Michigan's Jim Harbaugh Takes Responsibility for Hiring Shemy Schembechler

Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh took responsibility for the hiring of Glenn "Shemy" Schembechler, who resigned from his role as assistant director of recruiting last month after his improper social media activity was made public.

"Once I became aware of things that were offensive—offensive to me, offensive to other members of our team—[we acted]," Harbaugh said Thursday while speaking at a Sound Mind Sound Body football camp at Wayne State University, per Aaron McMann of MLive.com. "We didn't want that mindset around."

Schembechler's personal Twitter account was found to be "littered with dozens of 'liked' messages racist and offensive in nature, depicting slavery and Jim Crow laws as a positive for Blacks," according to McMann. Harbaugh, who has a history with the family after playing under his father and legendary coach Bo Schembechler at Michigan from 1982 to 1986, called the situation "disappointing."

"I've known Shemy for a long time, but there's no sacred cows," Harbaugh said. "It's not who we are—it's not us.

Harbaugh also said the Michigan athletic department had cut ties with the third-party human resources company in charge of screening potential hires. The 59-year-old believes a mistake was made during the vetting process.

Michigan announced Schembechler's resignation just three days after hiring him in a joint statement by Harbaugh and athletic director Warde Manuel, acknowledging "comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community." Schembechler later released an apology through a crisis-communication PR firm.

"I read the report myself," Harbaugh said. "We have a company that vets that—social media—and they came back and [cleared him]. We've got a new company doing that [now], but they've got to be better. I'll take responsibility for that. If somebody can find that in a day, then we have to be better ourselves."