With physical play, Michigan zigged while others zagged, took the ‘low-hanging fruit’ and turned college football on its head

When you talk about Jim Harbaugh , you’re talking about a guy who immediately changes programs. He did it at San Diego , then Stanford , with the San Francisco 49ers and his alma mater, Michigan . There’s great confidence he’ll do it again in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers, too.

Harbaugh took over a five-win Michigan team back in 2015, and even though the Wolverines lost their opener at Utah, it was apparent they were nowhere near the same as the prior campaign. There was a different look, and it wasn’t just the all-white uniform combination. It was the toughness, physicality, organization and togetherness — to name a few traits.

Despite being an All-American and 15-year NFL quarterback, Harbaugh is known more for running the football and playing defense with great success than he is for having offenses that throw the ball all over the yard.

The Wolverines couldn’t quite get over the hump Harbaugh’s first four seasons in Ann Arbor. College football was changing at the time, too. Michigan saw it right in front of its eyes in 2017, when Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins entered the game (for the injured J.T. Barrett ) at The Big House and spun it with success, accumulating 94 yards on 6 completions. The next year, that same quarterback ran it up on the Wolverines in a 62-39 win in Columbus, throwing for 396 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Ohio State had moved from a power spread run-heavy attack to something much more wide open, suiting their skill set with five-star receivers and great quarterbacks. Oklahoma was doing the same thing with head coach Lincoln Riley , who made three-straight CFP appearances from 2017-19. Even old-school coaches like Nick Saban ditched run-heavy offenses for more of a spread look with elite signal-callers.

Harbaugh adapted, too, bringing in offensive coordinator Josh Gattis (from Alabama) to introduce a no-huddle, spread attack. And while Michigan found some success with three-straight games of 300-plus passing yards at the end of the 2019 regular season, the experiment didn’t work out.

The 2020 season was a disaster on a number of levels (some out of their control), with one of the reasons being that Michigan ran for only 4.6 yards per carry and completely abandoned its ground game at times, attempting only 28.7 rushes per contest (122nd in the country). That last number is almost unthinkable for a Harbaugh-coached team.

The Michigan coach hardly ever admitted to making changes while speaking publicly, probably in order to not diminish teams or staff members of the past. He did in an interview with ESPN’s Pat McAfee after taking the Chargers job , though, describing how Michigan went back to its own — and Harbaugh’s — roots ahead of the 2021 campaign.

“It all goes back to [late legendary NFL coach] Vince Lombardi , right? Football is blocking and tackling,” Harbaugh said. “And there was a time there in college football where it was getting all this wide open stuff. Saw a real opportunity, some real low-hanging fruit … if they zig, we’ll zag. We’ll be the yin to their yang. We’ll just come out and get a heck of a lot more physical.”

Boy, did they. Things were different from the jump that season, too, with a new energy around the team. The Wolverines were one of the most physical teams in America after being nowhere close to that the prior season, rushing for 300-plus yards in three games and over 200 in seven.

The Maize and Blue beat up on a, well, less physical Ohio State squad at the end of November, creating a celebration at The Big House that looked closer to a movie scene than a college football setting. Michigan ran for 297 yards and 6 touchdowns, beating the Buckeyes into submission and getting a few more blows in just for the heck of it.

Michigan didn’t just see that it could be a productive offense with that style — Harbaugh and Co. recognized they could beat Ohio State that way. The Buckeyes weren’t as tough and tightened down since Urban Meyer resigned in disgrace and Ryan Day took over, and Harbaugh thought the Maize and Blue could take advantage.

Asked after Michigan’s 42-27 victory over the Buckeyes in 2021 — the first of three-consecutive wins in the rivalry — when he knew they could run on the Buckeyes (“early in the week, early in the game?”) here’s what Harbaugh said:

“Back in spring ball. That was something we felt we could do — and we wanted to get really good at it. And preparing for the game as we have been, really all season, it didn’t seem like anybody tried that approach. And we felt confident that our offensive line could move them, our receivers would block and our running backs would be incredible. And they were.”

Michigan rode that style to three-straight Big Ten titles and the 2023 national championship — even though, years earlier, the program was told by critics and so-called experts that it couldn’t win that way. Doing it anyway was that much more satisfying.

The truth is, that was always Harbaugh’s preferred method. But his preferred method is also to win, and he made changes in a search for more, and bigger, victories. Can’t fault him for that. But he made the right choice in returning to the way he knows and likes to win.

This excerpt from an interview Harbaugh did with Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd Feb. 5, 2016 says it all about Harbaugh’s love for smash-mouth football.

Cowherd: You transformed, within about 15 games, Stanford. I remember a coach telling me this — he said, ‘I’m going to tell you this, and you’re not going to believe it.’ He said, ‘Stanford is the most physical team in our conference.’ This is your second year; you’re weren’t a great football team yet. You’re doing it at Michigan.

Harbaugh: First of all, it’s not a personal accomplishment. It’s a team effort. That’s what took place at Stanford, is taking place there and the same at Michigan. An effort where everybody does a little and it adds up to a lot. That mentality that [late Chicago Bears owner] George Halas talked about many years ago — it begins with the team, ends with the team. True words then, true words now.

Cowherd: Everybody loves no huddle, spread it out, eight receivers.

Harbaugh: It’s good. Good stuff.

Cowherd: But I watched Michigan this year — I watched every game, it was on TV — you kinda punched people in the mouth, you kinda run down hill.

Harbaugh: Rattle some fillings! That’s always fun, too. [At this point, Harbaugh’s smiling.]

Cowherd: Is that true to your heart. Is that who you are at your core, that kind of football?

Harbaugh: … Yeah. Yeah. I like that kind of football. Just as a person watching football, I love it when they get near the goal line, when they get inside the 10-yard line and the field shrinks and you have to play that kind of football. At any level, you gotta get into a two-tight-end [formation], balanced line, fullback in the ball game, tailback in the game, maybe bring in an extra offensive lineman and you gotta run the football. I like that; that’s real football.

Real football, indeed, and in the year of our Lord 2024, it still works.

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