Wasserman: Jim Harbaugh won a title, revived the Ohio State rivalry — stop with the ‘cheating’ crying

Five years ago, I sat in the Michigan Stadium press box following Ohio State’s 56-27 blowout of Michigan. It wasn’t a game, let alone The Game. One team was competing for national titles, the other was stuck in a state of mediocrity. One team was recruiting at peak levels, the other couldn’t even find a quarterback. So I wrote that Urban Meyer killed the rivalry.

It’s funny to look back at days like that given what we now know about Jim Harbaugh, the national champion and the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Through the first five years of his Michigan tenure, he was viewed as a failure. He almost got fired after the 2020 season.

Everything is so different now as Harbaugh is leaving Ann Arbor a champion and the man primarily responsible for reviving the greatest rivalry in college football. Ohio State fans loathe him. They’ll call him a cheater or a fraud. But nothing or nobody will be able to take away the fact that he is one of the rare high-profile coaching hires who actually lived up to — no, exceeded — the immense hype.

Those who stay will be champions. Harbaugh, a former Wolverines quarterback and the epitome of a Michigan Man, proved that statement — easy to mock a few years ago — to be true.

For that, he’s a coaching legend. Forever.

For many of you, reading that was difficult. Some of you have probably already scrolled to the comments section below to recycle cheating jabs. You can’t mention Michigan’s national title run this year without also acknowledging there is hard evidence the Wolverines engaged in a cheating scandal.

Harbaugh, now in the NFL, left Michigan before the NCAA had its final word on the matter. Some will call him a coward for leaving now, even if he had shown interest in returning to professional football before the spying scandal came to light. Like everything with Harbaugh — his personality, his tactics, his behavior toward the NCAA, his exit — it’s complicated.

But here’s what’s not complicated: If you’re still yelling about cheating or delegitimizing what Harbaugh and Michigan did this year, you didn’t pay attention to the run. It’s weak. It’s crybaby-ish. It’s, frankly, fragile.

Yet, it’s so profoundly beautiful.

Why? Because the best rivalry in college football is back and perhaps more heated than it’s been during any period since the Ten Year War. Winning a national title wasn’t the only thing Harbaugh accomplished. Getting us here today — villainizing or coveting him and the Michigan program — is the real success.

There’s no denying Michigan broke some rules. Though it’s hard to determine what (if anything) the NCAA will do in the coming months, whatever it decides will be warranted. Crime and punishment. The results of the season can’t — and shouldn’t — take away from what Connor Stalions did or the scheme Michigan ran. Stalions appeared to dress up like a Central Michigan coach with spy Ray-Bans recording the Michigan State sideline. In no other sport could something so ridiculous — and, honestly, hilarious — happen. But if it did happen, it should be penalized. It likely will, to some extent. I’m not dismissing or glorifying the transgressions.

But that’s not why Michigan won the national title. Two days later, NCAA president Charlie Baker even said the Wolverines won it all “fair and square.” Even if you don’t want to take Baker’s comments seriously, you have to acknowledge Michigan beat Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama and Washington after the scandal broke. Those were the only games Michigan could have possibly lost on its schedule, cheating or not.

The response to Michigan’s success from Ohio State is what you’d expect from a proud program tired of losing to its rival. The Buckeyes have had one of the most successful offseasons in recent memory with the additions of key portal players, including quarterbacks Will Howard and Julian Sayin, running back Quinshon Judkins, interior offensive lineman Seth McLaughlin, and, of course, safety Caleb Downs. The pocketbook was opened, and the Buckeyes mean business.

That’s what the response should be. Not, “wahh! wahh! Michigan cheated!” More like, “This year is our year to take back what we believe is ours.”

That’s what every year in this rivalry should be. It wasn’t that when Harbaugh took over. It wasn’t that in Year 5 of the Harbaugh era. Now it is. It should be laced with hate, passion, butterflies and 365 days of obsession. That’s what makes this rivalry, this sport so great. And if you’re using the “they cheated” stuff as a way to get under your rival’s skin while they’re hoisting the sport’s most coveted trophy, all power to you. It’s not the flex you think it is or even the truth, but go off, King. After all, this is a rivalry and it’s supposed to be contentious.

Harbaugh is one of the most interesting coaches this sport has ever seen. These may be distant memories to some, but it doesn’t seem that long ago that we were watching him host satellite camps, climb trees, sleep over at recruits’ houses and tell his players not to eat chicken because “it’s a nervous bird.” Harbaugh is a bizarre man, and Chargers fans are about to get a front-row seat to the journey.

College football is worse off without him. But Harbaugh leaves a champion. More than that, he won that championship with a roster built the Harbaugh way, not the Ohio State way. I would have steadfastly told you a year ago that what Harbaugh accomplished this year was impossible. I was wrong, which is another reminder that sports are about the unpredictable.

Harbaugh is nothing if not unpredictable. I’m thankful he was at Michigan for these past nine years because, wow, what a roller coaster that was. And as we go into this offseason — a few years removed from that 2019 postgame column I wrote — we have the most coveted thing about our sport back: The Game.

All because of him.

(Photo: Jamie Schwaberow / Getty Images)