Jim Harbaugh goes from Michigan football showman to shadows: Here's why

Shawn Windsor | Detroit Free Press

Jim Harbaugh opened his fourth fall football camp Friday and won’t talk to the media until next week. That’s fine, and not surprising, considering this version of Michigan’s football coach isn’t the same guy who arrived in Ann Arbor on Dec. 30, 2014.

That Harbaugh lived in front of a camera, preferably with his shirt off. This Harbaugh lives in the shadows or has at least receded into them.

Remember the last time he made news because of a tweet or a remark during an interview or a gesture to a pop star?

I don’t either.

And the chicken fracas doesn’t count. His disdain of chickens — and of his quarterbacks eating them — was an old story that surfaced through a feature about his new quarterback, Shea Patterson. Harbaugh didn’t opine to the public about his chicken theory.

We did. And I did. Because, well, it’s fun, and talk of “nervous bird” makes for good headlines. But headlines Harbaugh didn’t seek and doesn’t seek as he once did.

That’s by design, of course. The result of family influence and losing and shifting emphasis within the football program.

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When Harbaugh took over almost four years ago, the team was coming off back-to-back losing seasons in the Big Ten. There were empty seats in Michigan Stadium, and a kind of hangdog energy around the program.

Aside from different on-field strategies and practice regimens, what Michigan football needed was a frontman, a mouthpiece, someone with a megaphone who would remind everyone about the block “M” and extol the virtues of the power of the maize and blue.

Harbaugh was the perfect fit. Relentless in his sales pitch. Willing to jump onto any stage. Constantly thinking about ways to promote the university and its team.

For the first three years, especially in the offseason, Harbaugh was his own 24-hour news cycle. I’d need a month to list the trail of news nuggets he left in his wake. But surely you remember the highlights:

• Satellite camps — and playing shirtless football.

• Sleepovers at recruits’ homes.

• Twitter fire at his rivals, especially Ohio State, and barbs at the Southeastern Conference.

• Signed Michigan apparel for the Pope.

In 2016, Harbaugh turned Signing Day into the Burning Man Festival. Last summer, he toured Italy and made a documentary. At least it felt like it after watching so much of his trip unfold onscreen.

This past signing day he showed up to answer reporters' questions for 20 minutes and ducked back into his office. And this spring, when he took his team to France, he stayed relatively incognito.

The difference is noticeable these days. You could hear that two weeks ago in Chicago during Big Ten media days.

When asked a (long-winded) question about his (relative) failures during his three-season tenure, about why he can’t beat his rivals and why can’t he finish higher than third place in the Big Ten East, Harbaugh said:

“Well the improvement will lead to success, will lead to championships.”

That was it. A 40 second question, and a five second answer.

Not that he needed to say more or should’ve said more. He knows what his record is, what the expectations are, what the memes and GIFs say about him whenever he says or does anything remotely newsworthy.

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He also knows what kind of team he has this year, and what that could mean for the program. If he gets any kind of quarterback play, his squad should be good enough to compete for the conference title and a spot in the College Football Playoff.

So, what else is there for him to say?

Silence is the play here, and you can sense it when he speaks.

He no longer needs to live on a stage. Not that he ever did that for himself. He did it to rebuild a brand, to recruit, and to push that brand back into the national consciousness.

It worked. For now. If he doesn’t start to win, and win big, the block “M” will fade again.

Harbaugh understands this. Which is why he spent his offseason rethinking how he communicated not just to the outside, but within Schembechler Hall, too.

He changed coaches and team nutritionists and his own approach to staying in touch with players. He is more open now internally, and that is not an accident.

Nor is it an accident that he has stayed out of so many headlines. It’s partly his evolution as a coach, and partly his recognition of what U-M needs from him.

Harbaugh has always been a serious person, always been about business. Now he’s about business even more.

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