Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh touched on his spiritual side Saturday during his appearance at the Rose Bowl media day ahead of their upcoming game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
His media appearance lasted 23 minutes and featured a number of different biblical references.
He first began to talk about his relationship with his coaching staff, saying that he will “die leaning on his staff like Moses.”
“Our team is very definite. This is where they wanted to be. This is a real ball team and I just love it. Love our staff, love our players. Like Moses, I’m going to die leaning on my staff. I couldn’t have a better staff to lean on.
Harbaugh continued to talk about a number of topics, including how his team matches up with Alabama on paper.
But things were tied right back into religion later in his appearance, where Harbaugh went on a rant about how he feels Jesus would have been as a college football player.
“I have a feeling that if Jesus were to come back now in this era, I suppose that many of the biblical analogies he’d use would be about sports as well as agriculture, maybe a combination of the two. Solomon would have been a great coach, too. I have that feeling. Jesus would have been a 5-star. He would have been a 5-star player, no doubt about it. He would have been a Hall of Fame coach.”
This is a quote that most would have expected from someone like Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who often brings up biblical references while talking about sports.
It’s a bit out of character to see this from Harbaugh, but it is still one heck of a quote. Only time will tell whether Jesus is on Michigan’s side in their Rose Bowl matchup against Alabama on New Year’s Day.
[The Wolverine: Michigan Football and Basketball on YouTube]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.