On3’s J.D. PicKell shares why Jim Harbaugh turned around Michigan football

In the aftermath of 2020, Jim Harbaugh appeared to be a dead man walking in Ann Arbor. Though that was the COVID year, there was a ton of optimism about the direction of the team that year, and when Michigan finally opened the season at Minnesota, there was sudden talk about a national championship.

The Wolverines won but one more game the rest of the way. There was no indication that Michigan would be able to turn things around.

However, there’s a reason why you play games instead of just taking a team’s record the year before and copying and pasting. Since, Michigan has beaten Ohio State two-straight times en route to back-to-back Big Ten Championships. What happened? What changed?

On3’s J.D. PicKell knows exactly what changed: Jim Harbaugh went back to his roots and trusted his own philosophy would work when college football was veering strongly towards systems that differed greatly.

“Look at what Jim Harbaugh has done just the last two seasons — just look at this,” PicKell said. “Two Big Ten titles, two College Football Playoff appearances, four different coordinators, give or take, two different quarterbacks, lost a lot to the NFL draft from 2021 to 2022. The common denominator in Michigan’s success is Jim Harbaugh.

“And you look at what he’s done. He’s done it his way. There’s been a lot made about, well, you can’t play the style of football that Jim Harbaugh wants to play. You got to be a little more spread out. You got to be able to be a little more dynamic. Jim Harbaugh has done it his way. He’s been on his philosophy and he has won.

“And I think for this coming season, I don’t know if Michigan is in the position they’re in if you don’t have Jim Harbaugh as your head coach, if he hasn’t built to what he’s built to at Michigan.”

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