January 15th, 2012 at 12:38 AM ^
I just can't see him making that statement with Bo still with us. I can appreciate him defending the reality of an academics lead University. I just wish he could have done it wasn't an attempt to harm something he claims to love.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:35 PM ^
In what ways did he toy with us last year? I'm just curious what evidence you have of this.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^
Come out and say "not interested" and move on. He didn't and could have ended the speculation but did not. That is what I mean by "toyed".
January 14th, 2012 at 9:02 PM ^
So you hold it against Dungy, Gruden, Fitzgerald, Pinkell, and whoever the hell else everyone was speculating would be the coach that they didn't come out and specifically say "not interested"? I mean, according to DB, we never even offered Harbaugh. Do you have evidence otherwise?
Actually, in like the 1st press conference after RR was fired DB said he was pretty sure that Harbaugh was going to the NFL. I'd take that as a pretty good hint. Or are you saying you wanted Harbaugh to come out and say he wasn't interested in the Michigan job while RR was still the coach? Either way, you're grasping at reasons to dislike him.
January 14th, 2012 at 9:36 PM ^
"the only way I'd leave Stanford is if the perfect NFL position came up". To compare every coach out there with a former Michigan guy who everyone is saying is THE candidate for a month is dumb, because it's not hardly the same thing. Just make it clear that's where you want to be so it doesn't look like you're turning your back on us, or that we're not reaching out to you. Unless you really are playing some game.
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<br>Having said that, I hold no ill will. He's where he's best suited, happy and succeeding. He's an excellent coach, and would have had great success here. He'd probably make one cringe with what he says and occasionally does at times...he'd have been our cocky Steve Spurrier. But I'm happy we have a coach that has shown he can win too, and we don't have to worry about being embarrassed either. If it was down to these options, it was win-win. Im sure JH would have won here too; he's just might have left after doing it.
January 14th, 2012 at 9:44 PM ^
I see what you're saying with the Michigan connection thing, but if Harbaugh had come out and said he wasn't interested in the Michigan job while RR was still the coach, everyone here would have went crazy about him presuming RR was getting fired. Further, he made it pretty clear he was going NFL pretty soon after RR was fired, and he mentioned Michigan in his press conference accepting the NFL job. I just think people here feel waaaay too entitled to up to the second information, when really they aren't.
EDIT: Also, he couldn't come out and say "I want to go to the NFL" while the speculation was going wild b/c he was still at Stanford. I just don't see what people wanted him to do here. And maybe he didn't know he was going to the NFL and wanted to explore his options between when RR was fired and when he accepted the NFL job. I just don't agree with this qualm at all. It is a very self-centered point of view for our fans to expect him to make a statement specific to Michigan with all that was going on.
For instance, the whole flip out on Carr over Morgan Trent thing. Carr responded in like 3 days and in that time everyone was blasting him on here b/c he didn't tweet a response immediately.
January 14th, 2012 at 10:08 PM ^
I don't think he jerked us around. I'm just saying that if he wanted to end any speculation that he wanted the job he could have. Though he had no obligation to. Unless he was actually leading us along (or getting jerked around by our AD...we'll never know), which was possible. And if it wasn't the case, ending speculation would have helped all parties.
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<br>I think you bring up a good point in that I think we've made the timeline seem a lot longer and more agonizing than it was because we air tracked every second of it online. Tuesday fired RR rumor. Wed. press conference. Thurs. Harbaugh rumors. Fri. Harbaugh to SF word. Sun-Mon. Miles rumors. Then Hoke rumors and quick announcement. Then much gnashing of teeth.
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<br>Between the month of Harbaugh and pre-post-Orange Bowl speculation, it seemed like more. The funny thing is, if he wanted to go pro, there's probably no one Harbaugh is happier to see take over than Hoke, because of how tight Brady is with his family. It's working out for everybody, and probably for the best for everyone (even Miles, crushing blow this week nonwithstanding).
January 15th, 2012 at 7:00 AM ^
...that Brandon's keeping RR dangling until after the new year so the buyout would be lower had a lot to do with Harbaugh going to the NFL rather than U of M.
Another classless, clueless move by our AD, Eugene Krabs.
January 15th, 2012 at 12:35 PM ^
I can't understand how fans can criticize Brandon's handling of the coaching change. He made two decisions (firing Rodriguez and hiring Hoke) that were somewhat controversial at the time but now are almost universally acknowledged to be good moves. I guess I'm missing the "cluelessness."
January 15th, 2012 at 12:53 PM ^
If Brandon would have fired RR in December, this board would have been apopletic over the "classlessness" over firing a coach before giving him a chance to coach in a bowl game, with 15 practices. Fans would have been convinced that with a month to prepare, RR would have delivered a flawless gameplan (which, needless to say, did not prove to be the case). And if we had hired Hoke in December, there would have been legions of fans convinced that we "didn't give Harbaugh a chance," just as there are those to this day who are convinced that Les Miles would have taken the job in Janaury 2008.
So keeping RR around 1) gave him one final chance to show his stuff; 2) gave Harbaugh every chance to take the job if he wanted and 3) saved the department money. What was the downside? One or two recruits picked other schools? Big deal.
January 15th, 2012 at 1:18 PM ^
between "I'm interested in the job" and "I wouldn't be interested in that job under any circumstances." It was clear throughout that he preferred an NFL job but until the NFL position was finalized he would have been an idiot to burn all bridges elsewhere.
January 15th, 2012 at 8:28 AM ^
Way to do the same thing you accuse me of by assuming my second comment was the incident driving my opinion of him. No I don't claim to have inside info on the negotiations last year, it was simply my perception based on how things unfolded last year. Either way it turns out that things turned out best for both parties involved.
What probably colored my perception of last year was how I already felt about him based on his hypocritical comments about the AD at UM when his pristine Stanford was doing....oh yeah, something similar. So enjoy your own opinion but please don't attempt to judge the basis of my opinion of the man. You like him, great I don't care. Don't insult mine based on a 2 line comment on a blog.
January 14th, 2012 at 11:34 PM ^
How do you know what went on between Harbaugh and Michigan in whatever negotiations they had? You don't.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
I'm happy his team won (and having just returned from San Francisco, those fans were definitely excited about this team), but I still think Harbaugh is a bit of an ass and he's done enough obnoxious things these past couple of years that it makes it hard for me to root "for" him. I won't knock him for winning, but if he embodies many of the traits attached to the "Michigan Man" mantra (and my feelings about that particular designation being what they are), I would suggest we revisit that definition.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
I still love Captain Comeback ... and he's doing it again at the coaching level.
January 14th, 2012 at 8:29 PM ^
Felt like i was watching Michigan-ND all over
January 14th, 2012 at 8:30 PM ^
I like the Niners and was cheering for them. He is a great coach. That's all I will say .
January 14th, 2012 at 8:32 PM ^
He said some stupid things. He's an asshat. He's a phenomenal football coach. The NFL is a good place for him. Congrats, man. Amazing job. Actually making the NFL fun to watch.