ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jim Harbaugh and Juwan Howard were two of the most famous people in any room they walked into. Michigan Royalty. Former professional athletes and top celebrities. Millionaires many times over.
Together at Michigan, Harbaugh and Howard gave their programs an aura of importance. On any given day, you could walk into Schembechler Hall and see Ric Flair walking out of the building. Or head to the Crisler Center and see the members of the Fab Five sitting in the stands. When Harbaugh and Howard showed up somewhere, it felt like an event.
Both coaches could be warm and engaging when they wanted to be. They can also be difficult and distant, even with people working in their own department. Now that both are gone, their successes and struggles should be instructive for Sherrone Moore and Dusty May, new coaches who will have to decide how much of themselves to share with the public.
Harbaugh could play the role of your average suburban dad, mowing his lawn and tending his chickens, but underneath the Carhartt jacket was a powerful coach who built an iron fortress around his program. In many ways, Howard was even more cautious. In a candid interview with Athleticism after his firing, Howard opened up in a way he rarely did while in that position, acknowledging that his lack of personal relationships wasn’t helping him.
“People really don’t know me at all, and that’s partly my fault,” Howard said. “Could I have been more politically correct, like some of these other guys from other programs, and done a better job playing this game? Let the world into my private life? If it had saved my job, then yes, I should have.
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This comment was revealing on several levels. It’s a cynical view of authenticity, although not necessarily wrong, to suggest that coaches who let people into their lives are just playing a game. From the outside, the lack openness and accountability was not just a public relations problem; this was part of the overall decline of the program. Few people could reach Howard, and his own instincts – including his decision to return as quickly as possible after major heart surgery – sometimes got the better of him.
Howard had his way of doing things, as he reiterated by saying “It’s working” in the middle of a 3-17 Big Ten. But it didn’t work, which is why he’s no longer Michigan’s coach. With his firing coming just two months after Harbaugh left for the NFL, this spring feels like a new era for Michigan in more ways than one.
The last time Michigan started a season with new football and men’s basketball coaches was 1948, a year that has historical parallels to the present. The Michigan football team was coming off an undefeated season in 1947 under Fritz Crisler, who also served as athletic director. After Crisler retired as football coach, Bennie Oosterbaan took over and led Michigan to another undefeated season in 1948. That same year, Michigan promoted assistant coach Ernie McCoy to replace basketball coach Ozzie Cowles, left for Minnesota.
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Michigan saw periods of major change in the years that followed, including the hiring of Johnny Orr in 1968 and the arrival of Bo Schembechler a year later. Schembechler’s final season, 1989, coincided with Steve Fisher’s first full season as head basketball coach. John Beilein’s first season, which began in the fall of 2007, was Lloyd Carr’s last.
For the past five years, the Wolverines have had Michigan men leading the football and men’s basketball programs. And not just any Michigan man, but two of the most famous alumni in their respective sports. The result has been a strong identification with Michigan’s past — arguably too strong at times — and frequent callbacks to the Fab Five era and Schembechler’s heyday.
Trying to channel the past is great when it works, as it has for Harbaugh the past three seasons, but not so great when a Michigan icon like Howard falters. Presented with two coaching vacancies in quick succession, athletic director Warde Manuel went in different directions by promoting Harbaugh’s top assistant and hiring one of the most sought-after basketball coaches on the market.
One is a former junior college offensive lineman, the other a former student manager at Indiana. Both will differ from their predecessors in important respects. While the basketball program is undergoing a total transformation, the vibe around the football program is more Harbaugh-lite, the same general philosophy without the eccentric head coach.
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Even when Michigan had JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum, Harbaugh was the star of the show. Although he was good at keeping strangers at bay, Harbaugh knew how to draw attention to himself and, at times, didn’t seem to know how to avoid it.
There were hints that some of Harbaugh’s snappy comments were calculated, either to generate buzz around the program or to take pressure off his players. Whatever the merits of this approach, it is not Moore’s preferred method. He has intentionally kept a low profile since Harbaugh’s departure and seems content to stay out of the headlines.
“I don’t want any attention paid to me,” Moore said. “I want it on our players. The whole gamer thing, that’s what it’s all about. I’m going to stay low key and hidden as much as possible and let the players get the credit and the spotlight.
Moore doesn’t need to be something he’s not, but it’s hard to stay hidden as Michigan’s head coach. Howard found out too. Diverting attention to players can be an altruistic act when times are good, but too often it was Howard’s players who were the answer to Michigan’s problems.
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Howard’s recovery from heart surgery was more difficult than he let on, and it clearly affected Michigan’s season. Howard wasn’t obligated to share any of this with the outside world, but opening up about more mundane aspects of the show would have been a healthy thing for everyone.
That level of openness has always been difficult for Harbaugh and Howard, two icons who have spent most of their lives in the spotlight. Whether Moore and May decide to operate differently will be up to them. They’re just getting started and there’s a lot to learn about who they are and how they do their jobs.
It would be a shame if people didn’t know them in the end.
(Photo: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)