Lollapalooza started Friday afternoon here, but the city got warmed up for it in the morning with Harbaughpalooza.
San Francisco 49ers strongly indicates that he won't miss at Michigan. The only variable is time.
The program is only four games over .500 over the past seven years – an inconceivable malaise given Michigan's long-term success. Mismanagement has been rampant during that time.
Rich Rodriguez was a bad fit who was undercut from the start by stiff-necked Michigan Men who didn't cotton to having an outsider working a radical program makeover. The corrective action was to hire Brady Hoke, who embraced the tradition of the place but was hopelessly in over his head as an actual coach.
Harbaugh is the total package, the perfect fit. He's a great coach who happens to love everything that makes Michigan special, starting with program patriarch Schembechler. Bo was his dad's boss and his own coach, and there has always been a little Schembechler to Harbaugh's coaching style.
"If we could do it the way Bo did it, that would be something to aspire to," Harbaugh said. "Not a day goes by really where I don't think about Coach Schembechler. From the time I leave my house to go to the office – I live about five houses away from where Bo lived. And no matter which way I take to work, whether it's Devonshire or Geddes or Stadium, I'll often think 'Well, Bo probably took this right on to Washtenaw or took this left onto Hill. I know he took this left onto State Street.' "
And when he parks at the stadium, Harbaugh walks past the Schembechler statue and past the picture in his office with Bo from the 1987 Rose Bowl.
"To have his work ethic, to run the program like he ran it, yeah, those are things to aspire to," Harbaugh said.
One of the great things Schembechler did was to look Woody Hayes and Ohio State in the eye, taking that storied rivalry to its height during the 1970s. Harbaugh steps into a similar dynamic, charged with returning the Wolverines to the level currently occupied by the defending national champion Buckeyes.
The restoration of that rivalry is so anticipated in the Midwest that Harbaugh's first question Friday was, in effect, whether he would refuse to refer to Ohio State as Ohio State. Hoke called the school "Ohio," and Urban Meyer refers to Michigan as "The School Up North."
You can expect plenty of piss and vinegar from Harbaugh, but he's not much into semantic games.
"Just Ohio State," he said.
If that disappoints some Michigan fans, understand: Harbaugh isn't much worried about meaningless details. He wore a light blue button-down shirt Friday and didn't button down the collar – because, really, who cares whether the collar is buttoned down? Is that going to help Michigan tackle Ezekiel Elliott?
That's the Dockers Khaki Mentality. Pants don't make the man. Neither do shirt collars.
But Michigan did make the man who is Jim Harbaugh. Now it's his job, on his nostalgic return home, to remake the program.
San Francisco 49ers strongly indicates that he won't miss at Michigan. The only variable is time.
The program is only four games over .500 over the past seven years – an inconceivable malaise given Michigan's long-term success. Mismanagement has been rampant during that time.
Rich Rodriguez was a bad fit who was undercut from the start by stiff-necked Michigan Men who didn't cotton to having an outsider working a radical program makeover. The corrective action was to hire Brady Hoke, who embraced the tradition of the place but was hopelessly in over his head as an actual coach.
Harbaugh is the total package, the perfect fit. He's a great coach who happens to love everything that makes Michigan special, starting with program patriarch Schembechler. Bo was his dad's boss and his own coach, and there has always been a little Schembechler to Harbaugh's coaching style.
"If we could do it the way Bo did it, that would be something to aspire to," Harbaugh said. "Not a day goes by really where I don't think about Coach Schembechler. From the time I leave my house to go to the office – I live about five houses away from where Bo lived. And no matter which way I take to work, whether it's Devonshire or Geddes or Stadium, I'll often think 'Well, Bo probably took this right on to Washtenaw or took this left onto Hill. I know he took this left onto State Street.' "
And when he parks at the stadium, Harbaugh walks past the Schembechler statue and past the picture in his office with Bo from the 1987 Rose Bowl.
"To have his work ethic, to run the program like he ran it, yeah, those are things to aspire to," Harbaugh said.
One of the great things Schembechler did was to look Woody Hayes and Ohio State in the eye, taking that storied rivalry to its height during the 1970s. Harbaugh steps into a similar dynamic, charged with returning the Wolverines to the level currently occupied by the defending national champion Buckeyes.
The restoration of that rivalry is so anticipated in the Midwest that Harbaugh's first question Friday was, in effect, whether he would refuse to refer to Ohio State as Ohio State. Hoke called the school "Ohio," and Urban Meyer refers to Michigan as "The School Up North."
You can expect plenty of piss and vinegar from Harbaugh, but he's not much into semantic games.
"Just Ohio State," he said.
If that disappoints some Michigan fans, understand: Harbaugh isn't much worried about meaningless details. He wore a light blue button-down shirt Friday and didn't button down the collar – because, really, who cares whether the collar is buttoned down? Is that going to help Michigan tackle Ezekiel Elliott?
That's the Dockers Khaki Mentality. Pants don't make the man. Neither do shirt collars.
But Michigan did make the man who is Jim Harbaugh. Now it's his job, on his nostalgic return home, to remake the program.
