Jim Harbaugh talks Michigan fall camp MVP, 'tone-setters'

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh doesn’t like to list names and leave anybody out. That’s how it’s been ever since he arrived in Dec. 2014, to the point that he’ll sometimes list every player, walk-ons included, at a position group in order to give everyone some sort of shine. He also hates to “get into the compare world,” where somebody could get diminished.

At a Wednesday afternoon press conference inside Michigan’s Schembechler Hall, Harbaugh was asked who the most valuable players in fall camp have been, and before he could refrain himself from listing and potentially leaving somebody out, he let a name slip.

Graduate wide receiver Ronnie Bell injured himself in the second quarter of the first game in 2021, with the ACL tear forcing him to miss the remainder of the season. He’s back fully healthy now, even having broken some of his personal bests in agility drills this summer, and is the man who’s caught Harbaugh’s eye the most two weeks into camp.

“Ronnie Bell has been tremendous,” Harbaugh said. “There have been a bunch. I’ll start naming names, and then I’ll leave somebody out. There have been quite a few, but Ronnie does jump out as somebody who’s faster, catching the ball extremely well, he’s stronger, he’s been there every day and doing a tremendous job. Quite a few.”

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A few, but Bell was the Michigan player who Harbaugh ended up singling out. The Michigan wideout led the team in receiving yards in both 2019 and 2020 and is primed for a big season, saying last week that “excited is an understatement.”

In the same response, the Michigan coach also discussed a walk-on who’s impressing — junior running back and return man Isaiah Gash. The 5-10, 175-pound Green Bay, Wisc., native has appeared in two career games, carrying six times for 17 yards, but could find his way onto the field more this fall.

“The guy that really popped the day before yesterday in the big scrimmage was a guy by the name of Isaiah Gash,” Harbaugh continued. “He just did a tremendous job.

“You know why boxers make good football players? They don’t blink; if they blink, they’re going to get hit. Isaiah boxed all spring. He was an amateur boxer. And now I watch him run through those holes as a kick returner, it’s been super fun and impressive to see him as somebody that’s really emerging.”

Jim Harbaugh talks Michigan ‘tone-setters’

Harbaugh said at Big Ten Media Days that he hasn’t seen any signs of entitlement with his Michigan team, even after it won the conference and appeared in the College Football Playoff last season. That has continued into fall camp, he said, and he revealed how he’s monitoring such a subjective characteristic.

“Effort is usually the biggest one,” Harbaugh said. “… How they take care of themselves, how they take care of the team. Avoiding the big head. That’s a deep, dark, lonely trap. Continuing to attack everything that’s put in front of them, and not afraid of any challenge, not afraid of any new challenge. All those ways.”

Harbaugh said he’s now looking for Michigan players to emerge as “tone-setters,” during fall camp ahead of the season.

“Now that we’re into camp, the big thing I’m looking for is who the tone-setters are,” the Michigan coach explained. “There’s leadership that comes in a lot of different ways. There are guys who lead by example, there are guys who bring guys along. There are multiple ways — you have a quiet leader, a guy who could put his arm around them.

“But the guys who set the tone … defensively, we lost four real tone-setters in [Aidan] Hutchinson, [David] Ojabo, [Josh] Ross and Dax Hill. Offensively, we’ve got some of those tone-setters back, like [junior running back] Blake Corum and the two quarterbacks [senior Cade McNamara and sophomore J.J. McCarthy] and [sophomore running back] Donovan [Edwards] and [senior tight end] Erick All and [senior wide receiver] Cornelius Johnson. There are a few.

“And special teams — [senior safety] Caden Kolesar is that kind of guy; he does that. [Senior defensive tackle] Mazi Smith is somebody that people look up to and want to know what he’s doing and what he’s saying. [Senior EDGE] Mike Morris, [graduate EDGE] Taylor Upshaw have the chance to be that. [Sophomore linebacker] Junior Colson — that kind of player has the ability to be the tone-setter. The Green brothers [graduate cornerbacks Gemon Green and German Green]. [Junior safety] R.J. Moten, [senior defensive back/wide receiver] Mikey Sainristil.

“There are a lot of guys that have the license and respect and ability to do that, and as we go through camp, I look at that as something that needs to take place. I see it happening, but I want it to continue.”

And he might’ve even left some guys out.