Wolverines coach has his team, fans stoked

It’s hard to miss Jim Harbaugh on the football field, whether it’s during pregame warm-ups or on the sideline at nearly any moment during the game.

He is the light that draws the moth, the unmistakable person and personality.

“He’s just an animated guy, really, in anything he does,” Michigan tight end Jake Butt said Saturday after the Wolverines’ 28-16 win. “He’s just a leader, he’s our head coach. Everyone on the team would follow him no matter what.”

“Follow him into a fire,” quarterback Jake Rudock chimed in.

It’s that unique person that has stoked the fires of the Michigan faithful, that has inspired his team this year to turn things around after a drab 2014 season.

The team has just two losses, just one in the Big Ten, and have the potential to be playing for the Big Ten title next week against rival Ohio State.

In less than a season, the passion the Wolverines have is unmistakable.

“We know what we’re playing for,” defensive end Taco Charlton said. “We’re playing for something bigger than this game. When you get this win, it’s just the next step closer to what we wanted to accomplish. It’s right there in front of us. The energy, the enthusiasm in that locker room is pretty special, pretty fun to be a part of.”

The energy and enthusiasm from the coach is special too.

It started long before the game, when he was on the field, taking pregame snaps and handing the ball off to running backs or firing darts to receivers.

Harbaugh had plenty of reasons to be animated Saturday afternoon, with 13 penalties for 117 yards. The miscues extended several Penn State drives, which will drive any coach batty. He took out his frustrations on the officials, getting so worked up at one point he took off his hat and spiked it on the grass, then he ripped off his jacket.

Despite the many infractions, his team was inspired most of the day, enduring the screams of the 107,418 mostly white-clad fans. The Wolverine lines controlled the line of scrimmage, on both sides, most of the game.

“Whenever you win a road game … you’re overcoming the other team, you’re overcoming the other team’s fans, you’re overcoming teams that are out there,” Harbaugh said. “That really makes you feel like a man when you do that. Nobody was more manly or mighty than our offensive line today.”

The style, the toughness of the persona is pretty reminiscent of his coach when he was the Michigan quarterback in the mid-1980s. The program’s legendary coach, Bo Schembechler, was brought up after the win, with this past week marking the nine-year anniversary of his death.

Schembechler was as gruff as they come, abrasive, but lovable, like a cantankerous but fun grandfather. So much of what he was shows in the current Wolverine leader, and the reverence he has for his mentor is obvious. Harbaugh may have dodged a few other questions about the distant past, or things other coaches may have said, but given the chance to pay homage to Schembecher, and it was hard for him to stop.

He said he thinks about his old coach every time he drives by his former house in Ann Arbor, or steps into the team’s facility – Schembechler Hall.

“It’s not just a Hall,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a person, it’s my coach, somebody I draw daily inspiration from.”

It showed in Harbaugh’s toughness when he played for the Wolverines or in the NFL.

It’s understandable when there are stories of how he can wear out his welcome after a few years, as was rumored from his time with the San Francisco 49ers, but it is also so obvious why it has worked in the short term for his team.

It has kept them level all season, and even after the chance to fall apart after a disastrous loss to Michigan State a few weeks ago, they have stayed together.

He said his team has been playing with a playoff mentality for the last five or six weeks, but he’s really been pushing them since he made his return to campus last winter.

“They’ve just been relentless,” Harbaugh said. “The same kind of demanding, punishing pace. It hasn’t stopped.”

It’s a rare coach that can get his players to believe in him so quickly, to such an extent, to be willing to “follow him into a fire.”

Jim Harbaugh is no ordinary coach.

“It’s not always easy,” Butt said. “It’s tough. In camp when you’re going 14, 15 straight days of full pads just pounding into each other, you body hurts, everything like that, it’s … to get our team to where we are at right now. It’s all for a reason.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 12:36 AM with the headline "Wolverines coach has his team, fans stoked."