ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Saturday marked an occasion that Jim Harbaugh probably never thought he’d face while still being the head coach of any team. Instead of being on the sidelines, Harbaugh watched the Michigan football season opener from somewhere that wasn’t inside the stadium. Instead, he was over at offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore’s house.
On Monday, Harbaugh demurred from sharing his own personal feeling about being physically disconnected from his team, instead choosing to shower praise on the 30-3 win over East Carolina on Saturday.
“A lot of good. Just so much positive with the team,” Harbaugh said. “The win, we came out healthy. Step one in the process (is) complete, and now we’ll reset this week and get moving forward.”
But what was it like without him there? Did the team look different at all? No, Harbaugh says, and that’s a good thing.
“It was good. Excellent,” Harbaugh said. “I really loved what I saw on our team. Colonel Minick, who I’m a lifelong friend with, he sent me a message and he said that there’s a military saying that the true sign of your leadership is what your unit does when you aren’t there. For us, I thought it was really great. Our captains, our senior leadership, our coaches, all were phenomenal.
“When we started fall camp, I told the team that Moses had 70 leaders. How many of you think we need? More, we need a lot more. And I think we have that and it’s building. You talk about turning a negative into a positive, I just love the way our team is doing that. It’s a unique opportunity to build leadership, build leaders, because they have a chance to make those incredible leadership bonds. And personally, that’s great.
“It’s great watching the team. They play fast, physical, smart, tough. And personally, I felt the love, too, which was great from our team and from the Michigan faithful.”
There were a lot of instances where Harbaugh could feel the love. From the team getting off the bus with shirts emblazoned with his name and personage to J.J. McCarthy’s statement shirt saying ‘Free Harbaugh’ to the team running a train formation and holding No. 4 before running for exactly four yards.
These were moments that stood out to the head ball coach, less because the players were publicly supporting him, and more because these instances were examples of them being loose and having fun.
“Yeah, I felt the love from them just doing them,” Harbaugh said. “I could see it in our players. I could see it in our coaches. And that’s what I wanted to do. I want them to do them. ‘Do you,’ is the way we say it around here. I saw them having fun. Saw them executing and playing good and felt the love from them and the Michigan faithful.”
Harbaugh will watch the game from afar yet again this upcoming week when the Wolverines host UNLV. The game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. EDT from The Big House and will be nationally broadcast on CBS.