Gave: For delivering Harbaugh, Hackett deserves credit, new title
ANN ARBOR -- The next order of business at the University of Michigan, now that Jim Harbaugh has returned to coach the team he once led on the field, is to rip the interim tag off Athletic Director Jim Hackett's title.
And give the man a raise, too.
Harbaugh was clearly the most sought-after coach in America, especially in the NFL. Yet against what seemed to be enormous odds, Hackett on Tuesday introduced Harbaugh as the 20th coach in the program's 135-year history.
A former U-M football player under Bo Schembechler who spent most of his career as a business executive, Hackett appeared to get a little emotional while introducing his new coach. He expressed to a massive gathering of media, boosters, former coaches, players and a large contingent of the Harbaugh clan how a pro coach recently congratulated him on signing Jim Harbaugh to a seven-year deal.
"He said, 'You know Jim Hackett, you didn't just get a great coach. You got the best coach in football today -- college or pro,'" Hackett said. "So this is a very special day for us. Our guy came home."
The news had Lloyd Carr smiling like the patriarch of a family who could believe in its own exceptionalism again after seven years of agonizing futility. And the former coach whose teams annually fought for the Big Ten title -- and won a national championship in 1998 -- knew exactly where to place the credit.
"It began with Jim Hackett and his team," Carr said. "Jim Harbaugh was clearly the lead candidate to begin with, and there were a lot of things going on. But Jim was able to ... Well, how he did it you'll have to ask him. But I've seen enough searches like this, and when they get to a point where all the pressure groups begin to impact the selection process, then you've got a problem."
Carr was speaking, of course, about alumni -- especially the ones who write the big checks -- media, administrators, and even those within the program, like the players.
"If you are influenced by those people, you can make mistakes," Carr said. "And if you make mistakes, it plays out on the field."
We saw that unfold at the Big House under the last two coaching regimes, both clearly the result of mistaken hires. One athletic director decided to go sailing in the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a coaching search, missed out on some interested, qualified candidates and wound up settling for Rich Rodriguez. The next AD was so determined to restore tradition under a so-called "Michigan Man" that he narrowed his search so much he settled for the not-ready-for-prime-time Brady Hoke.
Hackett approached his mission with a laser focus of a man who for two decades served as chief executive of Grand Rapids-based Steelcase, Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of office furniture on the planet. He orchestrated a businesslike search-and-selection process, complete with the help of a head-hunting firm. And he managed to contain leaks and the kind of misinformation that can sabotage the process.
"Jim did a wonderful job," Carr said. "He was able to do it in a way that you didn't have things being leaked every single day, which can create pressure that comes from everybody knowing -- and what can keep you from making a good decision."
Absolutely none of which surprised Carr. He's been a fan of Hackett -- a 1977 U-M grad -- for a long time.
"Jim Hackett is a brilliant guy," Carr said. "He's been a great leader in the business world, and I was very confident even before he took the job. When there was speculation it was going to be him (to replace Dave Brandon), I felt very good about it.
"Did I doubt he was going to land Jim Harbaugh? Well, I knew if anybody could, he could do it."
Then he smiled that impish Lloyd Carr grin and said, "Hackett can hack it."
He comes cheap, too. Hackett is being paid $600,000 a year compared to the $900,000 Brandon was collecting before he resigned under pressure.
Hackett may have pulled a rabbit out of his hat, but is Harbaugh's hiring enough to put aside all the squabbling that has divided the Michigan family over the past seven or so mostly forgettable seasons? Carr weighed the question carefully.
"You're always going to have issues within any family," he said. "You're going to have disagreements, and sometimes they will be bitter. I don't think anyone can predict what will happen, but I do know this: Jim Harbaugh is going to have the support of the great, great majority of the Michigan family."
OK, but what about the immensely high expectations Harbaugh faces on the Michigan sidelines -- something Carr knows a little something about?
"I'll tell you this, and I truly believe it: The greatest thing about coaching is the expectations," Carr said. "And you know that as a coach you're not always going to meet those expectations.
"But when you do, you've really accomplished something."
Add to that running a program with integrity, within the rules, it's even better, he added.
"That's another thing that excites me about (Harbaugh)," Carr said. "He's going to do it the right way. And in the end, we're all going to be very proud of him."
