Nearly a dozen practices and at least one scrimmage had come and gone as Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh strode toward a lectern inside Schembechler Hall on Wednesday, his cleats clacking along the tiled floor.
He had last spoken to the media at Big Ten Media Days in late July, when the primary topic of conversation was the ongoing quarterback battle between the incumbent Cade McNamara and the challenger J.J. McCarthy. Nothing had changed in the three weeks since Harbaugh’s surfacing in Indianapolis, and the elephant in his program was immediately addressed.
“Jim, you’re in the back half of camp now,” a reporter asked to begin the news conference.