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Does Jim Harbaugh know the name of Rutgers' coach?

Head coach Chris Ash (L) of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights shakes hands with head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines after the game Saturday. Michigan won 42-7. (Getty Images)
Head coach Chris Ash (L) of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights shakes hands with head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines after the game Saturday. Michigan won 42-7. (Getty Images)

Following a bit of a slow start, No. 4 Michigan pulled away from Rutgers on Saturday night with relative ease.

The game was tied 7-7 after one quarter, but the Wolverines comfortably led 21-7 at half en route to a 42-7 victory over the Scarlet Knights. Despite the five-score victory, Jim Harbaugh offered some positive words for Rutgers, a team that dropped to a lowly 1-9 with the loss.

“I thought their home fan base was really good. The team is really improved and competitive. That’s a competitive football team. They did as good a job as anybody at containing our running game. And also really impressed with their young backs, I mean, they run hard. Quarterback looked good too. He made some real plays. And it was a good, competitive game. Knew it would be going in,” Harbaugh said.

But then all of those positive words might as well have been thrown out the window with what slipped out of Harbaugh’s mouth next.

“I saw the way they played Northwestern, saw the way that they played Indiana and that’s a team that’s very close to breaking through and winning multiple games, consecutive games,” Harbaugh said. “Rob does a really good job with the team. Thought they had a good plan offensively and a good plan defensively.”

Wait a second. Rob? Who’s Rob? It looks like Harbaugh referred to Rutgers head coach Chris Ash as Rob. Yikes.

Watch it for yourself:

Longtime NJ.com columnist Steve Politi wrote that it may have been a slip of the tongue with Harbaugh referencing Rob Ash, who coached Chris Ash at Drake University:

It would appear that Harbaugh was referring to Rutgers head coach Chris Ash but just messed up the name. Hey, the guy is trying to win a national championship. He can’t have all the details straight.

One theory that was working its way around Piscataway: Harbaugh, who has been around forever, mixed up Chris Ash with his old college coach at Drake, who actually is named Rob Ash. In other words, it was a slip of the tongue, and not a glaring mistake.

It obviously wasn’t anything malicious from Harbaugh, but it’s one of those things that won’t make Rutgers fans feel much better about the state of the program.

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