PASADENA, Calif. — It’s easy to tell when Jim Harbaugh does not want to entertain a question. He tends to pause for an extended time, ramble about something only slightly related to the topic at hand, then redirect the discussion to a place that is safer and less intrusive. Monday night’s news conference after Michigan’s 27-20 overtime defeat of Alabama in a College Football Playoff semifinal was the latest example.
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Some context: Harbaugh regularly talks about “reaching the apex” and standing in the rarefied air that belongs to champions. National champions, not conference champions. He and his team can reach that summit next week with a victory over Washington in Houston, but when asked what such a moment would mean to him — or even what reaching the title game for the first time means to him, particularly after losing big in their playoff openers the past two seasons — he predictably turned the spotlight away from himself.
“It’s what it means to these guys, to our players the most, to them, to be champions, for their parents to have their son be a champion, their brothers and sisters, their grandparents, for our coaches, for my kids to have a dad be a champion, my parents, just those people to get to feel what that’s like,” he said
Yeah, but it has to mean something to you.
“That’s kind of long gone for me,” he said. “My joy, my ecstatic joy, is for our players and our coaches and our fans and our families, that they get to experience that joy of being a champion.”
Though well and good — and possibly even true — it’s hard to know whether Harbaugh was embodying the creed of selflessness he regularly preaches to his players, or whether he was being cagey. As a former quarterback, he knows a thing or two about getting out of uncomfortable situations and seemingly takes as much pleasure in dodging a question as he did in evading a pass rusher.
But Harbaugh knows coaches are ultimately judged on not just wins and losses but also championships. They can put a coach in a different category, serving as the wind that lifts them from good to great, or takes them from sea level to the thin air he talks about. He doesn’t have to be told this. He knows it as the son of a coach, the brother of a coach, and a guy who played for legendary figures Bo Schembechler, the winningest coach in Wolverines history, and Mike Ditka, a Hall of Fame tight end who coached the Chicago Bears to a championship.
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But there is also this: A championship likely would mean the world to Harbaugh because of the way this season has played out, with his serving a three-game suspension to start the season and another to end the regular season for NCAA and Big Ten violations. With his team accused of illegally stealing opponents’ signs, some have argued that victories should be vacated and the Wolverines’ final record should come with an asterisk attached to it.
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If you know Harbaugh — and I’ve known him since covering him as a player — he is an uber competitor who takes slights personally. He once went after a San Diego Chargers teammate on the way to the locker room at halftime because the teammate had said something critical of Harbaugh’s play in the game.
Some have characterized the “Michigan vs. Everybody” mantra as trite; I am not one of them. Nothing would be less surprising to me than to know that Harbaugh has truly internalized that message, with his players falling in line directly behind him. And the truth is, championships have been won with lesser motivation, particularly when a team is as talented as the Wolverines are.
They have taken on the personality of their coach, priding themselves on grit, intensity and perseverance. The Wolverines could not have played a worse opening five minutes than they did Monday, when quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw an interception on the opening play (it was waived off by an Alabama penalty), they lost a muffed punt, saw defensive lineman Rayshaun Benny depart with a lower-leg injury, and missed an open-field tackle that resulted in a Crimson Tide touchdown.
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At that point, they trailed 7-0 and had some wondering whether another embarrassing loss was in the offing, after having fallen behind 14-0 in each of their CFP losses the previous two years against Georgia and TCU. They not only rallied to lead 13-10 at the half, but again after Alabama took leads of 17-13 and 20-13 in the fourth quarter, marking the first time they had trailed in the final quarter all season.
They showed their resolve in the final five minutes of regulation when McCarthy took them on an eight-play, 75-yard drive to tie the score with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Roman Wilson with 1:34 remaining in regulation. And it took them only two plays to score in overtime, on a 2-yard run by Blake Corum, after which they stopped Alabama QB Jalen Milroe on fourth-and-goal from the 3 to preserve the win.
THE BEST DRIVE OF THE JIM HARBAUGH ERA pic.twitter.com/IvAqVkirF3
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) January 2, 2024
“It was an epic game,” Harbaugh said. “Glorious is how I feel.”
That was as close as he would get to discussing his inner feelings. Not surprisingly, he quickly slammed the door when asked about his future beyond the upcoming game. (It was reported last week that Harbaugh has hired an agent, which some have interpreted as a sign he might seek to return to the NFL next season.)
“My future consists of a happy flight back to Ann Arbor, Michigan,” Harbaugh said with a big smile and hearty laugh. “Can’t wait.”
With that, he stepped down from the dais and out of the line of fire — for a night, at least.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)