Long an agitator, Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh showers rival Mark Dantonio with praise

Rainer Sabin | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Michigan's Jim Harbaugh: We must be ready for everything vs. MSU Michigan Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh speaks to the media on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Ann Arbor.

He caused the affable Pete Carroll to narrow his eyes at midfield and ask, “What’s your deal?" He provoked Jim Schwartz to chase him down following an aggressive postgame handshake at Ford Field. He’s lobbed passive-aggressive shots at Urban Meyer and called out Nick Saban on social media.

Jim Harbaugh has long been the chief agitator of the football coaching fraternity, defying the unwritten decorum that exits among its membership to poke and prod the men he views as his competitors. Last year, Harbaugh jabbed at Mark Dantonio, describing his team’s actions “bush league” following a pregame scuffle at Spartan Stadium.

But on Monday, the Michigan football coach struck a different tone — one that was more docile and diplomatic.

Setting aside the animosity that mushroomed 13 months ago, he went out of his way to praise Dantonio, hailing his Michigan State counterpart as a “master motivator.”

It was part of a carefully crafted message delivered from a position of strength.

The Wolverines are 7-2 and trending in the right direction, having won five of their last six games. Far removed from the debacle at Wisconsin, Michigan has reset its course and is playing its best football of the season. The defense has allowed only nine touchdowns since Sept. 28. The offense, meanwhile, has increasingly performed at a consistent level, turning the ball over only five times in that time frame.

As the Wolverines regained their footing, the Spartans have gradually lost theirs.

They’ve spiraled downwards since early October, sowing the seeds of a losing streak that has germinated like a weed. Crushing defeats to Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State were followed by a befuddling setback against Illinois last Saturday, when the Spartans squandered a 25-point lead.

[After stunning loss, MSU's Mark Dantonio uses familiar retort: 'Next question']

The poor results on the field have coincided with a steady stream of bad news off it. Six players left the team and entered the NCAA transfer portal. The top performer on defense, linebacker Joe Bachie, was ruled ineligible by the Big Ten after he tested positive for what the league determined to be a performance-enhancing substance. Dantonio, who has faced questions about his management of the program, has been sucked into a legal dispute involving a former staff member.

“Whatever has happened to them,” Michigan defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson said, “has happened to them.

“We don’t really care.”

But the Wolverines are keenly aware of the wretched state of their in-state rival. The nuclear cloud of negativity in East Lansing is visible 65 miles east in Ann Arbor, where Hutchinson fielded a call from Spartans backup quarterback and his former Dearborn Divine Child teammate, Theo Day, in the aftermath of Michigan State’s shocking defeat to the Illini.

“He was pretty frustrated,” Hutchinson said with a laugh.

If Hutchinson seemed to derive some satisfaction in the Spartans’ woes, he wouldn’t be the only one among his teammates to do so. There is still some lingering bitterness that can be detected inside Schembechler Hall about the way this series has gone in the Dantonio era, in which Michigan State has prevailed in eight of the last 12 years.

"You can’t let them get their heads up," said Wolverines cornerback Ambry Thomas. "Try to step on their throat and stay there all game. … "It’s about who’s the big brother and who’s the little sister in this state. That’s what it’s really about. We plan to give them our all just like they plan to give us their all."

The comments were laced in kerosene, the kind of inflammatory words that could light up a group text among Spartans football players.

Harbaugh has been guilty of making similar remarks throughout his coaching career, providing bulletin-board material and instigating feuds when none previously existed.

But on Monday he refrained and took a different tack.

Given the opportunity to kick the Spartans while they’re down, he instead pumped them up with compliments saturated in hyperbole.

“They put over 500 yards of offense, the defense is one of the best in the country and special teams, year in and year out, is consistently good, solid, explosive,” Harbaugh crowed. “Our preparation has to be at the highest level.”

It must be that way, in his assessment, because the Spartans still have Dantonio — the rival whose “whole body of work” and “track record,” Harbaugh said, was worthy of praise.

“A fine coach,” Harbaugh added.

Twelve minutes after Harbaugh arrived at the lectern as a well-known agitator, he left it a peacemaker. An olive branch of sorts had been extended.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.