Podcast: Balas and Skene on a Michigan Natty, Jim Harbaugh future, more
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is flirting with the NFL again, but he’ll leave the Wolverines with a National Championship and three straight Big Ten titles if he goes. The coach returned to his roots to get U-M to the pinnacle, using a devastating running game behind a physical offensive line and an outstanding defense to lead the Wolverines to a 15-0 season, capped by a 34-13 victory over Washington in the National Championship game.
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Harbaugh had plenty on his mind in the days after the game.
“I think about [former Michigan coach and the late] Bo Schembechler in Heaven him looking down. I think there are some things he’d be talking about coming off the ball with lower pad level,” Harbaugh said. “But I think he would be really pleased. We rushed the ball for 300 yards. He’d really love [senior running back] Blake Corum. He would love him like we do. It makes you feel good.
“Other things … to get to a thousand wins this year for Michigan, that was such a thing. For a couple years now we’ve been counting that down. To do it this year, do it in this fashion, now to have 1,004 wins … no team has won more. It’s in the video that my dad Jack and I wrote back in like 2015, that James Earl Jones narrated. No team has won more. No high school team has got to a thousand wins. No pro football team, no college team. That’s something that 144 years of players, coaches, staff, we feel that … we know contributed to that, and we’re very proud of that. To get there first, it was a race. It was a challenge.”
It took 6 years to win the first championship, but he got the program rolling. He chose to stay in the present rather than look back too much at the struggle.
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“I don’t know how hard they were. I never really looked at it as hard,” the Michigan coach said. “They were joyful days. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I have a few regrets, but just a few, and just some of the best times. Some of the best times.
“What an exclamation point our guys put on this season. We took on all comers. We were the last ones standing. It feels great to be the champs, and I get it — in my own family, my dad [former Michigan assistant Jack Harbaugh] won a national championship [at Western Kentucky]. My brother’s won a Super Bowl [with the Baltimore Ravens]. And it’s really cool. I feel like I can hold my head up high now, at least be at their same level, not sit at the kids’ table anymore, get to join the big person’s table.”
Chris Balas and former Michigan All-Big Ten offensive lineman Doug Skene talk about the accomplishments, Jim Harbaugh’s future, and more in today’s podcast.
