Jim Harbaugh strode into the interview area at Schembechler Hall on Monday with a purpose. Those on the receiving end, frankly, braced for the worst.
Harbaugh isn’t crazy about this setting, at high noon each Monday during the football season. Given the option of being staked down in the sun, covered in honey and set upon by fire ants, he might take it.
He enjoys friendlier outlets, like his podcast and his radio show. He endures these moments, like a week earlier, when he stared and stiff-armed his way through roughly 11 minutes of pre-Wisconsin chatter.
So inquiring minds could only imagine his approach, after his team got its collective backside handed to it at Wisconsin. This promised to be short, and anything but sweet.
They were surprised. This was Good Jim — engaging, helpful and ready to pull back the curtain a bit.
He acknowledged what he described as obvious “to the entire football world.”
“From A to Z, it wasn’t good,” Harbaugh said of the 35-14 chastening in Cheeseville. “It wasn’t good enough. Not acceptable. It starts really with, it’s not acceptable to me. You start self-critical and determined to get it fixed. That speaks for me and everybody on our team, players and coaches. Not a day we’re proud of.
