Hiring of new Michigan coach brings Harbaugh family back into fold

Jack Harbaugh moved his family 17 times as a football coach, so he might not be the best person to ask if he thinks his son, Jim, is in it for the long haul at the University of Michigan.

Then again, the elder Harbaugh spent seven years as an assistant with the Wolverines — a period he told me was "magical."

Michigan recently concluded its first spring under Jim Harbaugh and his dad was there for most of it. In fact, Jack and wife Jackie are seriously considering moving from Wisconsin back to Ann Arbor.

They didn't need an aggressive real estate agent to sell them on the idea. All they had to do was attend their son's Dec. 30 press conference, welcoming the former Michigan captain — the entire family, really — back into the fold.

"It was the first time I walked into a room and we didn't see faces ... we saw stories," Jack Harbaugh, a 75-year-old Crestline native, said. "Every face was a story ... six or seven defensive backs I've coached were there, at least three or four coaches who were on the staff in the Seventies, were in the room; there must have been about 15 players Jim played with there. Every time you turned you saw another face, another story."

Jack Harbaugh doesn't know how much his love for Michigan swayed his son after it became apparent that management wanted him out — three trips to the NFC Championship Game in four years, notwithstanding — as coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

"I think it was pretty much the whole family," Jack Harbaugh said. "Jackie went to school (at Michigan). She picked up 16 hours toward her doctorate degree in Ann Arbor. She worked in the ticket office. She has so many friends there. Same with our kids. John (the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens and Jim's older brother) graduated from high school at Ann Arbor Pioneer, right across the street from (Michigan) stadium.

"So to come back home to Michigan and be the head coach, it's kind of like living the dream, I guess. That's what it came down to."

Returning Michigan to national relevance isn't going to happen overnight. It's hard to glean much from any spring game, but the 7-0 score in Michigan's glorified scrimmage hinted at the long road ahead.

It's very possible the starting quarterback for Michigan this fall isn't even on campus. This summer is when Jake Rudock, who is expected to graduate from Iowa and transfer with immediate eligibility, would join the competition. Zach Gentry, a four-star recruit from New Mexico and the gem of Harbaugh's first recruiting class, will be in the mix by then, too.

"I saw Michigan play one time last year," said Mike Gottfried, a former major college coach and ESPN analyst from Crestline and close relative of the Harbaughs. "I was surprised by the lack of game-breakers. I think it's going to take him a year or two to recruit and bring in better players.

"The first year of recruiting is a wash. My first year at the Pittsburgh, I got in there late. We got some good players, but not nearly what Penn State got or West Virginia got. We were behind .. but the next year we caught up."

Harbaugh is ultra-competitive and headstrong, maybe to a fault if you ask 49ers officials or rival coaches, but there's no arguing the results. He led the University of San Diego to two mid-major national titles. At Stanford — where his father had also served as an assistant — he took a 1-11 team to an Orange Bowl victory in four years. With the 49ers, he ended an eight-year playoff drought, reaching the NFC title game each of his first three years and Super Bowl XLVII, which he lost to his brother John.

He's joining a Big Ten East Division — the new SEC East? — with equally strong personalities in Ohio State's Urban Meyer, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio and Penn State's James Franklin.

"I would say this: The three best players in the Big Ten are going to play in that division and they're all going to play on the same team," Gottfried said, referring to OSU quarterbacks Braxton Miller, JT Barrett and Cardale Jones.

When reminded of Buckeyes tailback Ezekiel Elliott, perhaps the leading contender for the 2015 Heisman Trophy, Gottfried laughed.

"Let me readjust my quote," he said. "The four best players are all going to play on the same team."

One way or another, Jim Harbaugh will make sure Michigan makes headlines. It's already happened, whether he's assisting crash victims on the way to the airport or ruffling rival coaches by attending summer satellite camps away from campus in recruiting hotbeds — a practice some conferences like the SEC don't allow.

Harbaugh has been getting noticed at Michigan since he was a 9-year-old assistant coach's kid hanging out at practices run by legendary coach Bo Schembechler.

"They had the run of the place," Jack Harbaugh said of his sons. "Jim would be throwing a ball around with Andy Moeller (now the offensive line coach of the Cleveland Browns and son of former Michigan coach Gary Moeller) and every once in awhile the ball would get loose on the field and Bo would go ballistic. 'Get those damn kids off my field!'

"Every single day those kids were around Bo. They'd hang out at his office or he'd stop by the house. We'd go over to watch the Tigers (Gates Brown, another Crestline native, was one of the stars) and take our kids. It just seemed like all the stars came together in Ann Arbor."

Lexington graduate Courtney Avery originally planned to play for Harbaugh at Stanford before changing his mind and signing with Michigan where he would make a game-sealing interception against Ohio State in 2011 and be named a team captain in 2013.

"The biggest drawback (to going to Michigan) was not being with coach Harbaugh," Avery said. "He couldn't argue with my decision too much since I was going to his alma mater. He respected my decision and told me if I ever need anything to reach out to him.

"I liked him a lot. He was easy to connect with. He had high integrity and didn't make any promises. He was a straight shooter. That goes a long way."

Like many, Avery doesn't think it will take long for Harbaugh to turn things around at Michigan. But he'll have to do it without dad's help.

Although Jack Harbaugh was on his son's staff at San Diego, he'll be more of an observer this time around.

"This used to be a simple game," he said, laughing. "It's gotten so complicated. I'm not up to snuff with what's going on in the game these days."

But he does remember that the Michigan-Ohio State game is always the regular season finale and this year the rivalry returns to Ann Arbor on Nov. 28. He won't be making any other plans.

"God willing," Jack Harbaugh said, "and the creek don't rise, I'll be there."

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