The Michigan Wolverines went down to a tough defeat on Saturday, and it looks like coach Jim Harbaugh’s own father was even shocked at his son’s leadership on the field.
Michigan lost 51-45 to the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs at Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl in a stunner as the Wolverines fell behind and were never able to catch back up, the New York Post reported.
For his part, TCU coach Sonny Dykes — who has just wrapped up his first year leading the team — was jubilant about his David vs. Goliath win.
“When you are a small private school, you’ve got to fight for [credibility],” Dykes said. “It’s just the way it is. Michigan’s got 750,000 alumni. We got 75,000.”
It isn’t as if the Wolverines never had a change, though.
In the fourth quarter, Michigan battled to within a few points back, only three, with a 41-38 spread. But within minutes, TCU extended the lead to 13. And there was no looking back.
But coach Harbaugh’s clock management was a bit of a miss in the fourth quarter. So bad that even his father seemed astonished at his son’s lapses.
Harbaugh still had all three timeouts as TCU picked up its first down and led the Wolverines by six. But Harbaugh sat idly by allowing TCU to keep running the clock and only invoked his first time out at 1:07 left to play. The move shocked Harbaugh’s dad, long-time Western Kentucky head coach Jack Harbaugh.
As the clock continued to count down, ESPN’s cameras caught Jack asking aloud what his son was doing.
What's going on @UMichFootball? Why isn't Jim Harbaugh using a timeout! His dad is wondering the same thing. @espn pic.twitter.com/ryM5P6sO3i
— PAFT/Juan Marshall (@ProAmFightTalk) January 1, 2023
“You wonder if Jack Harbaugh’s wondering about why his son isn’t calling a timeout,” ESPN’s Sean McDonough explained.
Michigan did use its other timeouts and got the football back, but by that time, there were 54 seconds left on the clock, and Harbaugh had no timeouts left to regroup.
The upset win will send No. 3-ranked TCU to play No. 1 Georgia in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Los Angeles on Jan. 2.
In the end, coach Harbaugh said that it was the game that won on Saturday.
“The winner,” Harbaugh said, “was football.”
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