ANN ARBOR, Mich. — New Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham has been constantly beating one drum over and over since he was hired: Jim Harding is the best offensive line coach in all of college football. It’s something he truly believes, and he took things a step further last week at Big Ten media days: he said that Harding had to come for him to be able to do what he wants to do in Ann Arbor. Without him, this plan of his to take another head coaching job at 66 years old wasn’t going to work.
“It was a requisite for him to come,” Whittingham said. “We’ve been together 12, 14 years. I keep tooting his horn. He’s going to want a raise, I’m sure, when I get back! I’ve just seen it with my own eyes. I see it year after year after year, the connection he can make with players.”
On Thursday, WolverinesWire asked Harding directly about Whittingham’s comments. And Harding demurred a bit, humbling himself, but shared why, for him, it’s a special opportunity to be coaching in Ann Arbor.
“Well, first of all, I did have somebody bring that up to me, and I simply replied, ‘Yeah, that’s true when things are going well, but if they aren’t, then I’ll be the first one that he doesn’t want around,'” Harding said. “But I have been around him — this will be year 13. I think there’s a comfort level. He probably has — just, I understand how he wants things done. I understand how the process is, and I’m sure there’s a comfort level there. The connection, as they’ve just said, me being from the Midwest, like my family’s about 50 minutes from here. So I’m sure that played into it as well. Just having somebody on the staff that grew up around the University of Michigan, understood it, the magnitude of taking a job like this. But again, I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m sure more than anything there were certain guys that he definitely wanted to have around that could help implement the program the way he wanted it.”
Harding grew up in Maumee, Ohio, just 54 miles from Ann Arbor. He played college ball at Toledo and finished out his college career at Missouri as a grad assistant coach before becoming the defensive coordinator and then head coach at Troy (Mich.) Athens High School. He parlayed that to becoming the Wyoming offensive line coach, and he was hired from Laramie right to Salt Lake City by Whittingham in 2014. He’s had the assistant head coach title since the 2017 season at Utah, and it’s carried over to Michigan.
Being on the border of Michigan and Ohio, but on the Ohio side, you never know what side of the rivalry someone will be on. He claims Toledo, which makes sense since he played there, but he’s mum in terms of rooting affinity. He would have loved to have played for the Wolverines, and even though he didn’t, he’s just glad for the opportunity he has now.
“Michigan didn’t want me, that’s the problem! I wasn’t good enough,” Harding said. “For me, growing up, college football is really three teams. It’s the team down south, it’s here, and Notre Dame. And so every Saturday, you grew up, you watched the 12 o’clock game, and there’d be some crossover, but to me, this is what college football is all about. I’m sure if you talk to somebody growing up in a different part of the country, they’d feel differently. But when you ask about my opinion, this is as big as it gets. So well aware of the tradition and watched plenty of games, been to the games as a fan growing up.”
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Jim Harding discusses ‘the magnitude’ of coaching at Michigan football
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire | USA TODAY Network
