I think this gets at one of my discomforts about Harbaugh. This space cadet approach to Fort Schembechler is neither endearing nor effective. Harbaugh applying the same broad, blank-faced weirdness to even the most serious of questions as he does to, say, who's starting at FS raises red flags that don't need airing.  We saw what this did to Brady Hoke, with far less results and somewhat less benefit of the doubt. Jim's playing with fire here in a completely needless and avoidable way. And it's concerning.

I thought it was Bowman or Willis who said that Harbaugh was a "player's coach" in that he stood up for his guys and they felt he cared about them.

I never took "player's coach" to mean buddy buddy with guys. More so that player's coaches were on the side of the players. There's no doubt Harbaugh wears on guys, but I never took that to mean he berated players or endangered them in any way.

Found the quote from Bowman:

"Those things really bother me because this business wouldn’t operate without the players. I’ve been in this league for eight years and the only coach that I really seen understand that and abide by that has been Jim Harbaugh, when it comes to putting the players first."

Frost is responding to something specific and quantifiable that occurred on his watch.  Harbaugh was correct to not respond to some rather vague claims of bully coaching from two years ago.  He's in a no win situation.  He'll either come across like Muschamp (who was rightly criticized) in defending Durkin or open questions to what he did or did not do to reign in Durkin's bullying.  There is no way for Harbaugh to answer that isn't going to lead to a lot more questions and probable unwarranted criticism.  It's about like trying to answer the question "when did you stop beating your wife?"

A coach is responsible for everything in his program. There is no excuse of not knowing; never. And if you tolerate certain behavior then you are responsible for whatever happens in connection with that behavior.

Yes, Durkin has to go along with several other members of his staff. His staff could be charged criminally in the death of a player whose response to heat stress was simply ignored. Every one is different. We respond to the world we live in differently based on so many mental and physical factors, our environment and conditioning to our treatment in it, whether by parental or other authority figures.

I just don't get why this kid died, on any level, you want to figure. And for that, Durkin and his staffers must pay the price. And if this isn't a lesson to Harbaugh and other coaches, then they deserve the same fate when something goes wildly wrong.

The bullshit at Ohio State is another matter. When you are responsible for a kid, when you recruit him, and put his life under your supervision for a key period of his life, you are more than a coach, you represent his family and are responsible for his physical and emotional well-being while he serves your specific interests. Don't throw the term of family around, and then pretend it only matters when you are trying to motivate.

You are there to mentor, cherish that kid's opportunity to make good within your program for the greater good. And when he falters or fails to live up to expectations, you help him the best way possible to meet them. But you never neglect him or put his life at risk in the process. That is criminal. And maybe, just maybe that is what happened in Maryland.

The Scott Frost comparison has nothing to do with Harbaugh. If this happened at Michigan then it would. Frost was upfront and Durkin was not, but none of this has any affect on Michigan. No reports of Durkin harming players here. No reports of Harbaugh not having control of his own program. Durkin will be fired (deservedly so), but begging Harbaugh to comment on this reeks of virtue signaling, IMO. 

I'm surprisingly comfortable with the idea that Durkin allowed his freak flag to fly at greater heights here and at Maryland than he did at Stanford.  At Stanford he was a positional assistant.  Here he was a full-fledged coordinator.  Maryland, HC, obviously.  I'm sure Durkin was yelly at Stanford but he wasn't actually in charge of anything.  Durkin gets off on power, and he didn't have much of it at Stanford, so he didn't have much fuel for his dickery..  He had a lot more here and at Maryland.  It wouldn't surprise me if Harbaugh was like "what the hell is your deal all of a sudden?" and privately suggested he start looking for other jobs.

Then again, Harbs is a nutcase himself, and maybe he saw a kindred spirit and misinterpreted Durkin's dickery for football devotion.

Okay, that's it Durkin is done.  He probably did become worse as a head coach but let's also not forget that a number of people overlooked what was happening with the young player.  Durkin's isn't the only head that will be rolling.

This has largely been my take as well.  I doubt Harbaugh much cared about Durkin being an asshole to his players, though my guess is Mattison being around probably tempered it a bit.  But Harbaugh is definitely cut from that same "we deal with stuff internally so stop asking" cloth.

I don't know why many people can't remove their tribal loyalties from this opinion.  I, too, was disturbed by the Peppers' interview and Harbaugh's lack of transparency.  I think in these types of situations it's always best to be as transparent as possible.  Football has a culture problem and you can only scapegoat so many people before you realize it was this culture that birthed them.  My uncle played at CMU in the late 70s and early 80s, and some of the stories about what players had to do are incredible.

Not sure how we go from some anecdotal comments about Durkin to, “it’s clear he’s a dick.”   Clear?   The torches and pitchforks are lit and sharpened and until we have a Durkin head on the spit we won’t stop.   ESPN is one of the worst sources for accurate reporting but let’s run with that.

I was at the Michigan-Maryland game in 2015 with my son.  We were seated behind where the defense was when they were off the field. 

When the offense was on the field, Mattison would go over to the players and talk to them showing them some photos of the plays while they remained seated.  Then Durkin showed up, gave some loud encouragement and had all the players stand up.

My impression was Mattison was teaching and Durkin was cheerleading.  

This of course was in public, so any psycho behavior wouldn't have been on display.

Hadn't heard negative comments about Harbaugh from Michigan players before.  Hope that turns around quickly.  Glad that Durkin left the program whether Harbaugh somehow made that happen or whether Durkin did it on his own.

Rock solid commentary. We're past the adulatory sniveling stage of the relationship with Harbaugh, and I am still cool with him. But you want to look at the world, friends, enemies, with a clear lens. 

When Zordich made the comments taunting Lavert Hill for not playing through an injury, I was rubbed the wrong way by that. Wish we'd made more of it at the time. Correlates with Brian's theory that Durkin was allowed to do his thing when he was at Michigan.

Good column, Brian.  Player safety was sadly missing at Maryland, and a grieving family now pays the price.

Training staffs not responding to players suffering from heatstroke is criminal negligence; all staff found negligent should be fired.