Jim Harbaugh told me that 28 years ago in an interview one-onone with Madden 23 coins him at Bicycle Jim's Restaurant in Ann Arbor. He was in Michigan, I was covering his team and him in The Detroit Free Press and we were both drawn to the awe and fascination of at the time Michigan coach Bo Schembechler.

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It was the only way to go with Bo. No matter if you played for him or wrote about him Bo's direct, direct and honest, yet awe-inspiring sincerity grew. As a player, Harbaugh disagreed with his own views. As an author, I had a disagreement with Harbaugh's writing. But his tenacity and honesty was indisputable. He made you think. He caused you to take another look . Sometimes even a third.

This is the essence of Jim Harbaugh, the blueprint he followed for over 14 seasons of Madden NFL 23 playing career and for every one of his head coaching assignments at the University of San Diego, Stanford and the San Francisco 49ers. The Harbaughs, his parents Jack as well as Jackie, set the foundation. Schembechler and Mike Ditka were coaches who played a role in laying it.

Harbaugh has returned to those roots. He called it a "homecoming."

Being the 20th director of the University of Michigan Michigan is something that he has said that he'd dreamed about. He said that now that it was time to live it.

It is time for a change, and in part because his relationships with 49ers management became so cold and fractured that a split was in order. It seems that it reached a pinnacle during the negotiations for his contract before last season, in which the 49ers caused him to feel unimportant. If you cause Jim Harbaugh feel unappreciated, marginalized, and unworthy He's not the type of player to stick around. It's the right time, in part, as there's a need at Michigan football and a need to be answered. A welcoming door, wide-open embrace, appreciation and the feeling of being appreciated was a blanket laid over the player by Michigan management. Michigan's approach and cheap MUT 23 ltds need for help captivated him.