Whether the old Jim Harbaugh is back is uncertain.
But at least he seemed at ease again.
Inside Crisler Center, after Saturday's 47-14 triumph over Western Michigan, Harbaugh could savor the taste of victory again and reflect on what went right, instead of all that had gone so terriblywrong over the past year.
Michigan football’s victory may not foreshadow a comeback season for the Wolverines.
But it must have felt pretty awesome.
“It was good to see our players have success,” he said. “That’s the thing that I wanted to see the most.”
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As the old saying goes, winning cures all. For Michigan, which ailed throughout the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, any positive result was tantamount to an elixir. The Wolverines endured so much last fall. They stumbled at nearly every turn, losing in surprising and historic fashion to Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Penn State. The team’s wan complexion became the reflection of the cold, gray winters seen here in Ann Arbor. There was no joy last year in the Big House.
Only misery.
Inside an empty Michigan Stadium, the Wolverines went winless at home.A trying offseason followed, with a program reset that unfolded in the aftermath of a protracted contract standoff between Harbaugh and Michigan’s administration.
When the dust settled, Harbaugh had a new, incentive-laden agreement and a staff featuring six new assistants.
The players had to absorb all the changes after enduring the struggles of a depressingfall.
“All the noise we heard all offseason helped a lot from a mental standpoint,” cornerback Vincent Gray said Saturday. “It helped us get ready.”
Behind the scenes, away from the spotlight and the scrutiny, Harbaugh’s reconfigured team went to work installing a re-imagined defensive scheme and instilling a new offensive identity.
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“The players, they’ve been doing this since back in February, when it was cold,” Harbaugh said Saturday. “They were there in the spring. They were there in the summer. They were there in the hot days in August.”
They committed to rebuilding Michigan. But there was no guarantee the plan would materialize as it did Saturday, when the Wolverines authored as fine a performanceas they had since last October's opener against Minnesota.
That dominating winover the Gophers, of course, proved to be a mirage.
The victory Saturday could bean illusion, too.
But it sure was pretty.
Michigan established its running game with an offensive line that opened yawning holes and a pair of backs that sprinted through them with determination. Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum were a dynamic duo, accounting for 171 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.
The no-frills offensive approach hearkened back to a time when Harbaugh was at the top of his profession — with his teams pounding the line of scrimmage and outlasting foes on the scoreboard. As some point in 2020, Michigan lost its will to do that. The Wolverines averaged only 28.7 rush attempts last year, second-worst in the Big Ten.
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At the same time Michigan’s ground game turtled, its defense collapsed. The Wolverines hemorrhaged, conceding third-down conversions and explosive plays while falling to 12th in the conference in points allowed.
But on Saturday, the Wolverines shackled Western Michigan’s offense. During one stretch, beginning late in the first quarter and lasting midway into the fourth, U-M didn’t surrender a score of any kindon nine straight possessions. Kaleb Eleby, who torched MAC defenses in 2020, could do little against the Wolverines, He succumbed to the pressure and was flummoxed by the array of coverages Michigan foisted upon him. In total, the Wolverines surrendered 317 yards and 14 points to an offense that ranked ninth nationally in scoring last season.
When asked to put the 33-point victory in context, Harbaugh refused to call it a complete game. The boisterous rhetoric that preceded a disastrous 2020 has vanished, after all.
It has been replaced by cautious optimism and the realizationthere is no guarantee of a continuedupward trajectory.
“We haven’t done a damn thing,” said edge defender Aidan Hutchinson, who recorded Michigan’s lone sack. “We are not content with this at all.”
And Michigan shouldn’t be.
To project the fortunes of a team based off one result is foolhardy. To label a win over Western Michigan as a huge accomplishment would be downright ridiculous.
But this victory was meaningful because it gave the Wolverines some much-needed joy. With 109,295 fans back in the stands, the fight song blaring and Michigan prevailing at home again, things seemed almost normalfor the first time in a long time.
And at least for one day, Harbaugh could feel confident everything was all right.
ContactRainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartansand sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.
