Jim Harbaugh explained his aversion to releasing depth charts and underscored the need to ask what he considers relevant questions in his weekly radio spot on 97.1 The Ticket Thursday morning.
Co-hosts Jamie Samuelsen and Mike Stone began the interview with a “booger” reference, and saw it drawing to a close with Harbaugh calling the questioning “rehash.” Along the way, he did deliver a couple of nuggets.
• Depth Charts: Harbaugh insisted the perceived need for released depth charts misses the obvious solution. Colorado, in response to Michigan issuing none, put one out this week featuring Elmer Fudd, Manute Bol and a host of other tongue-in-cheek characters.
“That was interesting as well,” Harbaugh said. “In our preparation for Colorado, we’ve had a hard time working humor into the preparations. They’re a very good football team.”
He went on to note: “When it comes to the depth chart, modern technology seems to have made the depth chart to be an outdated task by about 20 years. We found that studying last week’s film of the opponent is the most accurate way of determining another team’s depth chart.
“There is so much written about the team, that’s on the Internet. For those of us who can study it, all the games are on television now as well. I just feel like modern technology has presented that the most accurate way of studying and knowing what the opponent’s depth chart is and who is playing in the game is to look at the previous week’s game film, and not rely on another PR director’s assessment of what the depth chart is. Just go right to the tape.”
• Jordan Lewis: Not much new here, on the senior cornerback. He’s “still working, making progress,” according to Harbaugh.
“You’ll probably ask me if he’s playing in the [Colorado] game. We still haven’t determined that.”
• Running Game: Harbaugh noted it’s just one more phase of Michigan’s game under scrutiny and gearing up for improvement.
“Every phase of our game – offensively, defensively, special teams – a great amount of effort is put into studying it and finding out where we can improve,” he said. “That’s a task for every part of our game.”
• Redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight’s improvement: “He’s worked very hard at it. Just the time on task – reps and reps and reps,” Harbaugh said. “There’s been a lot of improvement in terms of his accuracy, eye discipline, his decision making, his timing. It’s been improving. He’s an ascending player.”
• Answering hot topic social issues: “You don’t know all the facts,” he said. “You’re not there. Is it my right to tell somebody else what to do? I don’t think so. To be able to speak on every issue when you don’t know the full details, all the facts – I don’t feel like getting in that position.”
But after fielding questions on his favorite cereal – including a follow-up to his answer of “Captain Crunch” – and Freddie P. Soft, a fictional four-inch high character that urges players to take it easy, Harbaugh clearly grew weary of the exchange.
“That’s another one that’s been well described,” he said. “That ground has been pretty well plowed, too. This whole interview has been rehashed and re-plowed thoroughly.”
As Harbaugh himself would say: “Onward.”
