Live chat: Join Nick Baumgardner and Brendan F. Quinn to talk Michigan sports at noon
All Stories |
ANN ARBOR -- When Jim Harbaugh took the job at Michigan on Dec. 30, he immediately went into the NCAA's winter dead period for the next three weeks.
And by the time the dead period was over, Harbaugh didn't have much of a choice.
He had to go after players committed elsewhere.
As of Wednesday, Harbaugh and Michigan had flipped six players in total: Quarterback Zach Gentry from Texas, defensive end Reuben Jones from Nebraska, offensive lineman Nolan Ulizio from Connecticut, receiver Grant Perry from Northwestern, running back Karan Higdon from Iowa and corner Keith Washington from Cal.
In 2015, it was out of necessity. Moving forward, will Harbaugh make recruit flipping a habit?
"There were recommendations, we watched tape and we called people to see if they were interested," Harbaugh said Wednesday. "We're trying to build a recruiting base, and that's kind of the way the pickle squirted this year.
"I don't see that happening (as much) going forward."
Harbaugh wouldn't really say whether or not he has a specific policy on going after committed players late in the game, as he simply hinted that the Wolverines did what they had to late in the class.
Moving forward, will this be something Harbaugh avoids? In reality, he may not need to be in this spot again, as he'll have a full recruiting cycle to go after 2016 prospects -- and every class beyond that.
But at the same time, he he catches wind of a kid being interested in Michigan, Harbaugh says he's going to pick up the phone and make the call.
"You make a call and ask someone if they are interested in talking about Michigan, and certainly if someone says no, it's a no, but if someone says yes, then I want to show them Michigan," Harbaugh added. "(Former Iowa commit) Karan Higdon's a great example. There was time enough to make a decision, and it was about a week that he flew up here for an official visit and did not make it on the first day. He did not make it through security but came back the next morning and caught a 5:20 flight to come up to Ann Arbor, and that was the night we had the five, six, seven inches of snow.
"He had to get up at two in the morning, and that spoke volumes to me that he got up here, and he was here for one day on an official visit, and now he is a Wolverine."
Asked about his recruiting pitch during the latter days of the pre-signing day period, Harbaugh said each case was different. In most cases, he simply sold what Michigan could offer the player and his family -- on the field and in the classroom.
He spoke about how Higdon has the desire to become a doctor someday. Upon hearing that, Harbaugh made sure he and his family were aware of Michigan's high placement rate for undergraduate medical students.
It was one example, but by and large, Harbaugh said he stuck with this philosophy and found players and families were pretty receptive to it.
"People want what is best for their youngsters, for their children. The other thing, too, I noticed. Everybody that we dealt with, that I dealt with personally, when talking to families I really thought the student-athletes did an incredible job making their decisions on what was best for them and doing it the right way; studying the facts, looking at criteria, praying about it, talking about it as a family," he added. "Not only the ones that chose Michigan but chose other schools where I could witness that they were making decisions that way. Those decisions are hard to make. Those decisions are hard to make for a 51-year-old, let alone a 17-, 18-year-old.
"This is landmark day, signature day, and I am very happy for a lot of people, including ourselves."
In terms of recruiting in general, Harbaugh admitted that it took him a bit to shake the "rust" off with regard to the whole game. He hadn't been responsible for recruiting since his final year at Stanford in 2010.
He noted how some things have changed over the years, various rules here and there. But overall, he felt like the process in general is basically the same. And after a few days, things began to run as normal.
Moving forward, though, Harbaugh appears intent on making rather significant changes to the way the Wolverines recruit year-to-year.
Michigan has hired former Paramus Catholic (New Jersey) High School coach Chris Partridge for its newly-created recruiting operations coordinator. According to the report, Harbaugh's plan is to model Michigan's recruiting efforts after Nick Saban's system at Alabama.
His contract outlines permission to use a private plane for recruiting throughout the year, something that's become more common among high-level programs across the country.
The bottom line? Harbaugh wants to get one step quicker every day, throughout every year -- "just like the NASCAR boys."
"We'll make some improvements in all areas of our organization," Harbaugh said with regard to recruiting. "I look at it that way and always be striving to get a percent better, a mile an hour faster, better today than we were yesterday, better tomorrow than we were today in all areas in everything that we do.
"We'll take a look at how we're doing it, start with why and attack, even a .01-percent improvement if we can find it."
