The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 41 day practice sessions when he was a player at Michigan. He figured while everyone else was resting, he was getting better. "He's literally enthusiastic about football every single day," Ways said. "Whether it's meetings, whether it's practice, whether it's just walking in the hallway, he just loves the game of football, he loves Michigan, and he loves to develop his players." Michigan safeties coach Brian Smith says his experience under Harbaugh is special in terms of the competitive aspect. "He's always looking to do unique things and push the envelope," Smith said. "He's the ultimate competitor. He's competitive in everything — drills, offense versus defense. "He wants to win. He's just a competi- tive guy, probably the most competitive head coach I've ever been around." Business Insider came up with 27 exam- ples of Harbaugh's competitiveness, some already referenced here. They include chang- ing Halloween costumes as a kid to garner more candy, along with running from house to house; working the chains at a California high school game on Michigan's bye week; wearing cleats with the khakis. Harbaugh also responded to President Barack Obama saying he wouldn't let his child play football. Michigan's coach noted: "If President Obama feels that way, then there will be a little less competition for [son] Jack Harbaugh when he gets old enough." 10. Putting The Student Back In Student-Athlete Cross-cultural learning for Michigan foot- ball players didn't end when the trip to Rome did. Many Wolverines went from a memorable week in Italy to several other nations, continu- ing their education. They fanned out to six different countries to augment their studies: Austria, Costa Rica, Argentina, Iceland, Belgium and Spain. Starting sophomore guard Ben Bredeson, for instance, headed to Barcelona with several teammates to invest three weeks in learning before heading home. Redshirt sophomore cornerback Keith Washington traveled to Argentina for post- Rome study, while redshirt junior linebacker Jared Wangler looked to further studies in Ice- land. "The world is our classroom," Harbaugh declared. Cynics wonder when the next NCAA shoe will drop, regarding a Harbaugh innovation. It might be difficult, though, for the governing body over a large group of what it terms stu- dent-athletes to enact legislation paring down the "student" aspect of the designation. Meanwhile, Harbaugh is seeking ways to bolster it. Michigan recently posted the high- est football Academic Progress Rate (APR) in a multi-year calculation (993) for the program since the rate began being figured. Michigan was one of only five Football Bowl Subdivision schools with a score of 993 or more. The Wolverines ranked nationally behind only Northwestern and Air Force, both of whom checked in with multi-year scores of 995. Michigan's APR nadir occurred during the transition to a new coaching regime, U-M posting a 928 APR for the multi-year score in 2009-10. That score now would draw NCAA penalties, with the minimum for avoiding such a result at 930. Harbaugh isn't looking back. He's more likely trying to catch and pass the Wildcats and Falcons. Meanwhile, he's given everyone something to think about, following Michigan's excur- sion to Rome and beyond. "The Rome one is big," noted Jay Har- baugh, son of the head coach and Michigan's running backs boss this fall. "The guys study- ing abroad is one of the biggest ones. That's really, really unusual. I bet that on this team, we're going to have more guys study abroad than all the guys on all the other college foot- ball teams combined, in terms of scholarship players. "It's incredibly rare. I have just never heard of it in terms of a bunch of guys doing it. That's a big one." It's also one more way of Michigan sepa- rating itself. Talking about a concern for aca- demics is one thing. Putting time and consid- erable investment into indisputably pursuing them is another. ❏ Not only have Harbaugh's Wolverines found success on the field — going 20-6 during his two years at the helm — but their achievements have carried over off of it. Michigan's current multi-year Academic Progress Rate score is 993, highest in program history and second in the Big Ten. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN