The Michigan Daily - Harbaugh's Ball Team
Nice piece from The Daily that talks about a few walk-on players and the impact that Coach Harbaugh has had on them.
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/football/sportsmonday-column-harbaughs-ball-team
Also, here's a BR article (I know, no BR) that does a nice job of sucking up to Michigan fans. The gist of the article is that the rest of the Big 10 should be very afraid of Michigan going forward.
January 7th, 2016 at 10:49 AM ^
3.97 in ME! WTF, companies would love to hire this guy not only for his academic smarts, but also for the fact that he has been on the team for so many years and shows a ton of determination.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^
I think the fact that he stuck with the team for so long is much more telling and a much bigger positive than the GPA. I work for a civil engineering firm and some of our biggest "lemon" hires over the years have been the "smartest" people with the highest GPAs.
Maybe this is due to a small sample size and I'm over-rating my personal experience, but at this point I'm very doubtful that GPAs have much of a correlation on how good of an employee someone will be.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:39 AM ^
I'm not saying this argument is wrong, because we've all worked with the high GPA person who is crap to work with. Sometimes they're painfully introverted. Sometimes they're arrogant or aloof. Sometimes they don't actually want to work. Etc. It's a fair observation, and I'd never hire someone solely on GPA.
But one thing I've observed about folks who state that they are "very doubtful that GPAs have much of a correlation on how good of an employee someone will be" - they generally seem to have one thing in common.
A relatively low GPA.
(JonSnow54 may be rockin' a 4.0, BTW. It's just that the more someone discounts the importance of GPA, the more likely their GPA is average or below average.)
January 7th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
Ad oh yeah, size doesn't matter.
January 7th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
That's a fair point and one I would agree with - people with lower GPAs tend to undervalue the importance of a GPA, while people with higher GPAs tend to overvalue the importance of a GPA.
I think the GPA indicates that someone is a hard worker with intelligence, but says nothing about their adaptability, problem solving skills, ability to perform under pressure (deadlines), etc.
As for myself, I don't remember specifically what my college GPA was as that was over 10 years ago (typing that makes me feel depressingly old) and isn't something I've thought about in a long time. I believe it was somewhere in the low 3s, so definitely nothing to brag about.
Side note: it would be strange to me if we interviewed someone in their 30s and they still included their college GPA on their resume. It usually only comes up when applicants are fresh out of college.
January 7th, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^
for hiring, assuming they have decent grades. i remember decades ago when i was in b-school, i got calls to come down for interviews b/c i was a hockey player. my grades were good, not great (i was not a model student, surprise...), but athletics was the difference.
January 7th, 2016 at 2:16 PM ^
My uncle always said that A students always end up working for the B students. I think there is something to that, with B students being smart enough but also devoting some time to socializing, developing EQ and understanding that being well-rounded can be more beneficial than devoting all their time to studying. On the other hand my uncle was probably a B student.
January 7th, 2016 at 12:26 PM ^
I went to Michigan and had a 3.3 which is respectable I guess. I've helped to hire a number of engineers with 3.8s, 3.9s, etc. who ended up being terrible and conversely I've worked with a number of guys with mech tech or elec tech degrees from the local community college who just blow the braniacs out of the water in terms of usefulness in the same job.
There's a million jobs out there so this is small sample size but I've learned that sometimes guys with really high GPAs are that way because they like to be in front of a book and then when they get hired at a plant they like to just be at their desk.
I'd say GPA is an indicator of overall capability, but after going through hiring a few times I look a lot more at work experience and social skills than I did before.
January 7th, 2016 at 2:14 PM ^
application...
January 7th, 2016 at 2:56 PM ^
January 7th, 2016 at 2:15 PM ^
To be sure, others do place importance on GPA., Goldman-Sachs, for example, but I think the article stated a 3.0 was a baseline, hardly into elite territory.
Google doesn't even ask for GPA or test scores from candidates anymore, unless someone's a year or two out of school, because they don't correlate at all with success at the company. Even for new grads, the correlation is slight, the company has found.
January 7th, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^
the A's go on to teach and the B's work for the C's...right?
January 7th, 2016 at 4:07 PM ^
I think it's that, more generally, people tend to judge based more on whatever criteria would result in a positive appraisal of themselves. It's an ego-defensiveness thing, human nature. So wealthy people would be more likely judge other people based on money, artistic people would be more likely to judge other people based on creativity, people with high GPAs would be more likely to judge other people based on grades, people who score high on aptitude tests would be more likely to judge other people based on test scores, good-looking people would be more likely to judge other people based on physical attractiveness, socially-active people would be more likely to judge other people based on social skills or popularity, etc. And, in general, people will tend to get defensive and offer a counter argument when someone else discounts criteria would result in a positive appraisal of themselves.
But I think in an professional setting, the most important quality that determines success is the level of passion for the work. And maybe the lack of a correlation between GPA (or, more generally, academic success) and professional success (if there really isn't a correlation) is that people with higher GPAs/more academic success may just have more of a passion for schoolwork than whatever work they do after finishing school.
January 7th, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
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January 7th, 2016 at 10:50 AM ^
The leaders and best.
Oscar Meyer down in Columbus hires leadership consultants ffs.
JH just lives his dream and infects everyone in range with it.
January 7th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^
The Team, the team, the team.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^
January 7th, 2016 at 11:42 AM ^
Which is a tribute to Bo.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^
Or Jack, let us not discount the effect his father also has had in his football knowledge, education and upbringing.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
Without Walk-ons, we would never have had Gross-Butt...
January 7th, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
This is the second or third article I've read from this guy praising Harbaugh and Michigan Football.
Its funny because I have a few buddies that went to college with him and apparently hes an OSU fan.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
“As a team, we do a good job of knowing that by helping each other out, we help everybody out,” Jocz said Wednesday. “Not just, ‘If I get better, I get my turn.’ It’s all about the team effort and being together as one, and that’s how we’re going to win football games.”
I also found what Jocz said about feeling as if the program got its dignity back rather interesting as well. Perhaps that is a core theme which is part of driving home the idea that it is the team and getting better as one and winning as one basically. I also found what Anlauf said interesting regarding the lack of entitlement - that relates to the comment about dignity in a way, knowing that you can and will be rewarded for performance, that it isn't being a junior or senior or whatnot that puts any particular person on the field per se.
Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
January 7th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
You can be an OSU fan and still appreciate what Harbaugh means to the team and each player.
January 7th, 2016 at 12:15 PM ^
it with pictures. the reading thing is difficult for ohio....
January 7th, 2016 at 12:35 PM ^
I don't think many guys I played with who were walk-ons would say they felt a "deep respect" from any of my coaches unless they were Glasgow or Kovacs types. I did not play for Michigan so this is not an indictment of anyone discussed on this board. But I do think Harbaugh/Bo's approach to players who don't see the field is unique and valuable.
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January 7th, 2016 at 3:52 PM ^
I won't even attempt the math due to all the changes that occured from the beginning through the end of Bo's career at UM. He started with, I believe, 115 scholarship players and saw that number reduced to 85 so the number of walkons had to be significant.
At a book signing for Tradition at the Barnes and Nobles in Muskegon, MI I asked him if he remembered a walk on from the same town and I gave him his name. Without hesitation, Bo responded, "Of course I remember him." His eyes immediately began to scan the store and he asked, "Is he here tonight?" You immediately sensed the excitement in his eyes at the possibility of seeing one of his former walkons. This was a young man that never played a down for him although he did accumulate some impressive hardwear from his bowl trips.
I left the store with little doubt in my mind that Bo would have been able to recall the names of every member of the twenty rosters he put together in his time in AA. No doubt in my mind the man had great respect for the work put in by players ranging from a 3 time AA referred to simply as A.C. to an obscure walkon from a small town on the other side of the state that gave him possibly only ten players during that twenty year span.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:23 PM ^
January 7th, 2016 at 5:11 PM ^
These kids are already running circles around the likes of Graham Couch......although so could any M grad I guess....bad example.