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Jim Harbaugh finally addresses ‘born on third base’ comment directed at Ryan Day, Ohio State

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•11/22/22
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Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State's Ryan Day will square off for the fourth time in Ann Arbor this year. Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images

Jim Harbaugh had some choice words directed towards Ryan Day after last year’s game against Ohio State, where Michigan finally broke through and beat the Buckeyes after seven straight losses in the rivalry to start the Harbaugh era.

Understandably, the Michigan head coach was proud of his team finally getting over the hump. And after the game, he made some comments that reflected how he really felt about triumphing over a guy like OSU head coach Ryan Day.

“Some people who are standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn’t,” Harbaugh said in the postgame of last year’s win in response to a question about bulletin-board material. He denied it then, but everyone who read or heard that comment saw it as a dig at Day, who took over the Ohio State job in place of Urban Meyer.

However, ahead of this year’s rematch, Harbaugh caved, admitting some of the behind-the-scenes drama between the coaches.

Apparently, in 2020, Harbaugh had some testy thoughts to share over how Day ran his program. Which prompted Day to reportedly tell his players that Michigan ought to hope for a mercy rule since the Buckeyes would beat them by 100.

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All these months and years later, the beef between the two head coaches sustains. Harbaugh admits that those mercy rule comments irked him, saying recently that the third base comment “was definitely a counterpunch by me to the comment that they’re going to hang 100 on us.”

Day was also asked about last year’s comments by Jim Harbaugh ahead of this year’s matchup. Though he provided a far less entertaining take on the whole situation than the Wolverine coach. Ever the pragmatist, Day declined to comment, deflecting the attention to the game at hand.

“Like I said, there’s certain things you listen to and there’s certain things you don’t, and any time you’re at a high profile game with a lot of stuff going on there’s a lot of things said,” Day explained. “There’s a time and a place to talk about that and it’s not now.”

Whew, don’t we love some off the field drama before an on-field rivalry game. Get your popcorn ready, folks!