Michigan football: Jim Harbaugh and team aren't looking past Iowa

ANN ARBOR — The Michigan football celebrations went well into the night Saturday, as they should have. The Wolverines had finally vanquished Ohio State in dominant fashion, 42-27, and the team and its fans wanted to savor this one a big longer. 

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• Monday Musings: Final OSU thoughts, a peek at Iowa

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In the past, of course, that would have been weeks. Not anymore, though. Michigan will move on the next task at hand — Saturday’s Big Ten Championship game with Iowa — and try to win the program’s first title since 2004. 

“For many of us, that was a tremendous, tremendous weekend and game,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday. “Many of the players texted me this is the best ever … and I’m right there with them. 

“And now the focus has shifted to the task at hand.”

But not before some celebrating from the coach, too. Like the players, he celebrated on the field with a lot of hugs in the immediate aftermath and the hours following.

Asked what he remembered most, it took him a few seconds.

“A lot of things; a lot of moments,” Harbaugh said. “Starting with just the feeling after the game, and the pictures of the field covered, the stands still full. How does that happen where you have completely full stands and field completely covered? They were packing them in pretty good. There might have been a few thousand more than the 111,000 that were listed. 

“The interaction with [basketball coach] Juwan [Howard] on the field was tremendous, especially the interaction with the players in the locker room after the game, and Warde [Manuel], and [assistant A.D.] Doug [Gnodtke]. Every single person. I tried to get around to every guy. Every mighty man and mighty woman of Michigan football. Those interactions were the most special.”

With his kids and wife, Sarah, too, of course, and his parents. Their 60^th anniversary was two days earlier. 

“That was a glorious, glorious weekend,” he added with a grin. 

But now comes Iowa, which peaked at No. 2 earlier in the year before losing games to Purdue and Wisconsin. The Hawkeyes scored only seven points in each game and would love nothing more than a low-scoring slugfest. 

Michigan has proven it can win that kind of game, too (see: Penn State). And Harbaugh made it clear he and his team know the mission isn’t over.

“Playoff game,” he said when asked about the coming weekend. “That mindset of we play, we win this game and we’ll advance to the semifinals.

“Seeing several of the guys — I’ve been talking to the guys either on the phone or through text. Just Donovan Edwards this morning, we used to have a fist bump every day. Today, I said, ‘I need a hug.’ He said, ‘onward.’ Onward to Iowa. I said, ‘likewise. I’m with you 100 percent. Let’s go.’”

In some ways, this is typical Iowa. It’s tough, hard-nosed on both sides of the ball, a team that’s better as a sum than it’s individual parts. 

Harbaugh sees some of his team in the Hawkeyes, even if they don’t have some of Michigan type playmakers. 

“I would say Iowa in all regards, run defense, pass defense, the way they tackle.,” he said. “Offensively, their execution, the way they block; the way they run. Tremendous attention to detail and special teams, and as hard as they play, across the board, it’s all really, really good. 

“This is a sound, tough, fundamentally good football team in every single regard. That definitely is daunting in itself, but also you add in the fact that you’re watching 12 weeks of this consistency. Understanding now that you go back previous seasons, and there’s a lot of creativity in there, and a lot of all things at their disposal … you’re going against a team that knows what they’re doing, howe they’re doing it. The execution is tremendous down after down.”

They knew what they were getting with Ohio State, and how tough it will be. Michigan put added emphasis on The Game this year, and now they have five days to prepare for an opponent likely to throw in some wrinkles. 

But Harbaugh has had his Michigan team prepared this year, and the leadership has been outstanding. He expects his team to play another great game with passion, and we wouldn’t expect anything less.