ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It’s not all about memories, but Jim Harbaugh certainly has talked a lot about them since he became Michigan’s football coach.
He has talked about buying a house in the neighborhood in Ann Arbor where Bo Schembechler lived and about driving the same streets to work as his college coach did. He has talked about growing up there when his dad was a Michigan assistant.
Registering his two young daughters at the same Catholic elementary school he attended and watching them play in the same parks he did as a boy brought back more memories.
“They’re wonderful, good memories,” he said at the Big Ten media days.
This look back plays well with an audience starved for the kind of success Michigan had from Schembechler’s arrival in 1969 until Lloyd Carr’s retirement after the 2007 season.
Michigan did not have a losing season in those 39 years. Since then it has had three, including last season’s 5-7 record that brought down the curtain on Brady Hoke’s four years as coach. The last time Michigan won a Big Ten championship was in 2004.
Harbaugh’s mission is to restore Michigan football. And create some new memories.
Making the Wolverines competitive with their two biggest rivals is also part of the mission. Ohio State has beaten Michigan 12 of the last 14 times they’ve played and Michigan State has won six of the last seven against its in-state rival.
Harbaugh, who was Michigan’s starting quarterback from 1984-86, finished third in the 1986 Heisman Trophy voting. He went on to play 15 years in the NFL.
Turnarounds have been one of the trademarks of his coaching career.
Stanford was 1-11 the year before he got there but improved to four wins, five wins, eight wins and 12 wins in his four seasons in Palo Alto.
After Stanford, he took over the San Francisco 49ers, who were 6-10 the year before he arrived and had a losing record seven the of eight years before he was hired. The 49ers won 13 games his first season and were in the Super Bowl by his second year.
Harbaugh has claimed more than once he hasn’t noticed all the attention and hype that came with his hiring at Michigan. “I haven’t seen any circus,” he said.
The hope at Michigan is that the circus has left town and Harbaugh will be a difference maker.
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