Mike Harbaugh (Photo from The Tribe)
Chicago Tribune reporter Teddy Greenstein portrays the much heralded University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh as not a very caring guy when it comes to dealing with recruits. The Trib story is titled: "Ethics no obstacle to Michigan's Jim Harbaugh dumping verbal commits."
Greenstein writes that Harbaugh has no qualms about over-recruiting, stringing a player along and then telling the teenager to get lost when there's no room on the roster:
We hear about the Jim Harbaugh slumber party at a recruit's house and make lame jokes about khaki pajamas. Harbaugh stalks a California kid, sits in on his World Religions Class and the photo gets thousands of looks on social media.
It's all a diversion.
The real Harbaugh is the one who just told a left tackle from Downers Grove South who had been committed to Michigan orally for two-plus years to take a hike. Actually, Harbaugh didn't tell Erik Swenson. Apparently he was too busy posing for selfies. So he had his offensive line coach, Tim Drevno, do it.
"A month ago, I had a great talk with coach Tim Drevno, and he said, 'Get ready to play for us,'" Swenson told the Tribune. "They called me last week saying I should reopen my recruitment and take other visits. My family and I were shaken back by it."
When Swenson called Tuesday, he said Drevno told him there were "no spots left." He said he asked to speak with Harbaugh but "he didn't want to talk to me."
Don't feel bad, kid. It's how Harbaugh does business. It's called "over-recruiting."
Needless to say, Swenson doesn't feel all warm and fuzzy about Harbaugh and the maize and blue. "I just felt used," he tells the Tribune.
Greenstein goes on to tell of another dumping of a recruit when Harbaugh was coaching Stanford.
