Jim Harbaugh's Early Recruiting Blunders at Michigan

There's going to be a point when Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh doesn't commit recruiting and/or social media faux pas anymore. Or, maybe he will and it won't matter because he's Big Ten champion Jim Harbaugh and winning is the type of thing that makes even opposing fans chuckle "Oh, Jim..." 

In the meantime, Harbaugh has been an absolute blast on Twitter—and without really trying, apparently. 

Normally, Twitter is a great place for coaches to keep track of recruits and develop an identity. Many use it as a place to announce they've landed a commitment through quirky hashtags. 

(It should be noted that TCU coach Gary Patterson defeats all by using it as a medium to retweet Earth Pics.) 

Not Harbaugh, though. Oh, no. He's elevated his social media game to another stratosphere, perhaps without even knowing. On Tuesday, Harbaugh wished freshman tight end Ian Bunting a happy 19th birthday on Twitter. It was a sweet gesture made better only by the fact that his mental math was off by just a touch: 

That glorious tweet was followed by another, this one (unintentionally?) citing San Francisco running back Frank Gore for Rick Ross’s 2012 single "Hold Me Back." 

And, if it was intentional, we have severely underestimated Harbaugh's pop culture knowledge. 

Then there was Harbaugh's more ambiguous tweet last week that seemed to be directed at rival Ohio State and now-former running backs coach Stan Drayton, who left the Buckeyes for a job with the Chicago Bears shortly after signing day. 

John Taylor at College Football Talk provides the possible context:  

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First, the back story: The high school coach of 2015 OSU signee and former Michigan verbal commitment Mike Weber, Thomas Wilcher, accused the Buckeyes of essentially lying to his former player about the status of running backs coach Stan Drayton, who left for an NFL job the day after National Signing Day. The perceived deception didn’t sit well with the Detroit Cass Tech coach, and it’s something that has apparently caught the attention of UM’s new head coach.

Harbaugh, who played in the same backfield as Wilcher during his playing days at UM, took to Twitter Saturday afternoon to share his thought of the day—or someone with the keys to his account shared it. Interestingly, said thought involved the concept of, you guessed it, deception.

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Harbaugh has drawn so much attention for what he's said in the past week that it's easy to forget that Michigan's '15 signing class was, at best, a mixed bag. 

On one hand, Michigan finished with the 38th best class nationally, per 247Sports composite rankings, and 14 signatures. That's not exactly the kind of class that lays the foundation for future championships. However, Harbaugh deserves some credit for pulling in a handful of last-minute commits and making something out of nothing. 

He flipped a couple of kids, like 4-star quarterback Zach Gentry, but missed on plenty of others, like Weber and 4-star tight end Chris Clark.

"That's kind of the way the pickle squirted this year, but I don't think it will be the case going down the road," Harbaugh said about signing day via Dave Hogg of Fox Sports Detroit. "We didn't spend all fall watching tapes and reading lists."

As Bill Bender of the Sporting News opined, Harbaugh lost his first "battle" with Ohio State coach Urban Meyer on signing day. Frankly, it wasn't one he was likely going to win anyway. The good news for Harbaugh is that there will be plenty more battles before it's all said and done. 

To Harbaugh's credit, the 2016 recruiting class will be the one for which he'll be more accurately judged. He'll have time to build relationships and get a better understanding of who he's recruiting—something that simply can't be done in a few weeks. 

In time, Harbaugh's slow, and sometimes humorous, start should be nothing more than a vague memory. 

Recruit star ratings courtesy of 247Sports.com