SALT LAKE CITY -- After eight months of living in the spotlight as college football's latest rock star, Jim Harbaugh is ready to get gritty on the football field.
Michigan travels to Utah tonight for its season opener, a game that has to some degree been overshadowed by the talk surrounding Harbaugh's return to the college ranks. Not that all the interesting stuff will be on the sideline.
Both teams opened fall camp with questions about their quarterbacks, and only one has given fans a definitive answer.
Harbaugh refused to publicly name a starter, but he said the players know who it is. Junior Shane Morris is the lone quarterback to return to Michigan's roster with starting experience (two games). Senior Jake Rudock transferred from Iowa with 25 starts under his belt after throwing for 2,436 yards with 16 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in 2014.
"I want both of them going into this game with the mind-set that they're one play away or they're starting," said Harbaugh, the former coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers who played quarterback in college at Michigan. "It's the mind-set I always want our quarterback and backup quarterback going into the game with.
"If [keeping Utah in the dark] is a byproduct of it, we'll take that as well."
Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham has a different issue.
Senior Travis Wilson is a four-year starter who has struggled with consistency throughout his career. He lost the job twice in 2014 but still had an edge on senior Kendal Thompson, who replaced Wilson last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
Whittingham said the job was Wilson's to lose at the beginning of camp, and there was never an indication that he was losing it. The Utes made it official Monday.
"He just continued to play well," Whittingham said. "He played extremely well at the end of the season, was the MVP of our bowl game, played well throughout spring. Just continued to play with that poise and confidence all through fall camp."
Both teams are expected to roll out run-heavy offenses that don't require the quarterback to win the game.
Harbaugh was weaned on physical, run-first offenses at Michigan in the 1980s and had a similar philosophy as coach at San Diego, Stanford and with the 49ers.
Michigan has junior De'Veon Smith listed as the starter, but juniors Derrick Green and Ty Isaac should compete for carries throughout the year. Green has disappointed since signing as the No. 1-rated running back in the country. Isaac is playing for the first time in maize and blue after sitting out 2014 following a transfer from USC, while Smith led the team in rushing last season with 519 yards.
Utah running back Devontae Booker was first-team All-Pac-12 in 2014, and Whittingham has said they'll run Booker as much as he can handle.
Michigan may have a slight edge from a preparation standpoint due to the fact Whittingham has coached Utah since 2005 and was previously the defensive coordinator. There's plenty of tape on how his Utes play.
Utah, on the other hand, has been scraping tape together from various sources:Florida video to study defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin's scheme, Stanford and 49ers tape to study Harbaugh and old Southern California clips to get a feel for offensive coordinator Tim Drevno and special teams coach John Baxter.
"It's just a hodgepodge of five, six, seven places," Whittingham said. "Then we formed a best-guess scenario."
Sports on 09/03/2015