Blake Corum addresses reported Jim Harbaugh suspension

Blake Corum and other Michigan players have to rally amid the reported suspension for head coach Jim Harbaugh.

That’s exactly what Corum and the others plan to do, as he described at Big Ten Media Days. Corum is one of the leaders of the team and he opted to return for the 2023 season to help Michigan win a national title.

But without Harbaugh for the first four games, it could look a little different to start the season.

“I don’t really know too much about the whole situation,” Corum told reporters on site. “I don’t really know what’s going on. But, you know, we’re gonna treat each game the same. We know coach Harbaugh, whether he’s there or not, he’s gonna be there spirit. He’s prepared us. You know, so those four games we could rally together. Like I said, if anything is gonna light a fire under us, (it’ll) make us want to win even more. 

“We love Coach Harbaugh. We’re all behind him. Coach Harbaugh is a great coach. And he’s a great human being. He’s done so many good things for the community, for us, you hate to see it, I don’t know what’s going on. You know, but if that is the case, we’re gonna keep playing ball and we’re gonna play for him.”

The biggest sigh of relief for Michigan is that Harbaugh can still coach his team, just not on Saturdays against the first four opponents. To clarify, ESPN’s Pete Thamel did not mention anything about the expected one-game suspensions for OC Sherrone Moore and tight ends coach Grant Newsome.

“So they’ve gone back and forth for months in January, we reported that he refused to tell investigators that he lied to them,” Thamel said on Get Up. “So this negotiated resolution basically comes down to Jim Harbaugh admitting recruiting violations, although a source told me yesterday he still did not put in the document that he did lie. 

“So it’s a little bit of semantic gymnastics here and Jim Harbaugh will likely miss the first four games. I think an important nuance to where we are Greeny, is that he can coach practice. So he won’t be on the sideline for those four solitary days, but he will still be able to shape his team all September.”

According to the report, Harbaugh acknowledged the program committed Level II violations but refused to sign any document or publicly state he was untruthful. But as Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger put it, the negotiated resolution is a “signal” the coach acknowledged he was partially dishonest.