Michigan football legend comments on Harbaugh suspension

Jim Harbaugh will not be coaching the Wolverines on game day for the first time since the program’s loss at Ohio State in 2014 when Harbaugh was in San Fransisco and the head coach at Michigan was Brady Hoke. Due to Harbaugh’s three-game self-imposed suspension from the University of Michigan, he will miss the entire non-conference slate this fall before returning to the sidelines for Week 4 against Rutgers. Recently, Michigan football legend and former Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard had a chance to comment on how the suspension could impact Harbaugh’s team.

Michigan football legend Desmond Howard thinks Jim Harbaugh suspension could ‘light a fire’ under this year’s Wolverines

Desmond Howard, one of the greatest players to ever wear the Maize and Blue and an eternal Michigan football legend due to his Hiesman Trophy from 1991, thinks that Jim Harbaugh being suspended could actually have a positive impact on the Wolverines this year. Harbaugh battled it out against the NCAA for months, and while the committee of infractions will still meet and discuss further punishment, the university has suspended its 9th-year head football coach for three games — ECU, UNLV, and Bowling Green.

Here is what Desmond Howard has to say about Jim Harbaugh being suspended and how it may impact Michigan football this year.

“I think this is gonna light a fire underneath the players,” Michigan football legend Desmond Howard said on College Football Live. “I think that the Michigan football team is going to adopt that ‘us-against-the-world’ mentality. They think their coach is being improperly punished and that he’s being mistreated by the NCAA. Greg, the last time I was in a situation like this, when it was like me and my teammates and we wanted to rally against the system, it was when I was in Green Bay in 1996.

“… (Former Packers quarterback) Brett Favre just came out of rehab,” Howard said. “And the media just pounced on Brett Favre, and it really just beat up our quarterback. At that point, we circled the wagons, and we adopted that against the world mentality. And by the end of that season, we were hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. We won the (Super) Bowl. So I think if I know the Michigan football team the way I think I do, I think they’re adopting that same type of mentality of ‘us against the world’ because they believe that their leader is getting mistreated by the NCAA.”

National title-caliber motivation?

While Jim Harbaugh being suspended is not good news for the Maize and Blue by any means, Desmond Howard could be onto something here. If the Wolverines can channel the emotion of losing their beloved head coach, it could result in a Michigan football national title run for the first time since 1997.

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