Jim Harbaugh says Michigan is innocent amid off-field distractions

Outside of a public statement, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh made the staunchest comments on the off-field issues that have plagued the Wolverines program this season to date and he did so on the largest stage.

After the Wolverines' 34-13 National Championship win over Washington on Monday, Harbaugh was asked about the satisfaction of winning despite off-field issues that could cause a potential distraction, he defended his program profusely.

"The off-the-field issues, we're innocent and we stood strong and tall because we knew we were innocent," Harbaugh said. "And I'd like to point that out. And these guys are innocent. And overcome that, it wasn't that hard because we knew we were innocent. So yeah, that's really what I wanted to say. It went exactly how we wanted it to go. It went exactly how we wanted it to go."

All season long the program has said that it has relied on teamwork to get through the hard days.

With sudden change threatening to derail what the team had been doing, it was the power of the team that kept thing afloat.

Harbaugh praised his team for filtering out the noise.

"I also want to point out, nothing fancy here, there was nothing surprising," Harbaugh said. "It was just good old-fashioned teamwork, good old-fashioned hard work by these players and these coaches and none of us are up here taking a deep, long bow because we know this was just good old-fashioned teamwork."

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