What They're Saying Heading Into Year 7 Of The Jim Harbaugh Era At Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football will kick off the 2021 season Saturday afternoon against Western Michigan (noon ET on ESPN). The campaign marks head coach Jim Harbaugh's seventh year at the helm, and the Maize and Blue have plenty to prove after last year's 2-4 record.
Here is a look around the internet about what they're saying heading into the opener.
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Change arrived like a freight train in the offseason. Now it’s a matter of sorting it all out, seeing if not only train wrecks can be avoided, but whether the Wolverines are on the right track for the future.
Saturday won’t be the final word on that one. But it gives the first glimpse, and that’s why the binoculars will be trained on every play, while the new-look Wolverines begin to find their way.
“There’s a lot riding on this year, to show improvement and to take away some of the question marks on the direction of the program under Jim Harbaugh and this staff,” Karsch said. “I don’t know which way it’s going to go.
“It feels like Coach Harbaugh needs to win big this year. I’m not sure they have a roster to do it, but as much as they’ve had maybe some bad luck with the injuries and the opt outs, if they get a little bit of good luck, it could go his way, where he could get it back on track.”
Michigan at Western Michigan, at high noon. It doesn’t exactly sound like the Earps versus the Clantons, but 110,000 will be looking for a team that’s more than OK.
Fans and observers have parsed Michigan’s offseason moves carefully, eager for signs that the “old” Jim Harbaugh has returned. The idea of turning back the clock holds powerful sway for those who remember the swashbuckling, take-no-guff coach of 2015 who was going to build a winner at Michigan and didn’t care who he angered in the process. Whether Harbaugh is pushing the blocking sled in practice or bear-crawling up a hill with his players during conditioning sessions, people close to the program see glimmers of the old spark returning.
“I think the old attitude we saw seven years ago when he first came back, you’re starting to see that personality come back again,” Deon Johnson said. “He was more confident, a little bit chippy, a more fired-up type of mentality.”
As Michigan’s offseason unfolded, it became apparent that Harbaugh’s story will follow one of two paths. If these moves work, 2021 will go down as the year when Harbaugh got back to his roots, listened to the right voices, surrounded himself with the right people and put Michigan back on the road to success.
It’ll be known as the year Captain Comeback returned one more time to make sure everyone remembers what earned him that moniker in the first place. It’s all Michigan has ever wanted. It’s all Harbaugh has ever wanted. For all of this to work — together.
And if it doesn’t? That’s not a scenario he wants to consider.
“We’re trying to get to the top,” Harbaugh said. “We’re either going to get there or die trying.”
The theory is, Harbaugh has two years to straighten this out, but a record of 7-5 or worse could crush that theory, especially if the Buckeyes slap another 50-plus on them.
Harbaugh is determined to show he has the energy and drive to pull it off. In a video after a recent practice, he was seen pushing a weight sled, legs churning as players cheered. It was a flashback to the manic, hands-on coach, the one Michigan hired. He covered the 10 yards in about 10 seconds, suggesting he’s of sound body, implying he’s of sound mind.
“That's just inspiring for our team to see Coach do that, and we're not taking weight off the sled, either,” McNamara said. “You know that’ll get the boys fired up for sure. That's always something that's been obvious to me, the amount he cares about this team and the amount he cares about winning.”
Harbaugh’s competitiveness rarely was questioned, until the Wolverines’ meek performances the past couple of years. It became an issue as he seemed too comfortable, too willing to recoil from the fray. He doesn’t need to snipe at other programs, rail at officials or radically change college football. He needs to develop a quarterback and let his young assistants connect with players.
No, Harbaugh wasn’t ultimately judged on last season’s chaos. He will be now.
We’ve heard about change before. But this is still a coach who rebuilt Stanford and took San Francisco to a Super Bowl and invigorated U-M the moment he stepped back on campus.
Yes, it feels like a long time ago. But it’s not as long ago as you think.
He hasn’t forgotten how to coach. Rather, he forgot how to be himself.
Surrounding himself with young coaches and getting back into shape — he said he’s down to his “playing weight” — and participating in drills, he looks a lot more like the man who took over his alma mater in December 2014.
Are the Wolverines getting the guy who once said: “I take a vitamin every day. It’s called a steak.”
Or are they getting the guy who appeared subdued a year ago?
Maybe you don’t care. Or lost interest during the pandemic. Or stopped believing before that. If you did, it's hard to blame you.
Harbaugh rode into town on an impossibly high wave, buoyed by the kind of hope and optimism and faith normally reserved for Sunday revival meetings. That faith was rewarded the first couple of seasons. Not so much the last few.
After a wheelbarrow of change, Harbaugh takes the sideline this Saturday with as much to prove as ever. His team is young in spots and led by new voices and faces, but there's a few familiar faces, too. If it works, and the team surprises and eventually rises, we’ll look back and celebrate the journey.
If not?
The next changes will be made without him.
• Andrew Kahn, MLive: How Michigan football can exceed expectations in 2021
Catch a break
Breaks come in many forms. One is by avoiding the literal ones, as in staying healthy. Michigan has had more than its share of quarterback injuries over the past several years, including last season with McNamara and Joe Milton.
There’s also the possibility that Michigan’s schedule isn’t as tough as it looks. Washington, which visits on Sep. 11, is a but of an unknown after playing all of four games last season under first-year head coach Jimmy Lake. Wisconsin and Penn State, both road trips for the Wolverines this fall, were wildly inconsistent last season. Indiana will have to prove last year’s record-setting season wasn’t a fluke.
There are several games on Michigan’s schedule that look like toss-ups: Washington, at Nebraska, Indiana, at Maryland. Maybe the Wolverines go 3-1 or 4-0, making nine or 10 wins a real possibility.
Again, until last year, this was the norm for Harbaugh. It will take some surprises to get there this season.
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