Michigan linebacker Joe Bolden doesn’t understand the obsession with Jim Harbaugh’s trousers.
“Everybody talks about his khakis,” Bolden said. “It’s just a pair of pants. The guy wakes up and puts his pants on just like everybody else does.”
Try telling that to Fox Sports. To promote Michigan’s Thursday night season opener at Utah on Sept. 3, network officials are having a bus travel the country. The vehicle’s exterior will be wrapped in real fabric that mimics Harbaugh’s signature look, down to the play card tucked into the waist.
Asked if all the attention on Harbaugh gets old, Bolden replied: “Not at all. It’s awesome. I’d rather have a coach who’s outgoing.”
Outgoing, unpredictable, energetic, accomplished. And that’s just scratching the surface of the flaky genius who represents the renaissance of Michigan football.
Harbaugh doesn’t do quiet. His voice doesn’t boom like that of some coaches, but his actions are loud.
As Michigan’s quarterback in 1986, he guaranteed a victory over Ohio State and helped make it happen. While coaching Stanford, he ripped his alma mater because of slumping academic standards. Over the summer he ran shirtless at a camp with potential recruits, tweeted pictures from Paris, frustrated Colin Cowherd into cutting short a radio interview and showed off a Mike Ditka jersey at a media gathering in Chicago.
“He has always been like this,” said John Bacon, who first met Harbaugh in the fourth grade. “He gets away with the attention-grabbing because he is 100 percent authentic. If he feels like talking to you, he does. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t, a la Colin Cowherd. He is a fanatically focused individual.”
Bacon was there in the summer of 2014 when Harbaugh revealed his true colors. He was happy (and wildly successful) coaching the 49ers, of course, but when a friend said it was Harbaugh’s manifest destiny to coach his alma mater, Harbaugh responded with a touchdown signal.
It’s all documented in Bacon’s new book: “Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football.”
“What I respect about him,” linebacker James Ross said, “is that he has done it. He has been successful as a player and as a coach. A guy who has been successful both ways, you soak up every bit of knowledge.”
Harbaugh was a Michigan ball boy while father Jack coached under Bo Schembechler. He led the nation in passing efficiency and won the Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten’s best player. He played seven of his 14 NFL seasons for the Bears, transformed a one-victory Stanford team into an Orange Bowl champion and took the 49ers to the Super Bowl.
“What has he not done in this game?” Bacon asked.
Save Michigan. And now everyone believes he will.
At Harbaugh’s first team meeting, in January, he opened with a metaphor. We’re building a keel. Do you know what a keel is?
Few, if any, players did. A keel is the bottom frame of a boat. It needs to be sturdy, particularly on Viking ships, so it can sail.
“Once you build a foundation,” receiver Jehu Chesson said, “it’s very hard to shake it and break it. You want to build on something sturdy. That’s what Coach Harbaugh was getting at.”
Bacon described Harbaugh as “impatient, intense and a little brash. Bo’s flaws, in many ways, are Jim’s flaws.”
Schembechler’s first Michigan team, in 1969, went to the Rose Bowl. No one is expecting such instant glory from Harbaugh, given the obvious flaws in Michigan’s roster.
Asked about his goals, Harbaugh responded in a most unusual way — quietly.
More Top Picks Best Noise Reducing Earmuffs For Kids
“A successful, healthy season,” he said.
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein
Reason to believe: Michigan should be solid again on defense. And, hey, Harbaugh did engineer the greatest upset in college football history (a 41-point spread) in his first season at Stanford, taking down No. 1 USC.
Reason for doubt: Michigan lacks playmakers and has to break in a new quarterback. Fifth-year transfer Jake Rudock, once a reliable if unspectacular starter at Iowa, appears to have the edge on the turnover-prone Shane Morris.
Big hole to fill: They don’t come bigger than 330-pound nose guard Bryan Mone so his potential season-ending leg injury creates a major void in Greg Mattison’s defensive line.
Breakout player: Ty Isaac hopes to be. But first the former Joliet Catholic star running back, who transferred after rushing for 236 yards as a freshman at USC, needs to stay healthy and beat out De’Veon Smith, Drake Johnson and Derrick Green.
Season is a success if … Harbaugh can lay a foundation for success. Winning even six games will be tough, factoring in September matchups at Utah and against BYU. Michigan’s crossover conference games are also no gimmes, against Northwestern and at Minnesota.