ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At last, it’s official: Jim Harbaugh is the 20th head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines.
A month-long courtship between Michigan and its former All-America quarterback came to a climax shortly after noon Tuesday when interim athletic director Jim Hackett announced that Harbaugh had been hired. The players were informed about the hiring Tuesday morning.
For Michigan fans, the possibly that Harbaugh, 51, could leave the NFL rankings and return to his alma mater has meant weeks of breathless excitement and anticipation. Now all he has to do is turn around the fortunes of a football program that has gone 46-42, missed a bowl three times and topped eight victories only once since Lloyd Carr retired after the 2007 season.
While Michigan has struggled since Carr under Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, Harbaugh’s career has soared, building an Orange Bowl champion at Stanford and a Super Bowl runner-up with the San Francisco 49ers.
In his opening remarks, Hackett thanked Harbaugh’s father, Jack, who was an assistant coach at Michigan when Hackett was an offensive lineman there; the elder Harbaugh was in attendance Tuesday. Hackett then compared Jim Harbaugh’s resume — success in the pro and college levels — with legendary coach Paul Brown.
When Harbaugh went to the lectern, he apologized for his raspy voice, which he attributed to the Gatorade bath he received from his players after a victory Sunday in his final game coaching the 49ers. He also joked that he nearly tripped entering the news conference but that a lesser athlete would have gone down.
He said he started dreaming when he “was a young lad, 9, 10 years old” about coaching at Michigan.
“I feel like I’m standing on this foundation that is so rock solid,” he said. “You have my pledge that I will carry forward the tradition of excellence of the Michigan football program.”
The Harbaugh insanity has touched Michigan fans from coast-to-coast and Ann Arbor is particularly wild with billboards welcoming him and T-shirts being printed with witty slogans.
The only thing missing will need to wait: Michigan doesn’t open the season until a late August trip to Utah.
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