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There have been a lot of opinions about what may or may not happen in regards to college football and the current state of the country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. While ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit expressed skepticism that there would be a season, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter noted on Twitter this week that college athletic directors are optimistic about the possibility of a season happening.
One entity that we haven’t heard from during this crisis is Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who hasn’t met with the media in any regard since the state’s ‘stay at home’ measures were enacted just days before the kickoff of spring practice.
However, Harbaugh did speak in an hour-long podcast with his childhood friend Jay Nordlinger, the senior editor of conservative magazine National Review, and shared how he’s approaching the potential of a 2020 season.
“Hope and gonna prepare,” Harbaugh said. “Not gonna give it one thought that it’s not gonna happen, because it’s like being a backup quarterback. I’ve learned that it’s better to be prepared and not have the opportunity than to not prepare and your chance comes and your opportunity comes and you’re not prepared to do it. You gotta – not one thought that it won’t happen.”
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Near the end of the hour-long interview, Nordlinger asked Harbaugh about how he feels about the current generation having something of a holistic view being a head coach on a prominent college campus.
Harbaugh shared that he feels like this generation is in good hands, given how much those who are in the younger age group have taken more of an earnest interest in sociological welfare compared to that of strict individual concern.
“I think this group, this younger generation, those in their teens and early 20s see more of the world as a whole and think less about themselves and more about the planet, the environment and others,” Harbaugh said. “I have to say honestly more than those of us who grew up in the 80s. That decade seems marked more by individualism. That’s one thing I see.”
From there, Harbaugh expressed hope that what he’s seen as far as society as a whole being concerned with helping out their neighbors will continue.
A devout Catholic, who expressed in the same interview that he was most star struck when he met the current pope, Pope Francis, on the team’s trip to Rome in the spring of 2017, Harbaugh shared that he’s hoping that this type of care will continued to be expressed beyond the current pandemic.
He demurred a bit with his last words taking a strong stance against the hot-button topic of abortion — which, given his firm Catholic upbringing, isn’t terribly surprising. However, in the city of Ann Arbor, it’s sure to rankle some feathers.
“Even now, as we all go through what we’re going through with the COVID-19, I see people more concerned about others. I see more prayerful. As I said, God has virtually stopped the world from spinning. And I don’t think it’s coincidence, my own feeling, living a faith-based life. This is a message or this is something that should be a time when we grow in our faith in reverence or respect for God. You see people taking more of a view of a sanctity of life, and I hope that continue. I hope that continues and not just in this time of crisis or pandemic.
“And lastly, abortion. We talk about the sanctity of life and we live in a society that aborts babies. There can’t be anything more horrendous.”