Jim Harbaugh fully back for Michigan, acknowledges offensive 'precautions' must be taken

Jim Harbaugh attacked his news conference Monday with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. The former quarterback came out on the offensive, pooh-poohing concerns about a sloppy performance from a Michigan football squad in its 25-point victory over Bowling Green that marked the end of his three-game suspension last Saturday.

The punishment, as painful as it was for Harbaugh, offered him a new perspective as an outside observer of his own program. It also may have exposed the siloed coach to external commentary about his Wolverines — some of which was negative.

As U-M enters the Big Ten portion of his schedule, Harbaugh appeared as determined to regain complete control of the narrative surrounding his team as he was the team itself. Harbaugh, after all, is not only the Wolverines’ CEO; he’s also their chief spokesperson. So, he dabbled in a little spin doctoring, as he is prone to do.

Without solicitation, he pushed aside the gripes about U-M’s first three victories not being impressive enough.

“Just win the game … by one point, by one point, is what we’re really after,” he said.

When questioned about the three interceptions J.J. McCarthy threw among his 13 pass attempts Saturday, Harbaugh chalked it up to the law of averages and suggested it was ludicrous to assume his quarterback would continue to play at the near-perfect level he did in the first two games.

“There’s no way that’s going to continue,” he harrumphed. “I mean it’s not going to happen that way.”

Even as he presented a mild critique about a running game that hasn’t quite hit is stride, he pivoted toward positivity.

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“Just getting it all humming,” he said with soothing confidence. “I know it’s super close.”

Yet, the implication was that it’s not quite there.

The offensive line that was the foundation of the program during its steady march to the last two Big Ten titles still doesn’t seem settled. The Wolverines deployed a different combination during the second half Saturday, when left tackle Karsen Barnhart moved to the right side and Arizona State transfer LaDarius Henderson replaced him as J.J. McCarthy’s blindside protector. The odd man out in the arrangement was Myles Hinton, an import from Stanford. Although injury may have necessitated Hinton's substitution, Harbaugh wouldn’t say definitively if that was the reason for the move.

Before he exited the game, Hinton had been identified as the weak link in the unit. According to Pro Football Focus, he conceded the most pressures and struggled in run blocking. His iffy play was a contributing factor to a ground attack that hasn’t consistently won at the point of attack. Last year, the Wolverines rushed for an average of 14.1 first downs per game. So far this season, that number has dropped to nine, despite the fact Michigan has faced three Group of Five opponents.

The decline can be attributed to the dropoff in both “efficient” and “explosive” runs, the carries that net at least 4 yards and keep the Wolverines ahead of the chains.

Asked why Michigan hasn’t had as many this year, Blake Corum said, “I think it’s just getting back in rhythm.”

But it’s not cause for concern, the star running back assured reporters.

“I think we’re right where we need to be, man,” he said.

It doesn’t feel that way, however.

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A team that entered September with national championship aspirations resembles a work in progress more than a well-oiled machine at this juncture. That's especially true on offense, where McCarthy last Saturday reinvigorated the anxiety over his reckless tendencies that occasionally tarnish his game.

He is less than nine months removed from the pair of picks returned for touchdowns in Michigan’s surprising loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff, and there was hope that an offseason of reflection would yield more prudence on the field. But after posting pristine stat lines against East Carolina and UNLV, he reverted to his worst ways against Bowling Green, as he repeatedly flirted with danger.

Even the 50-yard flea-flicker touchdown pass to Cornelius Johnson in the third quarter almost resulted in a fourth interception with Bowling Green defensive back Davon Ferguson positioned to take away the ball as it caromed off him and into the hands of Michigan’s fifth-year wideout.

“Some precautions got to be taken,” Harbaugh said in one breath.

“Ball security, that’s the big one,” he added in another.

From afar, Harbaugh was reacquainted with the potential risks of giving McCarthy and the passing game too much influence over an offense trying to achieve greater balance. Against Bowling Green, the Wolverines executed only 44 plays and faced a time of possession deficit of 13 minutes. The statistical evidence was suboptimal and flew in the face of the ball-dominant formula at the heart of the program’s resurgence since 2021.

It also raises some doubts heading into Big Ten opener against Rutgers, an opponent that is 3-0 and has challenged Michigan each of the last three seasons. The Scarlet Knights pushed the Wolverines to the brink of defeat in 2020 during a triple-overtime affair and almost upset them again the following year in a one-score game that came down to the wire. Even last November, they held a halftime lead before surrendering the final 38 points in Michigan's 52-17 victory.

“Rutgers always plays us pretty hard,” Corum said. “They have ever since I’ve been here. So, we’re going to prepare like we do. We’ll just lock into the finer details, watch film … see what we need to fix and fix it.”

How much Michigan needs to repair, of course, is subject to interpretation. Harbaugh, the expert on all things Michigan football, seems to think the flaws are more cosmetic and will soon be corrected. But as he struck an optimistic chord, he affirmed some inconvenient truths about a team that has yet to round into championship form.

Never was that more apparent then when Harbaugh made a confession during a rambling monologue at the beginning of his news conference.

“If I seem a little bit distracted, it’s because I’ve got so much on my mind,” he said. “And hopefully, we can keep this a little bit short because there’s so much to do.”

Roughly 17 minutes later, he swiftly walked away from the lectern where he stood and went back to manage a Michigan team that at this point looks good but not great.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Jim Harbaugh's Michigan football team has room for improvement