By Blake Dowson
There was a time, not too-terribly long ago, when the sight of the Michigan Wolverines running out of the tunnel underneath 110,000 fans in Michigan Stadium struck strong fear into whatever team had reluctantly traveled to Ann Arbor that weekend.
But after the retirement of Lloyd Carr and the following tenures of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, the Maize and Blue were no longer all that scary.
Enter Jim Harbaugh, quite possibly the scariest person in college football, add a 10-win season in his first back at his alma mater, add a bowl win on top of that, and a top-five recruiting class on top of that.
Now, that is scary stuff.
The Wolverines are back, with talent oozing from every position on the depth chart. In Year 2 under Harbaugh, Michigan is once again one of the most talented teams in the country.
“With the players that we have returning and the coaching staff, combining those two together, it gives us a lot of confidence,” senior wide receiver Amara Darboh said during Big Ten media days.
However, the Wolverines are in an odd spot. On one hand, they are a popular pick to represent the East Division in Indianapolis at the Big Ten Championship game and to represent the Big Ten in the College Football Playoffs.
But on the other hand, they are still fielding questions on whether they are the best team in the state of Michigan and if they can beat Ohio State for only the second time in 12 years.
To be able to balance both extremely lofty expectations and questions regarding if they are a top-two team in their division, it could be tricky.
Harbaugh answered questions about those two rivalry games as only Harbaugh (well, and his players) could.
“Our goal is to win our next game, which is the University of Hawaii,” Harbaugh said. “Much of our training camp will be dedicated to winning our next game. We’ll play them as they fall. I know this; every week is going to be a football fight as I look at our schedule. Home or away, they’ll all be highly competitive.”
The Michigan head coach spent much of his time at Big Ten media days discussing All-American tight end Jake Butt, and how coachable he is both in the film room and on the field.
It seemed Harbaugh had also taken Butt under his wing regarding how to answer questions thrown at him about Michigan State and Ohio State, because their answers sounded very similar.
“You can’t win the Big Ten Championship without winning the game in front of you,” Butt said. “You can’t win the College Football Playoffs without winning Game 1.”
Harbaugh would not really talk any sort of specifics at media days. That’s how he operates. He seems like a man schooled in both philosophy and football, but even as a quarterback himself in his day, he talked more about his defense than anything else.
It makes sense, considering the Wolverines on that side of the ball could be the most talented group of 11 in the country.
And with new defensive coordinator Don Brown on board, all hell will break loose for opposing offenses against Michigan.
“It’s an attacking defense,” Harbaugh said. “They’re coming from everywhere. The blitz percentage is high. I think this team is going to be tough to beat.”
What Harbaugh has brought back to Ann Arbor is a certain amount of toughness to the program that was lacking until he came back.
Four-hour practices are now the norm for Michigan, during a time when that is becoming more and more rare.
Apparently even seven-on-seven practices have been very physical this summer, with the offense and defense going at it. Harbaugh knows what it takes to be successful at Michigan, and that’s what he’s implementing.
“What we’ve come to know is that Coach Harbaugh is going to do things differently than everybody else in the country,” Butt said. “It works for us because we were struggling with toughness those first few years. It was something that down the stretch in games, we struggled with when our backs were against the wall. Coach Harbaugh identified this, and he made the necessary changes.”