How Jim Harbaugh's first suspension prepared Michigan for game vs. Penn State

Michigan was able to go on the road and defeat Penn State on Saturday in a 24-15 win over the Nittany Lions without head coach Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines for them. But it was not their first rodeo.

Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten Conference for the remaining three games of the regular season amid the program’s sign-stealing investigation, but Harbaugh also served a self-imposed three-game suspension to start the season this year for allegations of NCAA recruiting violations.

The Wolverines went 3-0 to start the season, and are now 4-0 on the year without Harbaugh on the sideline for them. And following their big win on Saturday over their first ranked opponent of the season, On3’s Andy Staples and Clayton Sayfie discussed if Harbaugh’s previous suspension prepared the team for his latest.

“I think it helped them,” Sayfie said. “I think it helped them because you kind of had that under your belt and we even saw it. Jesse Minter felt like the head coach of the defense today.”

“And Sherrone Moore said that, he said Jesse could use the timeouts. Because remember, Sherone’s got to call the plays,” Staples added. “That’s what I was kind of wondering is would they go [with] Mike Hart to let the playcallers be playcallers. But instead they go with Sherone Moore who I think if you asked everybody if Jim Harbaugh were to go to the NFL who on this staff would be the head coach? It’d be Sherrone Moore.”

Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter served as the Wolverines’ interim head coach in their first game of the season in Harbaugh’s absence, special teams coordinator and safeties coach Jay Harbaugh was interim head coach for the first half of their second game of the season with running backs coach Mike Hart taking the reigns in the second half of Week 2, and offensive coordinator Sheronne Moore has been the Wolverines’ interim head man in the latest two games of Harbaugh’s various suspensions.

There’s no doubt that it’s been a collaborative coaching effort this season in the various moments that Harbaugh has been suspended, but the Wolverines have been able to rally and rise to every occasion as they remain undefeated with two games remaining in the regular season.

“For sure, but then it was even Mike Hart calling the timeouts when there were a few clunky moments. A couple penalties and then those timeouts they had to take, and it’s a loud crowd so you got to give them [Penn State] credit for that too, but it was Mike Hart doing that,” Sayfie said. “Sherone just talked to us about it was a team effort for them, he was emotional after the game as well, I think this meant a lot for him personally. He’s been through a lot here at Michigan and it was kind of that all coming together in this game.”

Moore gave an emotional post-game interview focused on the suspension of their head coach, as the Michigan program as a whole has adopted an us versus the world mentality to their current off-the-field circumstances.

But it will be interesting to see if Moore and the rest of the Wolverines’ staff can continue to provide the same results on the field in Harbaugh’s absence in their last two games of the season, especially when they host No. 1 ranked rival Ohio State in the regular season finale.