INDIANAPOLIS — Eventually, Mount Harbaugh will erupt. The caldera is smoking, the volcanic heat is building, and there will be a spewing of indignation (righteous or otherwise) whenever the coach of the Michigan Wolverines is allowed to talk about being charged with NCAA violations.
Until that comes, Jim Harbaugh will lead the nation in reluctant no comments.
“I’m not allowed to talk about any aspect of that ongoing situation,” he said Thursday at Big Ten media days, the first of many times he answered questions that way. “I’m with you, I would love to lay it all out there. Nothing to be ashamed of. But now is not that time. That’s about all there is to say about that.”
There is plenty more to say, eventually. The target date for the Mount Harbaugh eruption is Aug. 28, the Monday before the Wolverines’ season opener, which Harbs presumably will not be coaching. That could be an epic press conference.
He’s likely headed toward a four-game suspension, which he will not take quietly. His character has been impugned, his immense pride is injured, his back is up. (“Nothing to be ashamed of,” tacked on to a no-comment says a lot.)
This is eating at him. A Michigan Man who views himself as a rule follower and an upstanding guy is facing a likely four-game suspension from the NCAA. He’s about to see his name entered on college athletics’ 2023 rap sheet alongside Jeremy Pruitt and Will Wade.
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So, yeah, Harbaugh is going to go off at some point. Does he have a legitimate gripe? We’ll have to wait and see once the infractions case is closed and gag orders have been lifted. A negotiated resolution has been submitted to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which can decide whether to accept it, add penalties, reduce penalties or call for a hearing. That should be resolved by late August.
But at this point, Michigan is acknowledging and accepting that violations occurred and that Harbaugh committed some of them (other coaches, current and former, are implicated as well). They’re not Level I violations (the most significant kind), but Harbaugh turned this into a more serious case by allegedly lying to NCAA investigators when asked about his impermissible contact with recruits during the COVID-19 dead period.
Harbaugh told Enforcement reps he didn’t meet with recruits in Ann Arbor in 2020, sources familiar with the case tell Sports Illustrated. Enforcement subsequently produced evidence that he did, indeed, meet with them during a time when contact was not allowed. After a protracted dispute, Harbaugh acknowledged that his statements to investigators were at odds with their evidence, while maintaining that he did not remember the meetings.
Amnesia. It can strike at the strangest times.
Anyway, Harbaugh is staring at a major sanction that will keep him from coaching his loaded team for one-third of the regular season. If a coach of a national championship contender has ever been sidelined for that much of a season before, I can’t remember it. But the game penalties are not as painful for Harbaugh as being labeled a cheater and/or liar.
This is a reputational smudge, no matter the maize-and-blue equivocating. And there is a lot of that going on. The default Michigan fan complaint is that Harbaugh is being hammered over a hamburger after allegedly buying recruits burgers at an Ann Arbor restaurant. (A literal and figurative “nothing burger,” to the apologists.)
Contrary to that willful misrepresentation of the case, this isn’t about a hamburger. It’s about breaking clearly understood rules, then lying about it and being discovered in the lie. The NCAA sent a message to the membership in 2020 that it would pursue instances of recruiting during the pandemic dead period. This is the proof. In this case, even a big-name coach at a blueblood program was held accountable.
So unless Harbaugh can eventually articulate some compelling reason why the understood facts of the case are incorrect or misleading, it’s difficult to feel sorry for him. He’s not Pruitt or Wade, but he did violate the rules and get caught.
And truth be told, Michigan should get through his suspension without a loss.
The schedule is soft during that stretch: East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green and Rutgers, all at home. This is the unintentional benefit of Michigan dumping non-conference series against UCLA and Virginia Tech—the Wolverines were supposed to have played the Bruins in 2022 and ’23, and the Hokies in ’20 and ’21. Instead of the Wolverines making a trip to Pasadena this season, East Carolina comes to the Big House.
Michigan figures to be a double-digit favorite in all four games, even without Harbaugh. Especially since he is expected to be allowed to coach practice during the week, just not coaching on Saturdays in the Big House.
Those games should be talent mismatches. Michigan is coming off seasons of 12–2 and 13–1, with a loaded returning roster and a talented freshman class. After two years of losing in the College Football Playoff semifinals, the expectation is a legitimate run at a national championship.
To that end, Harbaugh has instituted a “beat Georgia” period in every practice. That’s in addition to the customary “beat Ohio State” period—after routing the arch-rival Buckeyes the past two seasons, it’s clearly time to aim higher. Georgia is now the target.
Harbaugh quoted pro wrestler Rick Flair when talking about the two-time national champion Bulldogs: “To be The Man you have to beat The Man.” Specifically, you have to be as tough as The Man. The “beat Georgia” period is an emphasis on running the ball and stopping the run—an area of the game where the Bulldogs physically pulverized the Wolverines when they met in the 2021 playoff.
“That’s what I really respect about that team,” Harbaugh said. “Their ability to run the ball when when the other team knows they’re going to run, and the ability to stop the run.”
If Michigan’s season unfolds as expected, there might be another meeting with Georgia at the end. Should that come to pass, a four-game suspension at the start will be all but forgotten.
But not by Jim Harbaugh. His pride and reputation are in question, and that will trigger the volcano within.
