Jim Harbaugh has been Michigan's coach for eight months now, and besides a hypocritical subtweet to Urban Meyer in the aftermath of losing Mike Weber to Michigan, he has yet to do anything to truly earn my disdain.
In fact, he sounds like a crazily awkward man, which will workout fine for Michigan as long as he wins. Here's some quotes from players about the first time they met their new frontman:
From Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com:
"Some of the things that happened that day -- it was weird, it was not the norm," says senior linebacker Joe Bolden. "But at the same time, you have changes in life and you have to accept them and adapt to them and make the best of them."
[...]
Harbaugh, not surprisingly, opened with an allegory. This Michigan team, he told the players, was going to build a keel. Confused eyes scuttled back and forth.
"No one knew what a keel is," junior wideout Jehu Chesson says.
[...]
Then came the rules. Bolden notes, "This got a little interesting -- just what changes were made," but he won't budge on the details. "I know you want them," the senior says, "but I'm not going to give them to you."
Revel in these glorious details now, because it may be all we have until Michigan gets its ass whooped in Utah on Sept. 3. Harbaugh has put his team into a "submarine" — his words — and none of Michigan's practices are open to the public. (Which is why Michigan writers are writing about a meeting that took place eight months ago and not, you know, fall practice.)
Alex Boone, an Ohio State Buckeye who played for Harbaugh in San Francisco, once said Harbaugh is great at delivering the initial boost upon his arrival. After that, though, things got weird.
Ship-building allegories that nobody understands are fine as long as you're delivering wins. If not, well, there's always an NFL owner Harbaugh can dupe out of millions of more dollars.
