Yes, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh can be odd and frustrating. But college football needs him.
LOS ANGELES — When it was time for Jim Harbaugh to get onto his podium at the Rose Bowl’s media day, there was an immediate problem. The black leather chair that had been placed on the stage for him was too low. He wanted to be higher.
As Michigan staffers scrambled to find something they could use to prop up the chair, Harbaugh stood off to the side, chatting with a reporter about the chickens he keeps in his yard − a topic he’s always happy to discuss.
Was he just trying to run out the clock on Michigan’s hour in front of the media, delaying the uncomfortable questions about sign-stealing, the dual suspensions that forced him to miss six games this season and his potential interest in the NFL? Or was he really just uncomfortable sitting in a normal-sized chair?
With Harbaugh, you truly never know.
There’s only one coach in college football who could manage to produce such mundane, oddball moments 48 hours before the biggest game of his Michigan career.
There’s only one coach who could take a question from a religious publication at media day and produce a sound bite like "Jesus would have been a five-star player, no doubt about it."
There’s only one coach who can brush away controversy so easily with just a few words − "one-track mind" − that he kept saying over and over Saturday to the point of frustration for those of us trying to extract something meaningful about what this chaotic season has truly been like.
And let’s hope after Monday’s Rose Bowl that this sport doesn't lose him forever.
Because as bizarre and opaque and calculating as Harbaugh may seem, his nine years at Michigan haven't just been good for the Wolverines. They’ve been good for college football.
A sport in desperate need of characters − and villains − has been serendipitously given a great gift this season. From a tussle with the NCAA over minor recruiting violations to America learning the name Connor Stalions to reaching the College Football Playoff, Michigan and Harbaugh have officially become the sport’s bête noire.
And whether Harbaugh wins a national championship or not in the coming days, it all ends if he skulks out of Ann Arbor and heads back to the NFL.
"We’re 48 hours away from the Rose Bowl," he said, ending any lines of questioning about his future. "That’s everything. That’s our complete focus."
It’s easy to see why this Michigan run feels a bit like a last hurrah for Harbaugh. After consecutive playoff failures, this is the team he’s spent nearly a decade trying to build. This is the season where college football’s traditional championship-winning bluebloods have been just diminished enough to open the door for a program like Michigan, which − let’s be real here − takes the stars aligning a certain way to get in that mix. There’s a reason the Wolverines, for all their tradition, own just half a national title since 1950.
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This, however, has also been a season of immense hardship. Harbaugh has been in the NCAA's crosshairs for the last year, and he has handed them more than enough material to cast doubt on what his tenure would even look like if he comes back next season. He’s interviewed with NFL teams over the last two offseasons, and his interest in returning to that league is undeniable. His relationship with Michigan's athletics director, Warde Manuel, has been up-and-down over the course of his tenure.
It just makes sense that Harbaugh would take his last, best shot at delivering a title, then go back to a league where he doesn't have to worry about answering to some pencil-pushing NCAA investigator.
But here’s the thing with Harbaugh: You never know what he’s thinking. Nobody does. Even people who work with him, who have relationships with him, who see a side of him that the public doesn’t, are no more insightful about his future than those of us shouting questions that we know he’s not going to answer.
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Regardless of what happens against Alabama, or possibly the following Monday in Houston, there’s no way to guess. Harbaugh has reportedly had a contract extension in front of him that will make him one of the highest-paid figures in the sport.
There have also been reports lately that he isn’t on board with all of the provisions in the deal, including one that would prevent him from engaging with NFL teams for at least the next year. There are also, perhaps, some contentious issues surrounding Michigan’s ability to get out of the contract if there are more significant NCAA violations found.
It seems like there’s a bit of a negotiation happening through the media, which can get squirrely for both parties. It also suggests that everything isn't as hunky-dory as Harbaugh makes it seem with his constant stream of positivity about everything happening around his program.
"It has been a spiritual journey. It's been a mission," he said. "It's daily, weekly, monthly. It's a year now. One year with this team that they've been on this mission. It's been a happy mission."
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It’s also been a mission that shows what a truly remarkable coach he is. Harbaugh undeniably lives on the edge of the rules. He’s done it since he got to Michigan, and if he gets hammered by the NCAA because of either Stalions’ actions or his own refusal to be truthful with NCAA investigators (over what seem to be minor recruiting violations), it's all self-inflicted.
That kind of anvil hanging over the program would tear most teams apart. Michigan’s season could have been derailed multiple times, particularly when learning on Nov. 10 after landing in State College, Pennsylvania, that Harbaugh had been suspended by the Big Ten for the rest of the regular season.
And yet, week after week, no matter the circumstances or the fear about what kind of accusations might be hurled at this program next, Michigan performed with consistency week after week. It’s a true credit not just to Harbaugh's organization but the kind of players he’s recruited that everything stayed on course despite so many opportunities to have this thing fall apart.
"In the two years I've been here previously to this year, I've never seen him as happy as he was this year, even with everything that was going on," quarterback JJ McCarthy said. "He’s a special guy, special, special dude.
"You know, he's human, so obviously I feel like he feels it a little bit more than he says he does. He talks about how he's got this iron gut where there's nothing that really shakes him. There's no emotion that will really knock him off his speed of just doing what it is he's capable of doing on a day-to-day basis."
In a business where a lot of times you wonder what these guys are in it for and whether they truly care about their players, Harbaugh is one you never question. He has faults, and he is high-maintenance and often frustrating in his public aloofness, but you need only spend a few minutes around Michigan’s program to understand how much his guys buy into everything he brings to the table.
"He’s definitely a players' coach," linebacker Michael Barrett said. "He's always going to fight for his guys."
He's also one of the few coaches who has stood up publicly and said that college athletes should get paid, which makes Harbaugh an invaluable voice of reason as the sport undergoes some of these massive changes.
If this is it for Harbaugh, he’s done everything he was supposed to do and then some. He's restored Michigan to respectability on the field. He’s flipped the rivalry with Ohio State, winning three Big Ten titles in a row. If he wins a national title, it’s pure gravy.
It's also true that, fair or not, this season has turned Harbaugh into the most polarizing figure in the sport. If Michigan wins on Monday, the accusations of cheating will continue to follow all the way to Houston. If the Wolverines lose, there will be told-you-sos and schadenfreude from Columbus, Ohio, to Pasadena and probably a bunch of places in-between.
But for all his faults and all the accusations of chicanery that have surrounded Michigan this season, college football is better with him than without him. Let’s hope Monday isn't the last time we see him with the Block M on his chest.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jim Harbaugh can be odd and secretive. But college football needs him.
