INDIANAPOLIS — With roughly four minutes remaining in a drought that seemed, at times, like it might never end, Jim Harbaugh — still wearing his headset and holding his play sheet — started to take in the scene.
Standing near the 50-yard line on the visiting sideline of Lucas Oil Stadium, almost directly underneath a stadium ring of honor that includes his name, Harbaugh began to survey a jam-packed crowd that had begun to boom one of Michigan football’s most beloved chants.
“It’s great … to be … a Michigan Wolverine.”
Harbaugh, the former Michigan quarterback turned coach who was brought back to Ann Arbor to play the role of hero, was finally about to pick up his cape. He turned to his right and saw Aidan Hutchinson. One of the best players he has ever coached. One of the best players a Michigan defense has ever seen. The two looked at each other — like a pair of excited brothers on Christmas morning — before punching each other in the arm repeatedly over ear-to-ear grins.
Quarterback Cade McNamara was next with a hug. Followed by special teams coach, and Harbaugh’s oldest son, Jay Harbaugh.
Then, with the clock ticking down and a Big Ten championship on Michigan’s immediate horizon, Harbaugh turned one more time and found a final hug before the Gatorade found him and washed away seven years worth of frustration, disappointment and sadness.
It was Charles Woodson — the best to ever do it with the Wolverines — telling Harbaugh, once and for all, congratulations on a mission (finally) accomplished.
