Coach Harbaugh did what he came to do — took us from the dark days of RichRod and Brady Hoke all the way to a National Championship, with three straight Big Ten titles and wins over OSU along the way. These are monumental achievements for a program in a cold climate that doesn't recruit at Ohio State or Alabama levels. He did all this with character and class (no matter what the haters say), and by humbling himself, changing his coaching habits, and getting the assistant coaches he needed to get us over the hump.
I don’t blame Coach for wanting to pursue a different goal and not wanting to put up with the NCAA and Big Ten bullshit. He made it fun to be a fan again, and he's a Michigan legend forever. Thank you.
Great highlights. Loathe the song, though, sorry. It appears to have been commissioned or otherwise arranged for this purpose because it mentions Michigan in the lyrics. Probably good for recruiting — I’m twice as old as the target audience…. but the moment I heard “Michigan” among the cringeworthy lyrics, I thought of “We Are ND.”
The predictions were always insightful and reasonable nonetheless. The low success rate just goes to show that trying to predict sports outcomes can be fun but is futile.
Let him dream away — nothing he thinks about college or future plans along those lines will matter until he’s at least 16. When the time comes, you can have that conversation.
I also saw that interview the other day and felt very proud of him and, yet again, appreciative of how the program under Coach Harbaugh’s leadership seems to mold recruits into team-first men of character. Donovan’s runs tonight brought me back to that glorious victory over OSU in 2022. Per his official bio: “Posted 216 yards with two touchdowns on 22 carries at Ohio State (Nov. 26), breaking off touchdown runs of 75 and 85 yards.”
As an XC and track athlete, my pre-race pump-up tune was Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. (Incidentally, although Comfortably Numb is incomparable and will never be surpassed, Pain by The War on Drugs and One Big Holiday by My Morning Jacket are newer tunes with great guitar solos that I might be using if I still raced.)
I threw my hat in the ring for a ticket listed above, but haven’t been contacted yet. I’m looking for a single ticket and hoping to pay $500 or under (fees included) for it. Email me at goblue [at] rushingmccarl.com if one is available.
I live 15 minutes from the stadium, so travel and lodging are not an issue. I’m ready to buy now.
As it stands, Iowa needs to find the self-respect to fire both Ferentzes. We just watched Iowa hit its ceiling. Can you imagine rooting for a team that is so unimaginably boring and doomed to perpetual mediocrity because, to take the latest reason, it prioritizes the Coach’s son’s feelings over fielding even an Indiana/Northwestern/Rutgers/MSU-level offense?
Doesn’t get more Harbaugh than having Petitti give the trophy to Zinter instead since everyone’s waiting for the Petitti-to-Harbaugh handoff. LOVE IT. Keeps focus on the players while working in a snub, treating Petitti like the irrelevant nobody he is instead of giving him even a moment of the team’s airtime.
I don’t recall the exact wording of the suspension, but I thought it just barred Coach Harbaugh from the game venue. Is anything stopping him from calling in and being on the headset or otherwise sending thoughts to the coaches? That would help with game-theory decisions, obviously. Saturday’s game was poorly called, no two ways about it, and Harbaugh’s absence could be the difference-maker.
UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin was the dean of UCLA Law when I was on the faculty for a couple of years. I can confirm that she is indeed a powerhouse.
How she convinced M to hand the Big Ten a complete victory before the hearing, I have no idea. Not what I would have advised (though of course I wasn't privy to those discussions, and I'm sure they had their reasons).
That's true that amicus briefs shouldn't be expected to change the outcome one way or the other. They can help on the margins and help with the media narrative. I believe judges usually read them, so they can be influential, but they are rarely cited in opinions.
Michigan caved before the hearing, so we'll never know what the court would have decided. The amicus brief could only have helped, but settling removes the possibility of it helping with the law. It can still help with the media narrative.
This feels like an inexplicably conservative risk-management decision by the university. Coach Harbaugh was in the right and prepared to defend himself. The Big Ten's suspension violated the conference's own rules under pressure from Michigan's self-interested rivals, who insisted that the Big Ten interfere with this season rather than awaiting the outcome of the NCAA investigation. 1,700 alumni signed our amicus brief this week making their views clear: Harbaugh should be on the sidelines for these crucial games.
I'll be making the rounds on media expressing these views. Any reporters looking for a critical take should call my firm.
Terrible idea. I don't know what they could have been thinking; it feels like an afraid-to-lose risk-management call by the university. I'm going to put out an article and continue speaking to the media about it. The 1,700 alumni who signed our amicus brief made clear how important it is for Coach Harbaugh to be on the sidelines.
The way we do it is to file the application for leave to file an amicus brief with the brief itself attached as an exhibit, so it will be part of the record once the clerk accepts the filing. It's like asking "May we file this" and handing the document to the judge. They already have it in front of them, so they may take a look at it out of curiosity alone — especially because amicus briefs are not common at the trial-court level, our brief is interesting, and it's a high-profile case that will have lots of media attention.
Once it's on the docket, there are a few possibilities: (1) The court could enter an order on the docket granting or denying the application for leave to file, probably without giving reasons one way or the other. (2) The court could rule on the application orally at the Friday hearing. Or (3) the court could completely ignore it, leaving us in the dark about whether it was considered.
It doesn't really matter. The brief is on the record and will shape the narrative, the more so the more it is amplified by those who appreciate its message.
Even if no one in the lawsuit mentions the brief again, the perspective shared in the brief is officially part of the conversation. That includes an MGoBoard-vetted, citation-backed explanation of SignGate that owes a heavy debt to Brian's "SignGate the Xth" series. The brief’s ideas will trickle in to various takes, creating toeholds for sanity.
Bummer. My team was racing to file all day after I essentially pulled an all-nighter, so small mistakes are inevitable. That particular one would have resulted from an alum filling out the wrong field or misinterpreting a question; there were a few of those but I apparently overlooked one.
Mr./Ms. "Yes" was still validated by the Alumni Association based on the other info they provided, though.
None of those, but all the signatories are listed at the end of the PDF linked in my blog post: https://bit.ly/harbaughamicus. Quite a few former athletes going back decades signed — Ian Bunting was a more recent one. I’m sure there are many other names people will recognize, and lots of people who aren’t household names, but are important in the community, like season-ticket holders, donors, professors at other universities, etc. 1700ish signatures = 28 pages with two columns at 12pt or 13pt font.
Unfortunately, there are some latecomers I couldn’t include — even though they seemed legitimate, I didn’t have time to confirm them with the Alumni Association.
And of course you had your obligatory one or two OSU or Sparty trolls submitting fake names with the word “cheater” in them.
Exactly. Michigan’s attorneys at Williams and Connelly did a great job and hit all the main points, so the purpose of the amicus brief was to help shape the media narrative, say things in a different way, make points that the university can’t necessarily make directly, and raise points that complement the university’s position.
Give it a try and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I do not write like most other lawyers. I have a book coming out in February called Elegant Legal Writing that argues that lawyers should try to write more like general nonfiction writers.
Thanks for the kind words. You can certainly help by amplifying the brief, because whether or not the court considers it, it can move the narrative in the right direction.
As for not being an alum, all Michigan fans are in the fold. I grew up rooting for Michigan and going to games with alumni and non-alumni alike. Since I went to UChicago for undergrad and law school, I almost missed out on being an alum despite being born in A2 and being a lifelong diehard fan; thankfully, I made time to spend a year in Ann Arbor getting a masters degree.
The only reason I had to keep the brief to alumni is that doing so allowed me to confirm through the Alumni Association that people who signed our form were real.
Of course — it appears a troll found it. Not a problem, I reversed all that and I have everyone's comments and suggestions from before in my local copy.
Locked, we’re good now — thank you for your help! Many great comments and suggestions. I’ve saved them in a local copy and will review them all as I revise. We will post the full brief once it’s filed.
To avoid some confusion I see in a few posts above, what was posted was a draft of a tiny portion of the brief, not the brief itself.
The brief is about to pass 1,700 alumni signatures submitted through the web form, which I'm closing soon so we can finalize the list.
It’s the first time I’ve tried crowdsourcing a section of a brief — I wonder if it has ever been done. This is a one-of-a-kind situation that doesn’t raise any issues of confidentiality. And there are no doubt many people on this board who know more than I do on this particular topic. I hope people have fun getting an early glimpse and contributing.
Thanks for your support! The brief now has 1,266 co-signers ranging from the Class of 1959 to the Class of 2024. Here's the link to the signup form for those who need it or want to share it: http://bit.ly/harbaughbrief.
That take on the harm issue is the main concern our brief seeks to address. Fully understood re: not wanting to sign it without reading it, though.
Over 1,200 alumni have co-signed through our form so far, so quite a few people are putting their trust in our firm, and their backing is what will put the brief on the map. I'm excited to file and share it tomorrow. I'll consider posting an outline or teaser this evening if I feel we are close enough to justify that.
That's of course understandable, especially for an attorney. We've attracted over 540 alumni signatures already on a Sunday evening within hours of announcing the brief, so we're grateful for the trust that a lot of people are putting in our firm. They won't be disappointed in our work. But we understand that not everyone can sign.
Thank you. Everyone’s efforts are making a difference. We’ve already passed 500 signatures and attracted some big-name interest within hours of my announcement — all on a Sunday evening.
Has to be that way because of the timeframe. The hearing is on Friday, so we need to file by Tuesday at the latest. But you can read in the post what we’re aiming for and look at our other work. Signatories won’t be embarrassed or disappointed.
Recent Comments
Coach Harbaugh did what he came to do — took us from the dark days of RichRod and Brady Hoke all the way to a National Championship, with three straight Big Ten titles and wins over OSU along the way. These are monumental achievements for a program in a cold climate that doesn't recruit at Ohio State or Alabama levels. He did all this with character and class (no matter what the haters say), and by humbling himself, changing his coaching habits, and getting the assistant coaches he needed to get us over the hump.
I don’t blame Coach for wanting to pursue a different goal and not wanting to put up with the NCAA and Big Ten bullshit. He made it fun to be a fan again, and he's a Michigan legend forever. Thank you.
Great highlights. Loathe the song, though, sorry. It appears to have been commissioned or otherwise arranged for this purpose because it mentions Michigan in the lyrics. Probably good for recruiting — I’m twice as old as the target audience…. but the moment I heard “Michigan” among the cringeworthy lyrics, I thought of “We Are ND.”
The predictions were always insightful and reasonable nonetheless. The low success rate just goes to show that trying to predict sports outcomes can be fun but is futile.
Let him dream away — nothing he thinks about college or future plans along those lines will matter until he’s at least 16. When the time comes, you can have that conversation.
I also saw that interview the other day and felt very proud of him and, yet again, appreciative of how the program under Coach Harbaugh’s leadership seems to mold recruits into team-first men of character. Donovan’s runs tonight brought me back to that glorious victory over OSU in 2022. Per his official bio: “Posted 216 yards with two touchdowns on 22 carries at Ohio State (Nov. 26), breaking off touchdown runs of 75 and 85 yards.”
What DeBoer has achieved at Washington since 2021 is very impressive. He seems like a great coach.
We were just better. And that’s as it should be.
As an XC and track athlete, my pre-race pump-up tune was Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. (Incidentally, although Comfortably Numb is incomparable and will never be surpassed, Pain by The War on Drugs and One Big Holiday by My Morning Jacket are newer tunes with great guitar solos that I might be using if I still raced.)
I was seated in the Bama section and had a good experience with the fans.
Game of a lifetime!
I threw my hat in the ring for a ticket listed above, but haven’t been contacted yet. I’m looking for a single ticket and hoping to pay $500 or under (fees included) for it. Email me at goblue [at] rushingmccarl.com if one is available.
I live 15 minutes from the stadium, so travel and lodging are not an issue. I’m ready to buy now.
I’ll take it. Goblue [at] rushingmccarl.com
As it stands, Iowa needs to find the self-respect to fire both Ferentzes. We just watched Iowa hit its ceiling. Can you imagine rooting for a team that is so unimaginably boring and doomed to perpetual mediocrity because, to take the latest reason, it prioritizes the Coach’s son’s feelings over fielding even an Indiana/Northwestern/Rutgers/MSU-level offense?
Guess I’m old because my wife had to interpret that for me.
Doesn’t get more Harbaugh than having Petitti give the trophy to Zinter instead since everyone’s waiting for the Petitti-to-Harbaugh handoff. LOVE IT. Keeps focus on the players while working in a snub, treating Petitti like the irrelevant nobody he is instead of giving him even a moment of the team’s airtime.
Michigan, Alabama, Oregon, Georgia.
Book it.
I don’t recall the exact wording of the suspension, but I thought it just barred Coach Harbaugh from the game venue. Is anything stopping him from calling in and being on the headset or otherwise sending thoughts to the coaches? That would help with game-theory decisions, obviously. Saturday’s game was poorly called, no two ways about it, and Harbaugh’s absence could be the difference-maker.
Beautiful example of how the arrangement of sentences / sequencing of information can be used to say something without saying it.
On its face, the line about Partridge is completely disconnected from the other sentences. But there's no mystery about why it was included.
UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin was the dean of UCLA Law when I was on the faculty for a couple of years. I can confirm that she is indeed a powerhouse.
How she convinced M to hand the Big Ten a complete victory before the hearing, I have no idea. Not what I would have advised (though of course I wasn't privy to those discussions, and I'm sure they had their reasons).
That's true that amicus briefs shouldn't be expected to change the outcome one way or the other. They can help on the margins and help with the media narrative. I believe judges usually read them, so they can be influential, but they are rarely cited in opinions.
Michigan caved before the hearing, so we'll never know what the court would have decided. The amicus brief could only have helped, but settling removes the possibility of it helping with the law. It can still help with the media narrative.
This feels like an inexplicably conservative risk-management decision by the university. Coach Harbaugh was in the right and prepared to defend himself. The Big Ten's suspension violated the conference's own rules under pressure from Michigan's self-interested rivals, who insisted that the Big Ten interfere with this season rather than awaiting the outcome of the NCAA investigation. 1,700 alumni signed our amicus brief this week making their views clear: Harbaugh should be on the sidelines for these crucial games.
I'll be making the rounds on media expressing these views. Any reporters looking for a critical take should call my firm.
Terrible idea. I don't know what they could have been thinking; it feels like an afraid-to-lose risk-management call by the university. I'm going to put out an article and continue speaking to the media about it. The 1,700 alumni who signed our amicus brief made clear how important it is for Coach Harbaugh to be on the sidelines.
The way we do it is to file the application for leave to file an amicus brief with the brief itself attached as an exhibit, so it will be part of the record once the clerk accepts the filing. It's like asking "May we file this" and handing the document to the judge. They already have it in front of them, so they may take a look at it out of curiosity alone — especially because amicus briefs are not common at the trial-court level, our brief is interesting, and it's a high-profile case that will have lots of media attention.
Once it's on the docket, there are a few possibilities: (1) The court could enter an order on the docket granting or denying the application for leave to file, probably without giving reasons one way or the other. (2) The court could rule on the application orally at the Friday hearing. Or (3) the court could completely ignore it, leaving us in the dark about whether it was considered.
It doesn't really matter. The brief is on the record and will shape the narrative, the more so the more it is amplified by those who appreciate its message.
Even if no one in the lawsuit mentions the brief again, the perspective shared in the brief is officially part of the conversation. That includes an MGoBoard-vetted, citation-backed explanation of SignGate that owes a heavy debt to Brian's "SignGate the Xth" series. The brief’s ideas will trickle in to various takes, creating toeholds for sanity.
Bummer. My team was racing to file all day after I essentially pulled an all-nighter, so small mistakes are inevitable. That particular one would have resulted from an alum filling out the wrong field or misinterpreting a question; there were a few of those but I apparently overlooked one.
Mr./Ms. "Yes" was still validated by the Alumni Association based on the other info they provided, though.
😂 Oops, good catch. I mixed up two places that I know only as homes of perpetually hopeful but disappointed football fans.
None of those, but all the signatories are listed at the end of the PDF linked in my blog post: https://bit.ly/harbaughamicus. Quite a few former athletes going back decades signed — Ian Bunting was a more recent one. I’m sure there are many other names people will recognize, and lots of people who aren’t household names, but are important in the community, like season-ticket holders, donors, professors at other universities, etc. 1700ish signatures = 28 pages with two columns at 12pt or 13pt font.
Unfortunately, there are some latecomers I couldn’t include — even though they seemed legitimate, I didn’t have time to confirm them with the Alumni Association.
And of course you had your obligatory one or two OSU or Sparty trolls submitting fake names with the word “cheater” in them.
Exactly. Michigan’s attorneys at Williams and Connelly did a great job and hit all the main points, so the purpose of the amicus brief was to help shape the media narrative, say things in a different way, make points that the university can’t necessarily make directly, and raise points that complement the university’s position.
Give it a try and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I do not write like most other lawyers. I have a book coming out in February called Elegant Legal Writing that argues that lawyers should try to write more like general nonfiction writers.
Thanks for the kind words. You can certainly help by amplifying the brief, because whether or not the court considers it, it can move the narrative in the right direction.
As for not being an alum, all Michigan fans are in the fold. I grew up rooting for Michigan and going to games with alumni and non-alumni alike. Since I went to UChicago for undergrad and law school, I almost missed out on being an alum despite being born in A2 and being a lifelong diehard fan; thankfully, I made time to spend a year in Ann Arbor getting a masters degree.
The only reason I had to keep the brief to alumni is that doing so allowed me to confirm through the Alumni Association that people who signed our form were real.
Of course — it appears a troll found it. Not a problem, I reversed all that and I have everyone's comments and suggestions from before in my local copy.
Locked, we’re good now — thank you for your help! Many great comments and suggestions. I’ve saved them in a local copy and will review them all as I revise. We will post the full brief once it’s filed.
To avoid some confusion I see in a few posts above, what was posted was a draft of a tiny portion of the brief, not the brief itself.
The brief is about to pass 1,700 alumni signatures submitted through the web form, which I'm closing soon so we can finalize the list.
No, I don’t see why it would. The hearing will discuss arguments made by the parties in their competing briefs.
This is a tiny portion of the brief, not the brief itself.
I have no idea what you mean or are thinking of, but this brief adds the voice of additional “pros on the case” in Michigan’s favor.
The judge can read or ignore it as they see fit. It can be helpful if it’s read. It can also help educate the media and affect the discourse.
No, not that I see. It’s completely consistent with their positions.
I think this point is made in the University’s brief or complaint. We tried to minimize overlap.
I thought Angelique or someone said that those early reports of a resignation were wrong, but others can weigh in. Maybe I got it backwards.
No, the brief focuses mainly on why the football program is so important to the community and why the Big Ten’s decision and conduct were wrong.
How carefully you did you read it? I don’t see how anything in the draft contradicts these statements.
I don’t think any Latin is used.
It’s the first time I’ve tried crowdsourcing a section of a brief — I wonder if it has ever been done. This is a one-of-a-kind situation that doesn’t raise any issues of confidentiality. And there are no doubt many people on this board who know more than I do on this particular topic. I hope people have fun getting an early glimpse and contributing.
Update: We now have more than 1,500 alumni signatures. We are hard at work revising the brief.
Thanks for your support! The brief now has 1,266 co-signers ranging from the Class of 1959 to the Class of 2024. Here's the link to the signup form for those who need it or want to share it: http://bit.ly/harbaughbrief.
That take on the harm issue is the main concern our brief seeks to address. Fully understood re: not wanting to sign it without reading it, though.
Over 1,200 alumni have co-signed through our form so far, so quite a few people are putting their trust in our firm, and their backing is what will put the brief on the map. I'm excited to file and share it tomorrow. I'll consider posting an outline or teaser this evening if I feel we are close enough to justify that.
We are filing our amicus brief tomorrow. Over 1,175 alumni co-signers and counting. I'll post it on the Board once we file.
Update: we're at almost 1,100 alumni signatures submitted through the form.
That's of course understandable, especially for an attorney. We've attracted over 540 alumni signatures already on a Sunday evening within hours of announcing the brief, so we're grateful for the trust that a lot of people are putting in our firm. They won't be disappointed in our work. But we understand that not everyone can sign.
Thank you. Everyone’s efforts are making a difference. We’ve already passed 500 signatures and attracted some big-name interest within hours of my announcement — all on a Sunday evening.
Has to be that way because of the timeframe. The hearing is on Friday, so we need to file by Tuesday at the latest. But you can read in the post what we’re aiming for and look at our other work. Signatories won’t be embarrassed or disappointed.
Doubtful, (1) There’s a difference between having an idea and executing it, and (2) who is going to put their names on that one?