Michigan's pursuit of new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis came as a surprise to many as head coach Jim Harbaugh was able to keep his intentions under wraps and make Gattis' hiring a secret until the last minute. While many expected Gattis to wind up at Maryland under new head coach Mike Locksley, Gattis included in that discussion, Harbaugh and the Wolverines were able to slip through the cracks and pull the rug from underneath the Terrapins at the last moment. What made Gattis' hiring unique is not the veil of secrecy it fell under but just how quickly things came together.

Just how quick was the turnaround from Maryland-bound to Ann Arbor-bound? All of five hours.

"Found out through the grapevine that Josh was considering leaving Alabama to go to Maryland so we reached out and asked if he had any interest in Michigan. I called him at 10 o'clock in the morning and by 3:30 he was coming to Michigan with a signed Memorandum of Understanding," Harbaugh said on this weeks edition of his Attack Each Day: The Harbaughs Podcast. "(Gattis) was on a plane here a day or two later. We've been working here the last couple of days in the office, through the weekend and today. Really, really excited. You can see the resume, the track record of success. When you look at Josh as a coach and the development of players that really jumps out at you right away, wherever he coaches they are successful at really the highest level. All-American at Western Michigan, All-American at Vanderbilt, a couple at Penn State and a couple at Alabama as well. He knows the state and that's also really exciting. He's also a really good player himself at Wake Forest and the Chicago Bears. All in all, just the football ability. Josh is well-regarded across the country and the world of football at all levels. Getting the right person on the bus, somebody I felt that really could coordinate our offense and run the whole offense. Very, very excited about that. We got better."

For Gattis, his path to Ann Arbor was a bit of an emotional one. After suffering a blowout loss to Clemson in last week's National Championship game, Gattis' phone started to ring from program's that were interested in prying him away from Alabama. Once he decided that he was going to follow Locksley to Maryland, he had to go break the news to his boss, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban.

It's safe to say that Saban didn't take the news well.

Gattis wasn't the first coach to depart Tuscaloosa for greener pastures after the National Championship game wrapped up. Perhaps Gattis caught Saban on a bad day, because he drew the ire of the future Hall of Fame coach by giving Gattis a 20-minute verbal lashing while trying to convince the 34-year-old to stay on board. With that being said, Gattis had his mind made up. He was headed to Maryland.

Or so he thought.

Redfaced and embarrassed after the conversation a conversation with Saban that could've gone a million different ways better than it did, Gattis' phone began to ring.

That phone call would go on to change everything for the young coach.

"Last week was just an emotional week, it feels like we played the National Championship game two years ago and that was last Monday. Coming off the National Championship game, I had a few opportunities where a lot of teams were kinda calling and gauge interest. It kind of caught me off guard because I wasn't looking to make a one-year stop anywhere," Gattis said during the episode. "If you look at my track record, I've been at places for a long time. I was with James Franklin for six years. Opportunities started presenting themselves and I had some tough choices to make. And, obviously, professionally and personally one of my goals was to be an offensive coordinator. That's been a lifelong dream of mine. That's something with the input that I've had and the fingerprint I've been able to leave on a lot of programs has allowed me to continue to prepare myself to put me in this position. When Coach Harbaugh called, it kind of caught me off guard because I had just left a meeting with Nick Saban getting my butt chewed out for 20 minutes telling him I was leaving and he was trying to get me to stay. It did not go over well. If there was any band-aid to the bruise or whatever that he left on me, it was that phone call. It was exciting to hear his voice and to talk to him personally."

To hear the latest episode of Harbaugh's podcast, Attack Each Day: The Harbaughs' Podcast. Check out this link.