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Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh stands with defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin during the first stop on Michigan's "Summer Swarm" football camp tour at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday, June 4, 2015.

(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News)

ANN ARBOR -- Connor Murphy had his first in-home recruiting visit with Jim Harbaugh in 2009.

Only no one knew it.

Here's the story ...

Back when current Washington Redskins linebacker Trent Murphy was a senior at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, he was committed to Stanford and Harbaugh, then the Cardinal head coach.

As Harbaugh went to the Murphy's house for an in-home visit that year, Trent's mother, Laurie, went into labor.

Faced with the decision to cancel the visit or stick around, Harbaugh and his defensive coordinator, D.J. Durkin, now U-M's defensive coordinator, decided not only to stay, but to go to work.

The two sat in the Murphy house and babysat young Connor Murphy for the next five hours. Connor still remembers sitting on the living room floor playing chess and drinking milk with the Stanford coaches.

"Not many people can say that," Connor Murphy told Sports360AZ, recalling the whole story in a video posted Monday.



After welcoming his newborn to the world, Jerry Murphy returned to the house to relieve Harbaugh.

"We were there about five minutes and he was tired and had to leave," Jerry remembers in the Sports360AZ video. "That was our whole home recruiting visit."

Nowadays Connor Murphy is a four-star 2016 recruit and rated as the country's No. 22 weak-side defensive end in the 247Sports Composite ranking.

And, as you'd expect, the story has come full circle.

Harbaugh is now recruiting Connor and battling the likes of Arizona State, Oregon and Stanford for his services. All these year's later, that impromptu babysitting session is coming in handy.

"I had no idea who he was or how big he was or his background and story or anything," Connor Murphy said of that first encounter. "That's why I say he's kind of like a father figure to me today -- just because of that."

It might just be that unlikely bond that lands Harbaugh his second recruit from that visit in 2009. Jerry Murphy noted in the video, "We watched (Harbaugh) rebuild Stanford, we watched him rebuild the 49ers and now he's trying to rebuild Michigan. So is (Connor Murphy) going to be part of that rebuilding process once again -- will a Murphy be there to help ol' Harbaugh build this thing? We don't know, but we're going to find out pretty soon."

"It's just kind of cool how fast everything goes and how everything ties together like that," Connor Murphy said.

Brendan F. Quinn covers University of Michigan basketball and football. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on Wolverines hoops. He can be contacted at bquinn@mlive.com