Jim Harbaugh on Michigan's 'vibrant' team personality, first scrimmage, player with most enthusiasm

Michigan Wolverines football is focusing on “process over prize,” even though the goals of beating its rivals, winning the Big Ten for a third straight year and being crowned national champions are clearly at the top of the list in the big picture. Through two weeks of fall camp, head coach Jim Harbaugh is “pleased” with what he’s seen in that regard.

The players are locked in, and so is the ninth-year head man. Harbaugh is too focused on his current team — and completing tasks his wife, Sarah, gives him, he joked — that he hasn’t had time to think about Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten in 2024 or his Michigan Wolverines earning a No. 2 ranking in the AP poll, its highest preseason placement since 1991.

“We’ve had a lot of people through. There have been a lot of football people — we’ve had general managers come through, we’ve had scouts come through,” Harbaugh said of Michigan’s camp. “One in particular who was in our meetings and at practices said, ‘This is vibrant.’ So, that’s my word. I can’t get that word out of my head. That best describes the vibe, mentality.

“It’s infectious; you can’t help not picking up on that. And that was well-defined — it’s vibrant. And they take that from the meeting rooms to the weight room to the practice field to the stadium.”

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It’s to a man, Harbaugh added, especially the veterans. He’s tried motivating players to try to make them “love football” and “attack each day with enthusiasm unknown to mankind,” but he’s realized “it has to come from the individual, no matter how hard you try.” And it’s working for his 2023 group.

“There’s not a guy right now in the junior, senior and fifth-year classes that I can point to and say isn’t doing everything they should, taking any and every opportunity and trying to maximize it and just being trusted agents and known friends,” the Michigan coach said.

“It’s to the point where I had to make a poster person for who I thought really defined enthusiasm unknown to mankind. I looked at every player, I looked at every coach, even considered myself. By the power vested in me as the head coach, the poster person for ‘enthusiasm unknown to mankind’ for the 2023 year is [senior defensive tackle] Kris Jenkins. Made a nice little sticker, ‘EUTM,’ that’s now on the helmet.

“He’s not the only one who has it. We’ve given some others out. [Senior running back] Blake Corum, [junior quarterback] J.J. McCarthy, [tight end] Zack Marshall — even gave one to a freshman — and a few others got that initial award. But the poster person is Kris Jenkins. 

“There are a lot of them. And captains — that’s coming. We’ll see what that vote yields, but there are just so many to choose from that lead and attack and love football. Good problems to have.”

Michigan’s first scrimmage was crisp

Michigan held its first scrimmage of camp Saturday in The Big House. The lines battled — the defensive front got the better of the offense, the coach revealed — and players made plays. But what impressed Harbaugh the most was how crisp and on point everybody was.

“[It’s] a first to have the first scrimmage in the stadium be as good as it was,” the Michigan coach said. “Every season I’ve coached, every season that I was a part of as a player, you go to that first scrimmage at the stadium, and guys forget. I forgot. I forgot coaching as a player. There’s just something about going to The Big House as a player. Coaches are yelling at everybody. That was my experience as a player and even as a coach. Freshmen forget everything that they’ve been taught.

“It wasn’t like that at all. It was the same vibrant energy, execution. And I even commented to the team afterward that I had never seen anything quite like that. That’s good. They’re further ahead, and that’s a credit to the coaches and the players themselves, and the focus.”