By BLAKE DOWSON
To understand Michigan head coach and enigma Jim Harbaugh, you must first understand that it is impossible to fully understand him.
Listening to him speak at Big Ten media days in Chicago on Monday, it sometimes appeared like he didn’t fully have a grasp on what he was saying. But he did; every single word was calculated. And when it didn’t seem that way, it is important to realize that he meant it to seem like that.
Because Harbaugh doesn’t want you to understand Harbaugh.
It’s confusing to wrap your head around how he functions. He seems himself coached when answering certain questions, often using quips over and over again, yet at the same time it all seems incredibly candid.
He wants to stand out, yet at the same time he would rather point praise toward the people he surrounds himself with.
At one point, he was asked what it means to be the face of the Michigan program and if he relishes it.
“It doesn’t resonate at all to me,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything to me to say, ‘Have you ever relished being the face of the program,’ that has no resonation with me. When you’re on a team, everybody does a little, and it adds up to a lot.”
But he also talked about his time playing in a celebrity golf tournament, his now-famous satellite camps, and his decision to wear a hat at media days — a wardrobe choice that made him stick out among his peers.
He’s one thing, and then another. It’s leaves you scratching your head, but you also completely get what he’s saying. It’s mesmerizing.
Standing by him for 20 minutes during a press conference, Motivational Speaker Harbaugh, Sarcastic Harbaugh, and Football Coach Harbaugh all made an appearance.
His eyes lit up when a reporter asked him about Wolverine All-American tight end Jake Butt. Throughout his response, he used hand motions, he punched his fists, he made faces, and he was excitable.
“From Day 1, Jake Butt has been A-plus, plus,” Harbaugh said. “I look out when we’re in a meeting, and I see him on the edge of his seat. I see him gung ho sitting through a two or three hour meeting… He’ll go through a blocking drill with just as much excitement as he does when we go to the pass routes or seven-on-seven. I think the world of him. I think he’s a tremendous football player.”
When it seems he’s rolling and ready to be an A-plus, plus interviewee, he gives you nothing in his next response.
Shortly after talking at length about Butt, he was asked about the new nine-game conference schedule the Big Ten implemented this season.
“I’d go with the thumbs up,” he said. “I’m good with it.”
And that was it. Next question.
Coach Harbaugh, can you describe what it will be like to have Don Brown on your staff?
He loved that question, speaking of his new defensive coordinator (whom he met for the first time in December) for more than three minutes, talking more like he was a favorite uncle than a colleague.
Coach Harbaugh, you lost to both Michigan State and Ohio State last year. How will you approach those rivalry games?
“To win them,” he said.
It seemed like a simple, almost condescending answer. But it wasn’t. Winning is the only thing that matters to Harbaugh, and that is the one thing you walk away from an interview with him knowing for certain. It consumes him.
He has zero time for people who aren’t doing everything in their power to get better, bringing to the surface Motivational Speaker Harbaugh.
“[We want] to be better today than we were yesterday,” he said. “We’re trying to improve every single day. Improvement will lead to success, will lead to championships. That theory is so simple that it might just work.”
It completely enthralls people when he speaks with such passion and fire like that, when a minute before he was sarcastically answering a question.
His response when asked if he believes his team is “on schedule” in regards to competing for championships, “Yeah, we’ve scheduled our practices … I’ve got them all in my computer. We have darn near every practice laid out.”
He has reporters feeling like they went 12 rounds with him, but they walk away smiling.
He is everything that everyone asks of him, yet he leaves you wanting more.
He’s one thing and then another. And he’s a force to be reckoned with.