Saturday Thoughts: SEC Whining Proves Harbaugh Is Doing It Right

Details from one Michigan satellite camp alone should be enough to shut SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and the conference shills up … but it probably won’t.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s comments recently – that the satellite camps were bad for the game, difficult to police, etc. – were met with a strong retort from Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh (“'Amazing' to me- Alabama broke NCAA rules & now their HC is lecturing us on the possibility of rules being broken at camps. Truly 'amazing'"), and it was only a matter of time before Sankey came to his golden goose’s defense.

Meanwhile, self-appointed SEC defender of all that is good and just (sense the sarcasm) Paul Finebaum continued his crusade against Harbaugh.

"He has really become a cartoon character. He just can't stop," Finebaum said of Harbaugh. "Twitter will do that to you; we've seen a presidential candidate (Donald Trump) who can't stay off Twitter, and now Jim Harbaugh can't."

Harbaugh rarely tweets, but why should that get in the way of the faux outrage? Saban responded with, “That's his business. I don't really care what he thinks or tweets,” and that was enough to bring Finebaum, a longtime reporter and radio show host in Birmingham, Ala., great pleasure.

"Saban responded like you would respond to a fly on your hamburger at the July 4 company picnic," Finebaum said. "He just shooed it away. He's not going to engage Jim Harbaugh because I think he's much smarter than Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, for a coach who had a successful first year, is really reeking of desperation right now."

But desperation is reserved for programs on the way down, not the way up, which Michigan clearly is under Harbaugh. The Wolverines are No. 2 to Alabama to win the National Title in year two. Elite recruits are lining up to play for him, and the reaction from many recruits to Harbaugh’s shot at ‘Bama has been epic, as reported in our latest edition of INSIDE THE FORT.

They love the guy.

As for Sankey’s comments that there’s no teaching or instruction going on at the camps – couldn’t be further from the truth. It was clear last year when we covered the camp at Indianapolis Bishop Chatard how much the kids were getting from it, and the teaching never stopped. It was constant.

It’s been the same this year:

And if you don’t believe us, ask Gene Wojciechowski, Finebaum’s colleague at ESPN:

Jim Harbaugh has bigger goals than winning Big Ten titles … he wants to be the best nationally, and to do that you need players (otherwise you end up getting embarrassed in the college football playoff). To compete with the Wild, Wild West that is the SEC without making it seem as though he’d brought a knife to a gunfight, he’s had to be creative … to be the self-proclaimed jackhammer he claims to be.

He’s already raked in an elite recruiting class, is on his way to another and has a 10-win season under his belt, and he hasn't had to use the 'When in Rome' approach to do it.

So that odor Finebaum’s smelling from his SEC high horse? It isn't Harbaugh’s desperation … but it might just be some of what Finebaum and his SEC cohorts are shoveling.