Jim Harbaugh is less than a week away from beginning his seventh season as Michigan Wolverines football's head coach. While he's won 69 percent of his games and posted 10-win seasons three times with some well-connected teams, his 2021 squad might have the best chemistry of them all.
At Big Ten Media Days in late July, junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and redshirt junior linebacker Josh Ross alluded to an improved culture, after there were clearly issues last season. Hutchinson pointed out that Harbaugh has adapted some of his methods each year he's been there, leading one to believe he made some more tweaks this offseason, culminating in a group that appears to be tight knit.
The makeup of this team might be exactly what Harbaugh has been trying to build.
"He's the head of the sword; he's the boss man," fourth-year junior wide receiver Ronnie Bell, the team's leading receiver each of the last two seasons, said of Harbaugh. "I feel like he's always strived for and tried to get this energy. Since I've been here, I feel like this has been the overall goal from the standpoint of how he wanted things to flow, team chemistry, team morale and how we love and care for one another."
RELATED: Saturday Football Thoughts: Nebraska Parallels, Charbonnet, Peters & More
RELATED: INSIDE THE FORT: Grading Michigan's Position Groups, More
It's certainly the best chemistry Bell has seen on a squad.
"The team morale is the highest and best that I've ever seen on any team that I think I've ever been on, counting every basketball team, every baseball team, you name it," said Bell.
"This team, and how much we love and care for one another, it just passes along so well throughout this team."
In years past, there have been great position units that had great cultures on their own, but there was disconnect, at times, from one room to another or one unit to another. Heading into the season opener, that's not the case with this Michigan team. Guys are making the extra effort to go above and beyond.
Take the quarterbacks and centers, for example. The two spots are all but literally attached at the hip. One cannot do its job without the other. It takes extra time before and after practice to get the snaps, which require detail, just right. Through that process, the Michigan players at those two positions have grown closer. That serves as merely one example of the Wolverines coming together as one.
"Every day before practice, we do quarterback/center exchange, snapping with the quarterbacks, and we all have a blast, not just me and [redshirt freshman quarterback] Cade [McNamara], all the centers and all the quarterbacks," sixth-year senior center Andrew Vastardis said.
"That’s a great bond that we have, starting there and going outside, staying together, working on the playbook, working together, building a bond. And the great thing about this team is that I think that’s happening across all positions.
"Historically, maybe guys wouldn’t have gone across those boundaries, and to see that and to see that love spreading through the team, it’s a tremendous honor to be a part of."
It's much easier, of course, to have a connected team before games are played and the results may not go its way. Keeping the culture intact when things go awry — whether that's during the course of a game or throughout the season — is the harder, but much more important, part.
Still, it's a nice start — and something to build on — for Harbaugh and Co.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW,
@JB_ Wolverine, @Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
