Discussing his team’s Thursday night opener against Top 25-caliber foe Utah, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh broke out one of his uniquely awkward but well-intentioned analogies. “You want to be at that big boy table — big person’s table, might be better to say. There’s another table over there in the kitchen for those people that aren’t seated at that big person’s table. If someone wants to go over there, no one’s going to be upset if they do. But this is what we signed up for, this is what I signed up for, and I know a lot of our players did.” Much of the reason Harbaugh is back at Michigan is that college football’s all-time winningest program has spent much of the past decade at that table in the kitchen. Since 2007 — a.k.a. the Appalachian State year — the Wolverines have enjoyed just one double-digit win season while enduring three losing records. They’ve muddled their way to a 30-34 Big Ten record. And adding to the indignity, they’ve watched one rival, Ohio State, win a national championship, and the other, Michigan State, morph into a Top 10 fixture. Combine all those years of pent-up desperation in Ann Arbor with the arrival of a former Maize and Blue quarterback-turned Super Bowl coach-turned social media sensation and you get the sport’s most anticipated coaching debut in recent history. Urban Meyer taking over his native Ohio State three years ago was a similarly big deal, but the Buckeyes opened that 2012 season against a Miami of Ohio team coming off a 4-8 season. Ditto the first-year Alabama coach Nick Saban kicking off against Western Carolina in 2007. …
Continue Reading: Michigan Wolverines: All eyes are on Jim Harbaugh and there’s plenty of reason why
