Jim Harbaugh comes back to Ann Arbor, but he will have to tweak his sometimes abrasive personality to have success at Michigan. (Flickr, MGoBlog)
Last week, Jim Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, ushering back in thoughts of the late 1980′s, the last time the quarterback-turned-coach roamed the famed sidelines at Michigan Stadium.
In 2014, however, the stadium’s name is the only familiarity Harbaugh will find when he walks in. Gone are the days of the big two and little eight. A competitive landscape awaits chalk full of challenges from East Lansing to Columbus and plenty of locales in between, and Harbaugh the coach must be ready to embrace and respect those challenges.
Humility and Harbaugh haven’t necessarily gone hand-in-hand forever. This is, after all, the man who once guaranteed victory over Ohio State (and won), who poked at the bear that was Pete Carroll coaching at USC (and won), and was brash enough to pick a fight with his San Francisco 49ers’ bosses despite plenty of success (and still manage to come out ahead).
Yet, a sea change must happen for the coach quickly in his new locale. A dose of its usual arrogance isn’t what Michigan needs at the moment. Not after being humiliated on and off the field for the better part of eight years. They’ve tried the brashness with foolish stunts like skywriting and stake planting
What Harbaugh must do is admit Michigan has a problem on the field and work to tackle it head-on. Fundamentals and winning are the only thing that will possibly cure the Wolverines’ current woes. Talk is cheap, but play on the field is not. Michigan has had their problems both inside and outside the lines.
Harbaugh can’t be the story himself by issuing foolish decrees, making grand statements or challenging teams or coaches in the Big Ten who have been successful. Those tactics might work at Stanford or while trying to rebuild the image of the 49ers, but the last thing Michigan needs is another reason to seem like a punch-line, especially if Harbaugh doesn’t manage to come out on top in a battle like he’s used to doing.
In a sense, the Wolverines’ job was perfect for Harbaugh because it allows him the chance to do what he does best: coach and teach football. Really, that’s all Michigan needs him to do. They don’t need him to be a unifier or a pacifier, nor do they need him to be an edgy savior, pushing back verbally at all the teams who have wronged the Wolverines during their recent rough run.
With victories on the field, all of that will find a way to come back by itself.
Though he has succeeded in other stops, finding the proper cult of personality at his alma mater will be Harbaugh’s biggest challenge in his new job. Can he become the type of man who can put his head down, keep quiet, stay humble and work without some type of incessant drama? Can he meaningfully tweak the abrasive personality that has seemed to define him throughout the years?
In order to have success at Michigan and truly impact a very different Big Ten landscape, that’s exactly what Harbaugh will have to do.
Max DeMara is a senior editor at The Detroit Sports Site. You can find him on Twitter @SportsGuyTheMax