Hlas: Saturday, Hawkeyes enter Harbaugh World

IOWA CITY — Rare is the time when Iowa's football team is reduced to the role of prop in its own stadium, but welcome to Saturday's reality.

You know the reason. Michigan is coming to Kinnick Stadium, and Jim Harbaugh is leading it through the gates.

Who has ever sucked all the oxygen out of the Big Ten's room — and college football's — like Harbaugh these last two years? Everything he says and everything he does becomes news, and he seems more than good with that.

Take Monday, for instance. What other college football coach would take time from a game week to attend a rally for a presidential candidate, which Harbaugh did in Ann Arbor for Hillary Clinton?

Harbaugh sat behind the stage, which was positioned in the clear line of sight of television cameras. President Barack Obama, who spoke at the rally, took advantage of Harbaugh's presence.

'I know you guys are feeling pretty good right now. ... 9-0. That's impressive,' Obama said, turning to look in Harbaugh's direction.

'Although I talked to Coach Harbaugh, and he's like, 'No, no. Next game. We got a long way to go,'' Obama said.

Harbaugh didn't indicate if he were a Clinton-supporter or not. He was there because it was another big stage, another photo op, another chance to have the world revolve around him and his football program.

Every week, there he is. Last week, he was at Wrigley Field for Game 5 of the World Series. Was he a Cubs fan? No. But it was the place in America to be, and there he was. Wearing a baseball glove.

The Wrigley organist played Michigan's fight song as the stadium's video board showed Harbaugh. Mission accomplished.

How many other coaches would have caused more than a ripple by being there? How many others would have even left campus during the season to do that? Not Iowa's.

'You know, outside of a funeral or someone being ill, I can't think of any time in my life I've ever done anything (like that),' Hawkeyes Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. 'But that's just — we're all different, and we all do things differently, and we're all creatures of habit probably in some ways, but basically I've just tried to focus on what it is I do, and I'll say this, it doesn't seem to affect their performance. They've looked pretty good on the film I've seen.'

Harbaugh has to drive the rest of the Big Ten a little crazy. On the national recruiting signing day last February, Harbaugh didn't hold a press conference. He put together a major production of an online TV show. It was called 'Signing With the Stars.'

Guests included Tom Brady and Derek Jeter. In a video montage, Michigan graduate James Earl Jones called the school the 'best university in the world,' though that claim would be difficult to quantify.

BBC Sport has been in Ann Arbor for over a week, working on a project about American college football with Harbaugh's cooperation.

How does anyone in, say, the Big Ten West, compete with that?

Sunday night, Harbaugh's name was invoked on 'The Simpsons.' Kirk Van Houten, the father of Bart's best friend, Milhouse, steers Springfield from football to lacrosse. Here is an exchange Homer Simpson had with his wife, Marge:

Homer: Kirk is like a sports genius who everyone hates.

Marge: Worse than Jim Harbaugh?

Homer: Well, not that bad.

I haven't watched every episode of the 28 seasons of 'The Simpsons,' but I'm guessing no other Big Ten football coach has been mentioned on the show.

Monday night on his radio show, Harbaugh addressed being mentioned on the most-popular animated series of all-time.

'People have been making sport of me ever since I can remember, ever since my earliest memories,' Harbaugh said. 'Five, six, seven — in the schoolyard. My whole life, they make sport of me. But it's pretty high class — The Simpsons!

I stepped up! It's one of my favorite shows. I love The Simpsons.

'There was one time where there was a baseball show, they showed a baseball player, and the fans were heckling him. And they go, 'He hears that all the time, he doesn't care about that.' Then they go to a close up to the baseball player, and he's got a tear coming down his eyes. They think of the most incredible things.

'The animated shows, 'The Simpsons' and 'SpongeBob' are two of my all-time favorites.'

SpongeBob?

'He attacks each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind,' Harbaugh said, using one of his favorite phrases.

Several weeks ago on ESPN Radio, Harbaugh described Gordon Lightfoot's 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' as 'a real toe-tapper.' He said it was his favorite dance song.

I nearly drove off Interstate 380 because I was laughing so hard. Host Dan Le Batard laughed pretty hard himself, and spent the show's next segment wondering if Harbaugh were serious or not.

'I like that song, it tells a story,' Harbaugh said last year. ... 'It's a good song, isn't it? Who doesn't like that song? It's a real toe-tapper. I've caught myself humming it many a time.'

No one else on Planet Earth ever described 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as a toe-tapper.

I know people who know Harbaugh. I ask them if he's a master of the put-on. They insist what you hear is the genuine article. He doesn't have a personality you encounter every day, especially from a big-deal football coach.

But here's the story that transcends all the quirks: In less than two calendar years, Harbaugh has restored glory to Michigan football. The San Francisco 49ers were 44-19-1 while he was coach. Since he left, they're 6-18.

The Wolverines were 20-18 in the three years before Harbaugh replaced Brady Hoke. They are 19-3 since he arrived.

Saturday night, it's the Jim Harbaugh Show on ABC. The Hawkeyes, barring an upset that will jolt the nation, will be extras in their own studio.