College Football

Jim Harbaugh, Michigan revel in their merciless dominance

Updated Oct. 14, 2023 9:04 p.m. ET

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Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was approximately two minutes into Jim Harbaugh's postgame news conference on Saturday when the rhetoric of Michigan's head coach took a left turn. He abandoned his train of thought in response to a question about quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who had thrown the same number of touchdown passes (3) as incompletions (3) during a furious beating of Indiana, and launched into a soliloquy about his coaching staff instead.

"The other thing that really hit me during this game," Harbaugh said, "because there's so many players to talk about, there's so many great performances by every position group, by every player that was out there. And you see the development, you see the plays that they're making. Then the next wave of young guys, you see them coming up. It's just time to give credit to the assistant coaches. An amazing group of coaches. Just every single one of them."

[Michigan train keeps rolling with dominant win over Indiana]

Person by person, Harbaugh recognized the subordinates who've helped him transform an aimless Michigan program into one of the most dominant machines in college football the last three years — a stretch in which the Wolverines captured back-to-back Big Ten Championships, made consecutive trips to the College Football Playoff and, following this week's 52-7 shelling of Indiana, emerged victorious 32 of the last 35 times they've taken the field. When Harbaugh finally concluded his four-plus minutes of uninterrupted speech, athletic director Warde Manuel chimed in from the far corner of the room to say Harbaugh himself deserved praise, too.

"Oh, hey, thanks Warde," Harbaugh said with a smile.

Anyone familiar with Michigan knows that postgame tangents are nothing new for Harbaugh, whose perpetual unpredictability often manifests in the form of veering, mid-response detours. No one can predict what Harbaugh might say about who he believes was, or wasn't, born on third base. See: Day, Ryan.

His latest collection of jovial meanders reflected a coach and a program that are enjoying their merciless, self-constructed form of autopilot. So good and so dominant are this year's Wolverines that they've won seven times in seven chances with an average margin that exceeds 30 points per game. The defense, led by coordinator Jesse Minter, entered the weekend No. 1 in the country in scoring. The offense, led by McCarthy and star tailback Blake Corum, dismantled the Hoosiers with points on eight consecutive possessions, seven of which ended with touchdowns. That Michigan seems somewhat untouchable right now is obvious, and everyone in Ann Arbor knows it.

"Like Coach [Harbaugh] always says, man," explained linebacker Michael Barrett, a sixth-year senior who's soaked in every chapter of the program's revival, from Michigan's dismal 2-4 finish in 2020 to its current status as the favorite to win a third straight Big Ten title. "We're in the ass-kicking business, and business is booming."

Highlights: Michigan rolls over Indiana

Breezing through every game unchallenged has imbued the Wolverines with a swagger that lands at the intersection of talent and player development. It was tight end Colston Loveland, a former four-star prospect whose 54-yard touchdown reception put Saturday's game out of reach, who said Michigan is focused on keeping its foot on the gas because, "We want to be the bully." And it was Barrett, an underrecruited high school quarterback-turned-linebacker, who said the Wolverines have taken their learning curve to the "300-level" classes since they no longer make entry-level mistakes.

Unwavering identities on both sides of the ball are fueling the program's ubiquitous tranquility that seems to ooze from Schembechler Hall. Gone are the days when Michigan won football games despite uneven production at quarterback, which the Wolverines did with Cade McNamara under center in 2021. So, too, are the days when Harbaugh's team lacked experience and depth at key positions, which last year's team endured after losing the likes of Aidan Hutchinson, David Ojabo and Daxton Hill to the NFL, all of whom were drafted in the first two rounds. And never has Harbaugh seemed further removed from the awkwardness of two summers ago when questions about his future, his job security and his contract seemed to dominate every conversation. 

Stability and star power are why nobody on the Michigan sideline panicked when the Hoosiers took an early 7-0 lead on a 44-yard trick play.

J.J. McCarthy links up with Colston Loveland for a 54-yard TD

"A real understanding that, OK, when we get punched in the mouth, we're going to respond," Harbaugh said. "That's what's going to happen. Everybody has that kind of faith in the leadership of our team, the character of our team, and there's a devotion to the fundamentals of Michigan football."

In their demolition of Indiana, which has yet to beat a Power 5 opponent this season, the Wolverines topped 30 points for a 10th consecutive game to extend the longest such streak in program history. And the last time Michigan held each of its first seven opponents to 10 points or fewer was back in 1973, when Harbaugh was a few months shy of his 10th birthday.

Saturday's performance was so oppressive that, when stacked atop six previous annihilations, it afforded the Wolverines the chance for a bit of fun in their postgame news conference ahead of next week's showdown with Michigan State. Harbaugh told a story about his new favorite quote on the bulletin board in his office — "Work together, win together," — that he said was selected by one of his daughters. Barrett described what it was like for his teammates to serenade him with the song "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" as one of Michigan's standout performers against Indiana. And more than a few questions were dedicated to Harbaugh's football metaphor involving olives that are stuck in a jar.

"I use that analogy with turnovers on defense," Harbaugh said. "You're close, but you just can't seem to get it. The olive jar analogy is the olives are packed in so tight. I've got the big screw-in top, it's wide. And you unscrew it, and you turn the olive jar over, nothing would come out because they're packed in so tight. If you can get just get one, one to get shaken loose, then they all just start plopping out."

It was the kind of story a coach can tell when his team gives him no reason to worry. 

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

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CFB - Indiana Hoosiers vs. Michigan Wolverines - 10/14/2023

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