Jim Harbaugh happy to be at Michigan, excited for a ‘scary good’ program
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh flirted with the NFL in the offseason, but he’s back and thrilled at what he’s seen from his team early in spring ball. Harbaugh told athletic director Warde Manuel he’d be his coach “as long as he wanted him,” and he reiterated that Tuesday.
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Harbaugh explored his options, admitting he still had a Super Bowl itch after coming close to winning in San Francisco. He interviewed with Minnesota and was expected to be the Vikings next coach.
Instead, capturing a CFP championship is now at the top of his list.
“I came here Jan. 2015, signed a seven-year deal,” he said. “Seven years was up. That’s what precipitated it … to see if that was something I wanted to do or take a look at it.”
Ultimately, he said, he decided Ann Arbor was where he wanted to be.
“Really, a lot of gratitude for that,” he continued. “Like I said earlier, just right now, it’s scary good. You try to define what that is — you know the law of averages is going to catch up with you at some point, but that’s the place where you want to be.
“Like always, I walk around our field, whether it’s the weight room, out there with the guys, coaches and players. It’s people that are engaged; players come up to you and have got a smile on their face, say, ‘what’s up coach? What have we got today?’ It just makes the days fly by.”
They’re going to have a blast, he said, and they’re off to a good start. There have been four practices to date, three in helmets only. Now, it’s four straight weeks of three practices a week. Some will be tackling, some non-tackling, others will be scrimmages.
There’s nowhere else he’d rather be than Michigan, he insisted.
“Yeah, I just signed a five-year deal and like I just said, when you’re around this kind of team, these kinds of guys, the days just fly by,” he said. “I can coach a long time. I see no end in sight of being around this kind of group.
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“We could win college football’s greatest trophy. We could win the national championship. That’s plenty good.”
The seven-year Michigan coach was asked again if his NFL flirtation was done.
“Like I just said, would it be great to win the Super Bowl? Yeah,” he said. “But I’m completely focused on winning the National Championship. I did express that [I’d stay as long as Manuel wanted me], and that’s how I felt. That’s how I feel.”
As for the offseason coaching attrition, stories about his potential departure, etc. — Harbaugh has already put it behind him. Asked what he was most excited about this spring, he said, “just the whole state of the program.”
“People want to keep stories going. They hate to love us or love to hate, but we’re having a blast,” he said. “The word ‘tumultuous’ was used, I think, in the offseason. If guys are bringing the energy and having fun, the momentum the program has … whatever word you want to put on that, that’s what we’re having. And that’s scary good.
“You know something’s going to happen at some point, that the law of averages will catch up to you at some point. But [right now], it’s a place you want to be.”
