Michigan Football: Harbaugh Discusses End Of Spring Ball, Normandy Trip
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Jim Harbaugh was joined by his son, James, on this week's edition of the "Attack Each day" podcast. On the segment, James discussed why he chose Michigan to pursue a career in the theatrical and performing arts.
Meanwhile, the elder Harbaughs (Jack and Jim) briefly discussed the conclusion of spring ball, as well as the upcoming trip to Paris and Normandy.
James Harbaugh, on why he chose Michigan for theater:
“Why not come to Michigan? This is the place I wanted to go to, especially for theater — there’s nowhere else like it. This is the Harvard of theater — it’s basically the mecca for anyone in this field."
Jack Harbaugh:
“I’ve always enjoyed spring practice. I love seeing the offense play well one day, and then the defense play well the next. It’s competitive in the office too — the offensive coaches constantly remind the defensive guys if their offense played well that day, and vice versa. When you had even competition like that, you usually had good teams in the fall.”
Jim Harbaugh, on what he's seen from his team this spring:
“There’s been back and forth on both sides of the ball this spring. Our defense remains really good, and is ahead of the offense at this point. If I had to pick a winner for the spring, it'd be the defense. Position battles are really coming into focus.”
Jim Harbaugh, on satellite camps:
“The new rule is that you can only have a total of 10 camp days. We’re going to have four or five days of them in Ann Arbor with big camps on June 9 and June 18, and our coaches will also go out to the Midwest, the East Coast, the South and a few on the West Coast. There’s obviously been a change in the rules — satellite camps now have to be held on a college campus and not at a high school.”
James Harbaugh, on his father's fashion choices:
“The thing about my dad is that he gets on these trends 10 years after they’re done. He started wearing crocs at one point, and I told him no one wears those anymore. He said he wants to be the guy who wears things that are out of style and brings them back into style.
"But now he just wears the same look every day. I saw a picture of him from way back in his playing days, and he was even wearing zubaz.”
James Harbaugh:
“Everyone is just so busy in this family all the time. If I didn’t have Twitter, I don’t think I’d even know where my dad is half the time — one minute he’s in Alabama, and the next he's in Florida — it’s hard to get a hold of some of our relatives sometimes.”
Jim Harbaugh, on having John Beilein speak with his team:
“I have to go introduce John Beilein to our team today, and he'll be speaking with them about the upcoming trip to Normandy, which inspired the movies 'Band of Brothers' and 'Saving Private Ryan.'
"According to John's mother an family, his mother’s brothers were both killed in Normandy, and they based 'Saving Private Ryan' around those brothers. That's mainly what Coach Beilein is going to speak to our team about today."
Jack Harbaugh:
“I want to talk about a guy named Freddy Soft. He’s a four-inch man who sits on your shoulder and talks about all the reasons you shouldn't work hard. You need to be aware of this guy.
"He wears a scarlet and gray cape and has an 'O' on the back of it, and has a breastplate with a Spartan helmet, and has arched eyebrows, a hooked nose and jagged teeth.
"Freddy often says at football practice, 'Golly, the sun sure is hot today — there are swimming pools in town and other places you could be. Maybe you don’t have to play football. You can slow down a little bit — it’s not bad to be last.’ Then his family comes to his defense and they tie you down.
"You need to tell Freddy you’re not listening, and that you want to be the best teammate you can be. If you see a teammate who may be relaxing a bit, you need to go up to them and swat Freddy away."
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