C'mon dad: Harbaugh can't escape high expectations
CHICAGO – In just his second season of leading an overhaul at his alma mater, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has grown accustomed to high expectations - from fans, the betting public (which has made U-M the favorite in Las Vegas to win a national championship) and even his own family.
One day removed from playing in a three-day celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Harbaugh was the center of attention as Big Ten Media Days kicked off Monday in Chicago. Talking about his golf game proved even more painful than facing a room full of reporters.
Mainly because of the pressure he felt from those nearest and dearest to him.
"I wouldn't call it fun," he said about finishing as a distant also-ran on the links. "My wife and my kids expected me to win the tournament. I told them that I wasn't. I told them if you don't practice something, you don't have a chance to win. But they're like, 'C'mon dad, you're going to win. You're just saying that. You're going to win.' So I had to come back after each round and tell them I wasn't winning and I didn't win.
"My motivation was to get a semi-free vacation. But I had to take the pain of actually telling them I wasn't good and didn't win."
There's been precious little time to work on his putting, what with Harbaugh running satellite football camps all over the country and trolling peers and rivals on Twitter and looking for any way he can push buttons, push the envelope and set the college football world on its ear.
The trick will be Michigan making as much noise on the field as its coach has away from it. The Wolverines are stacked with returnees from a team that went 10-3 and clobbered Florida in the Citrus Bowl. But ... there's a couple of big buts. They will be breaking in a new quarterback, either Houston transfer John O'Korn or Wilton Speight, and three of their last five games are road trips to Michigan State, Iowa and Ohio State.
This marks the 30th anniversary of Michigan's starting quarterback - that would be Harbaugh - guaranteeing and delivering a victory at Ohio State that gave the Wolverines a Big Ten championship and trip to the Rose Bowl.
This will be his first time back in the famed Horseshoe since then, looking to avenge last year's 42-13 loss in his first game as a coach in the storied rivalry.
"It stings a lot if you lose a game," Harbaugh said when asked how he felt afterwards. "This year we'll be excited about it, what the feeling is like playing a good team on the road in a big stadium. If we can get some weather in there (on Nov. 26) - some snow or rain - that's the ultimate.
"There's no better feeling in life. We'll have that opportunity. Two extremes, right? Best feeling and worst feeling. We're chasing the best feeling."
Harbaugh was the show Monday, especially since Ohio State's Urban Meyer, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz won't face reporters until Tuesday. At the podium, he never mentioned Ohio State, not because he has an aversion to referring to his rival by name, like Meyer, but because reporters seemed more interested in talking about his golf game, or his decision to wear a ball cap with his sport coat and tie, or his rap video.
In case you haven't seen the video with Bay Area rapper Bailey, a fan from Harbaugh's days of leading the San Francisco 49ers, the face of Michigan football is seen repeatedly staring into the camera and shouting the family mantra, coined by his father Jack: Who's got it better than us?
"My default is usually (to say) yes," Harbaugh said about agreeing to do the video. "Why not? The reaction here has been very good ... I think the cool people liked it."
Ohio State fans didn't think it was very cool when Harbaugh roasted Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith on Twitter. Smith took the first shot when asked about Harbaugh taking his team to Florida for part of its spring practice.
"If we were jump starting our program," Smith said, "I'd probably try to do that, too."
Harbaugh fired back on social media: Good to see Director Smith being relevant again after the tattoo fiasco. Welcome back!
Smith later apologized, but when asked Monday if he made his attack too personal, Harbaugh didn't back off.
"Somebody made a joke about us and our program and we fired one back over their bow, and I think that's warranted," Harbaugh said. "I still think that's warranted, and I don't believe an apology is necessary."
Harbaugh tried to keep the mood light, avoiding any deep analysis about what appears to be a loaded East Division in the Big Ten, sticking to his fall-back line of being better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today.
He even poked fun at himself and his vocabulary while talking about the fight for playing time on a team that is strong just about everywhere.
"There will be no games, tricks or politics," he said. "It doesn't matter if you're on scholarship or not on scholarship. Everything will be based on meritocracy ... as it should be."
As the moderator turned to the next reporter with a question, Harbaugh cut him off.
"Is meritocracy a word, or did I make it up?" he asked. "It is a word? Yeah!"
If Harbaugh can't win on the golf course, there's always Scrabble.
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