The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/873137
44 THE WOLVERINE OCTOBER 2017 a plane or get in a car and get to the next place? Isn't that what coaches are supposed to do, try to help guys get better? That's what Jim's doing. "Yeah, you might have contact with a young man at that camp who be- comes a player, or he might like the coaching staff. He's never going to get to Michigan. A kid from Dallas is not going to get on a plane and fly here... if it's not a paid visit." If it wasn't Harbaugh mixing it up by challenging NCAA rules and their loopholes, he made news by staging a Signing Day gala called "Signing of the Stars" on campus at Hill Au- ditorium in February. Lines of fans stretched outside the auditorium to get a seat to watch the spectacle, fea- turing all of Michigan's new recruits on the first day of the National Sign- ing Period and a diverse group of ce- lebrities like Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, and Ric Flair. Harbaugh also made news in his second season of revitalizing Michi- gan by visiting the White House and being a guest at a State of the Union address. He appeared in a rap video; coached first base in a spring training game; drew attention for taking his baseball glove to a World Series game; reintroduced the college world to his creation, Freddy P. Soft; played golf in a Pro-Am; messed around play- ing some drums on stage before a Bruce Springsteen concert; called rival coaches who he believed were nega- tively recruiting against him, "Jive Turkeys;" and he waxed poetic about how much he respects the animated character, SpongeBob. He is a different guy, a move-the- needle guy. Some argue he's calcu- lated. Some say he's as authentic as they come. He probably falls some- where in between. But whatever he is, he's been sure to be everywhere — from causing a stir with sleepovers at some homes of recruits, showing up at 12:01 am to try to pack in as much as possible in the 24 hours he's allowed to visit — to captivating everyone with his attempt to climb a tree while playing with the younger siblings of another recruit. While the sleepovers were wildly mocked nationally, Harbaugh saw it as a unique and creative opportunity to legally take advantage of the rules. "When I saw it, I thought it was ge- nius because it's not a show," Mattison said. "It truly isn't a show. We went to a home, and he was going to do a sleepover. We were sitting in the living room, and he goes, 'Okay, I'm doing this [since] I don't ever have enough time to be with the family. We're go- ing to talk about football, we're going to talk about whatever, talk about life. I'm going to sleep here on the couch, and in the morning, we're going to get up and go to school.' They get to see who the head coach is other than a salesman." In this social media era, almost every move he makes, like sleepovers at the homes of recruits, is documented and dissected, criticized and lauded. And more often than not, it leads to a head- line and maybe even debate on local and national radio sports talk shows. For a storied program that seemed to have lost its way, seeing Michigan back in the news on whatever front has been a positive for most former players. During the summer of 2016, Charles Woodson, Michigan's 1997 Heisman Trophy winner, was asked if he was surprised how much Harbaugh is in the news. "I don't know if I'm shocked," Woodson said. "But it's almost over- whelming. To me, every time you look on the TV or you look at a tweet or something on social media, some- where, Jim Harbaugh's name is a part of it. What that means for us — Michi- gan is a part of it, too. For the guys who played here, the guys who are here, they're getting a lot of attention. "The great part about that, you have an opportunity to perform with all eyes on you. That can be extra pres- sure depending on how you look at it, or you can embrace it and show people about the work you put into it day in and day out, and your coach is out there speaking on your behalf because your coach believes in you. Am I surprised? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm happy. This is what a majority of people wanted, and we got it." ❏ This excerpt from Michigan Man: Jim Harbaugh and the Rebirth of Wolver- ines Football, by Angelique Chengelis, is presented with permission from Triumph Books. For more information please visit www.triumphbooks.com/michiganman. If you would like to order the book, please go to TheWolverineOnDemand.com. Baseball legend Derek Jeter (left) and former U-M quarterback Tom Brady (center) were among the luminaries at Harbaugh's ground-breaking Signing of the Stars in 2016. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Harbaugh's 2016 satellite camp tour fea- tured him wearing a jersey made famous by an athlete with a tie to the area he was in. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN