Four college football seasons ago, most Ohio State football fans wanted Jim Harbaugh to stay at Michigan forever.

The Wolverines coach turned a lot of stomachs with his oddball comments and sanctimonious attitude, but he could not beat OSU, going 0-4 against Urban Meyer and 0-1 against Ryan Day before the pandemic wiped out the 2020 rivalry game. Buckeye Nation would push for Thanos to remain as coach in Ann Arbor if it meant going 5-0 against the maize and blue.

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Then things flipped. The Harbaugh who couldn’t win big games suddenly couldn’t lose to Ohio State. Day haters will argue it’s been more OSU’s undoing under Meyer’s replacement than anything Harbaugh has done, but that fails to acknowledge Michigan’s recent improvement under Captain Khaki Pants. You don’t reach the College Football Playoff national championship through lucky breaks alone.

It took a while, but Harbaugh brought Michigan back, which is why Ohio State fans should be sorry to see him go, whenever that is, whether days, weeks or years. (My vote is weeks, either to the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears or Los Angeles Chargers).

Harbaugh made The Game so competitive again that fans on both sides of the Ohio-Michigan border wonder if it will ever be competitive again, with UM having won the past three.

But it’s not just because the Wolverines have owned the Buckeyes since 2000 that Harbaugh has been good for the rivalry. There also are the NCAA investigations and the barely veiled slapshots at Day that have brought some Woody-Bo drama back to the proceedings.

Then there is the hypocrisy. Harbaugh has called out other programs for sleazy recruiting practices, yet Michigan faces NCAA penalties for its own recruiting violations, and the Big Ten ruled Michigan violated its sportsmanship policy by illegally stealing opponents’ sideline signals. Total it up and Harbaugh is a much more interesting and effective foil than Rich Rodriguez or Brady Hoke ever was. RichRod received as much criticism from his own fans and former players as from Ohio State people, while Hoke’s hottest take was calling OSU “Ohio.”

It’s pretty much given that UM offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore gets the job when Harbaugh leaves. Moore is not as “out there” with his comments as his current boss.

“He certainly can’t be as weird (as Harbaugh),” said Upper Arlington resident Matt Stout, who handles press box announcing duties during Michigan games. “Other fans find Harbaugh irritating. Michigan fans don’t mind.“

Harbaugh is beloved by UM fans, at least now, Stout said.

“He returned the program to glory, actually took it higher than it has ever been in the modern era,” Stout said, mentioning UM’s three consecutive outright Big Ten titles and three straight wins over Ohio State. “Now, if the NCAA hammers the program, perhaps that will leave a bad taste, but I doubt it. Ohio State fans adore Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. All were far from perfect and had their flaws. Fans don’t care as long as the guy wins. He will be missed greatly.”

Championship-level friendship

Best buddies Tony Castricone and Brian Boesch had a lot to say leading up to Monday’s College Football Playoff national championship game between Washington and Michigan.

Castricone, a 2000 St. Charles graduate from Centerburg who worked at WBNS radio from 2005 to 2010, is the play-by-play radio voice of the Washington Huskies. Boesch, from Medina, hosts the pre-game, halftime and post-game shows for Michigan, as well as doing play-by-play for Wolverines men’s basketball.

The pair graduated from Ohio University and were roommates while working in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“Brian is like a brother to me,” Castricone said in an article posted on the Ohio website.

High school hoops game marred by mayhem

A scary situation turned chaotic Saturday during the Pickerington Central-Walnut Ridge boys basketball game at Africentric Early College when multiple fights broke out during the fourth quarter after someone brandished a Taser in the stands.

After the initial skirmish happened in the upper stands, a fight broke out behind the basket at the other end of the court, followed by fans hustling from the stands toward the court.

Both teams rushed to their locker rooms while Columbus police and school security tried to stop the fighting. The melee resulted in cancellation of the game as well as the next one, which was the fifth and final tipoff of “The Classic” event at Africentric.

A shame that a positive event had to be marred by knuckleheads.

After consulting with security personnel and others working at the event, Africentric coach Michael Bates said he was told a young fan displayed a stun gun, prompting the incident. Fans had to pass through a metal detector while entering the school.

“Unfortunately, somebody had a little Taser, and it went off. Nobody got hit with it, but they heard it go off. It’s a scary sound, and that’s when people left the stands,” Bates said.

Listening in

“When I was younger, I always wanted to play a game in the snow. Then I play a game in the snow and was like, ‘That kind of sucked.’ ” – New England tailback Ezekiel Elliott, after Sunday’s 17-3 loss to the New York Jets Sunday in snowy Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Off-topic

Not complaining, more just find it amusing that almost every time I tell someone outside my family that I’m off to cover a sporting event, they say, “Have fun!” Curious how many others hear the same thing when leaving for work?

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State will miss Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh when he's gone