Team 137 by Jim Harbaugh. Football talk and Predictions.

[lineygoblue]

Try not to laugh too hard at this one, guys ...

The editor of some rag in New Mexico has his panties in a wad because (he thinks) Zach Gentry has been forced to switch to TE ...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2016/02/23/albuquerque-editor-rips-um-over-gentry-move/80806388/

Its okay with me if people want to hate on Michigan and Harbaugh, but geez, man ... certainly you can find something with more meat on the bone than this ...

[Mike]

I'm sure Gentry will strongly consider transferring to New Mexico to play for Bob Davie.

[Prime2]

Michigan's 4th practice at IMG Academy is open to public. March 4th.

See you there Talent!

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2016/02/24/michigan-football-spring-practice/80857834/

[Prime2]

Harbaugh Genius has opened all 4 practices to Florida High School coaches.

In addition, two of Rivals camps are being held in Orlando & Miami .

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2016/02/24/harbaugh-invites-florida-hs-coaches-spring-practices/80858524/

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2016/02/24/michigan-wolverines-football-recruiting/80842720/

[Jeff Buchanan]

I brought this direct from Forbes because when you link to it you have to put up with the pop-up crap to get to the story. Nobody has time for that. If you haven't found this article yet, here it is for your enjoyment:

5 Ways Jim Harbaugh Is Disrupting College Football

Daron K. Roberts,Contributor

Forbes | 2016-02-23

Jim Harbaugh, head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines, is not playing by the rules. His bold approach to coaching and recruiting are forcing his peers to innovate on the run.

Here are five ways Harbaugh is ripping up the traditional playbook. These lessons are invaluable reminders for CEO’s who will assume the leadership of new companies.

Dismantle The Culture: When Harbaugh landed at the University of Michigan in December of 2014, the Wolverines had just finished a 5-7 campaign under head coach Brady Hoke.

One of Harbaugh’s first messages to his new team was simply this: No one is safe. Instead of trying to inflate his likability score, Harbaugh took a different approach – he challenged each player. Both starters and back-ups felt the temperature on the team rise.

As Desmond Morgan, a player going into his fifth year last fall recounted, “Whoever played the year before didn’t matter. As a senior coming back, a fifth-year guy, you didn’t know if you were guaranteed a spot on the team,” Morgan recalled. “He basically said coming into spring ball that spring ball’s a tryout. Especially for guys coming back and hoping for a fifth year.”

That sense of uneasiness set the stage for a 10-3 season (doubling the previous year’s number of wins) and a Citrus Bowl berth. For new leaders of old enterprises resetting the culture is a critical first step to establishing a new tone.

Jump off the Balcony and Get in the Trenches: In Leadership on the Line – No Easy Answers, Ronald Heifitz and Marty Linsky present a tension felt by many leaders. There is a natural push-pull relationship between being involved in the action (on the dance floor) or rising above the fray for reflection (on the balcony). For Harbaugh this dichotomy is a distinction without a difference. He lives on the dance floor. The first thing that shocked his new Wolverine players was just how involved Harbaugh was in practice.

“He’s [Harbaugh] really hands on with everything,” De’Veon Smith, a junior running back said. “When I first saw him (Harbaugh was demonstrating a football technique by lying on the ground), I was like ‘why is he doing this?’ But I asked the centers the next day if that helped them and they said it did, they said that was the first time anyone had showed them something like that.”

Starting a new leadership campaign on the dance floor allows newly minted managers to gain a view of the process from the ground level. Do not be afraid to connect with employees at every level of the organizational chart to gain a better understanding of the key challenges facing the team.

Find New Markets – Make New Enemies: Perhaps Harbaugh’s most infamous move has been his announcement that the Michigan football team will hold a week of practice in Bradenton, Florida during the 2016 spring break. For those unfamiliar with the geographical boundaries of college football, Harbaugh’s move is akin to Russia opening up a base of operations in Chicago.

The fertile recruiting fields of the southeastern United States have traditionally been reserved for college teams like Alabama and Florida. In an effort to create a new talent pipeline from Ann Arbor to the South, Harbaugh made a conscious decision to export his brand to a part of the country that is owned and operated by the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This tactic has attracted the ire of his coaching brethren south of the Mason-Dixon line, but Harbaugh is unapologetic. Identifying new markets, and making intentional steps to get closer to new pools of talent are essential steps in catapulting an enterprise from mediocrity to industry leader.

Rebrand Your Most Valuable Assets: National Signing Day is the Fat Tuesday of college football. It falls on the first Wednesday of every February, and it is the first day that graduating high school football players can sign a “letter of intent” to play for a college program.

For most college teams, the suspense of receiving each national letter of intent via fax machine has been a somewhat sleepy process. Enter Jim Harbaugh. Coach Harbaugh orchestrated “Signing of the Stars” – an event featuring live recruiting announcements, a fundraising campaign for the ChadTough Foundation (it raised $110,000) and stars like Derek Jeter and Tom Brady. Jeter live-streamed the spectacle through his new media outlet, The Players Tribune. The Players Tribune targets a younger demographic than most traditional media outlets. Finding new ways to package the most valuable assets of a company is critical to the rebranding process. Taking this step sends a clear message of revitalization to both employees and target consumers.

Go The Distance To Close The Deal: Trying to land that big account? Well, there is a good chance that no fewer than four other companies are trying to do the same thing. The relentless pursuit of sales has a first cousin – its name is college football recruiting. Stellar recruits land more than 20 offers from schools across the country and the competition is fierce.

Harbaugh’s recruiting techniques channel a singular message to football targets: I will do whatever it takes (within the confines of the law) to get your commitment. He attempted to climb the tree of one recruit and invited himself to a sleepover of another one. For his efforts, Michigan finished fifth in national rankings of the top recruiting classes.

While Harbaugh’s first year on the job has been criticized, one thing is clear – he is reigniting the potential of a storied program. His methods resonate on the gridiron as well as in the boardroom.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This article precisely encapsulates the kind of leadership that Harbaugh brings to M's football program and explains why, if he is successful, and I think he will be, M will contend for championships during his tenure at M.

Why? Because I have known people like this. Unconventional, tough minded, thick skinned when the bull shit criticisms start to pile up, with a clear vision of where they want to go and how they are going to get there.

M football is in the early stages of something good and I have a hard time envisioning that Jim Harbaugh is NOT going to lead M football to impressive successes.

It's already obvious he's rankled his competitors and that is always what happens when a new guy on the block innovates, sets standards high and makes the rest of the pack follow his lead or risk falling behind.

[lineygoblue]

Harbaugh continues to make buddies in the SEC ....

... this time, its Jawja HC Kirby Smart ...

http://michigan.247sports.com/Bolt/Harbaugh-calls-out-Georgia-head-coach--43904509

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Harbaugh is awesome. M vs the world.

[iam416]

All I can recall from the UFM-Harbaugh "rivalry" is a sour grapes subtweet from a rankled JH. So, at least one of his "competitors" isn't rankled. Nor are they changing.

But, yes, HARBAUGH!!!! Obviously redefining CFB.

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... But, yes, HARBAUGH!!!! Obviously redefining CFB.

The evidence is pretty strong that he is. It does remain to be seen if his actions will generate success for M football thereby creating a redefined pathway for success in CFB, especially as it relates to recruiting.

No question, traditional pathways to success, hard nosed football, the kind that characterized the historically great football coaches, still remain critically important. However, recruiting has taken on a whole new level of importance in determining how far a program can go.

How effectively programs reach out to, connect with, and get kids to sign has, IMO, changed. So has how a program goes about cultivating a culture of winning. The Forbes article does a good job of defining how these things have changed.

I am, for one, glad it is Jim Harbaugh, the University of Michigan's Head Football coach, that appears, to me anyway, to be pulling the competition along in his footsteps. In the process, one hopes, that recruiting advantage can be gained by outstanding leadership and innovative approaches that appeal to the current generation of HS recruits instead of money being paid to players by boosters as an incentive to sign.

[iam416]

There's no question he's pulling out one gimmick after another for recruiting. I doubt those gimmicks redefine anything. The one thing that works is hiring, ummmm, people of importance.

I also LOL'd at JH as "thick skinned." Dude takes issue with the slightest bit of criticism. Thick-skinned. LOL.

Anyway, he's batshit crazy, no doubt. He does things his way. UFM does things his way. I feel good about both those things.

[Prime2]

Talent has been "Counting Coup" with bellicose rancor, behind enemy lines, for years.

$700, straight up , on The Game next fall separates the Men from the "Hacks" so to speak.

[The Oracle]

Talent still is in the red on a recruiting bet, don't waste your time with the schmuck.

[iam416]

Sorry, OP. No more after your second bitch out.

[iam416]

Eh, if you're going to play it like that, Oracle, I'll just wait until 2017 when we're even.