What It's Like to Be Coached at Jim Harbaugh's Revolutionary Quarterback Camp

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Brandon Peters dropped back, wound up and fired a ball so fast you could hear it whizzing through the thick June air before firmly landing in the arms of its intended target.

Instantly, the 6'5", 205-pounder cocked his head back in disgust. At any other quarterback camp, the catch would have been a positive play.

At Jim Harbaugh's inaugural Ann Arbor Aerial Assault (A4) quarterback camp, the Michigan commit had just cost his team a man in a game of dodgeball.

Initially billed as a star-studded affair featuring Colin Kaepernick, Jameis Winston and Jay Cutler as guest instructors, Harbaugh's latest outside-the-box offseason tactic still lived up to the hype despite Kaepernick and Winston missing the event due to scheduling conflicts. A plethora of impressive quarterback counselors—Cutler included—still made their way to Ann Arbor for the camp, which drew close to 200 high schoolers last Saturday.

But while the presence of Cutler, Denard Robinson, Tyrod Taylor, Todd Collins, Elvis Grbac, Kyle Boller, Ken Dorsey, Zac Robinson, Devin Gardner and the Wolverines offensive staff still made for an unprecedented collection of qualified quarterback instructors, football seemed to take a back seat at the first edition of the A4 camp.

'What's Next?'

As the jugs machine on the Michigan Stadium field fired up just past 10:30 a.m., it wasn't footballs but round, white baseballs that were sent flying into the Ann Arbor sky. It may have been advertised as a quarterback camp beforehand, but Harbaugh was putting his campers through drills meant for the diamond, including pop flies and grounders.

Some campers clearly looked more natural than others when it came to fielding and throwing the baseballs, which Harbaugh said was the exact reason he incorporated it into his camp.

"You can see it, can't you?" Harbaugh asked reporters as the campers broke for lunch around noon. "Field awareness, spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination. Throwing is throwing, whether its baseball, football, basketball, a rock. It's the mechanics of throwing."

The former San Francisco 49ers head coach explained that his unique strategy for evaluating quarterbacks was the result of advice from legendary NFL coach Bill Walsh, who once told him that a signal-caller should be the best athlete in his high school. That's why soccer drills, too, soon became a part of the A4 camp, as well as jump-rope competitions that caught parents and campers alike off guard.

"What's next?" one camper could be heard asking to another as they walked to lunch. "Rollerskating?"

Not quite, although the aforementioned game of dodgeball highlighted the second half of the camp, which took place on the outdoor field right outside of the Al Glick Field House. Even the counselors seemed to not know what they were getting themselves into, admitting the A4 camp was unlike any they had ever taken part in.

"This is a little different," Cutler said, comparing Harbaugh's camp to the ones he attended as a prospect. "He keeps it interesting. You get to see what kind of athletes are out here, which is fun."

Harbaugh continued to insist that there's a method to his madness.

"There's a lot of ways to practice at football (other) than just taking a five-step drop and throwing into a net," said Harbaugh, who fielded throws from campers as the camp's de facto first baseman. "You could take athletic reps doing just about anything.

"You could climb a tree."

Campers, however, weren't asked to do that—at least not this year.

What they did receive, however, was up-close-and-personal instruction with several NFL-experienced quarterbacks, so much so that the camp's top prospects found themselves on a first-name basis with their counselors. With Michigan QB coach and passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch overlooking the operations of the camp, Cutler could be seen teaching five-step drops to players like Peters, while Dorsey—who was never known for his own arm strength—playfully teased prospects during the camp's long-throw competition.

The roster of instructors may not have been what was once expected, and the drills certainly weren't what was initially anticipated, but based on the smiles from campers and parents alike throughout the day, each appeared satisfied with the overall product.

Scoreboard Watching

It wasn't all fun and games, per se, at the A4 camp, as traditional quarterback drills did actually take place. In true Harbaugh fashion, results were monitored on the Michigan Stadium scoreboard, as the nine-hour camp doubled as a camp-wide competition.

For a camp that was light on elite talent from a prospect standpoint, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the star of the show was Peters, nor was it a coincidence that the only player in attendance committed to the Wolverines was marked as camper No. 1. The 2016 4-star signal-caller was the day's high scorer, earning an authentic Michigan helmet autographed by all of the counselors for his efforts.

"I know you," Harbaugh said with a smile as he presented Peters with the helmet at the end of the camp. "We didn't rig this thing."

Fixing the competition in Peters' favor simply wasn't necessary. The Avon, Indiana, native put on a clinic, posting 31.25 points in the camp's scoring system, which took into account football and non-football drills alike.

Perhaps Peters' most impressive moment of the day came when he effortlessly tossed the ball 65 yards in a long-throw competition, the best showing in a rotating pod that included the camp's other top prospects such as 2017 4-star quarterback Jake Allen, 2017 3-star prospect Jack Coan, 2017 3-star signal-caller Tyler Lyle and 2018 prospect Allan Walters.

But while "Pod 1" garnered the most attention from both the Wolverines staff and onlookers throughout the day, they were still ultimately bested by Pod 2 in dodgeball—thanks in large part to Peters' errant throw.

"Watching them compete and how serious they are in doing that," Harbaugh said. "That's where my focus is."

Parental Guidance

The recruits weren't the only ones who received some coaching. 

"Last call!" Harbaugh could be heard shouting from outside a nearby conference room as lunch came to a close and campers returned to the Michigan Stadium field. "Rick Kaepernick and Jack Harbaugh on how to raise a quarterback. This is good stuff, you don't want to miss it."

As the second half of Harbaugh's unprecedented quarterback camp began, the new Michigan head coach slipped away, sitting alongside about 100 parents as his father and Colin Kaepernick's dad each gave presentations on what it's like to raise a player who plays football's most important position. Harbaugh nodded along as Rick recalled his son winning the 49ers starting quarterback job in 2012 and smiled as Jack—almost as equally as enthusiastic as he is—told stories of Jim's youth, college and pro careers.

The current and former NFL quarterbacks' serving as instructors outside was nice, but the parental seminar was just as big of a part of Saturday's appeal. Receiving nearly as much instruction as their children were outside, parents learned lessons about dealing with realistic expectations, bouncing back from injuries and what it's like to be the parent of players at both the college and professional levels.

With players coming to Ann Arbor from as far away as California and Florida, the parent seminar—and especially the stories from Jack Harbaugh—showed the level of attention to detail that made the attending of the A4 camp worth it. And if one thing was evident inside the room as parents—and even Harbaugh himself—asked questions, it was the restoration of the positive energy that's been missing from Michigan football for the past seven years.

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

"It's been difficult," said Collins, who played at Michigan from 1990-94 before spending 16 seasons in the NFL. "That turnover and that change, that's what's made it so difficult."

And now?

"If you want to get to the NFL and maximize your talent, where else would you want to go but here?" Collins said of his alma mater, before adding, "Obviously, I'm a little biased."

So too were many of the campers and parents in attendance, Michigan fans who came to Ann Arbor as much to snap a picture with Harbaugh as they did for the NFL-caliber instruction. That's just fine for the Wolverines, who continue to re-establish themselves on the recruiting trail with camps like Saturday's, which featured an interesting nugget from Jack Harbaugh on the eve of Father's Day.

"From the day that I can remember first looking into his eyes, what you vividly imagine, this guy was the all-time daydreamer," Jack Harbaugh said of his youngest son. "That's what we called him, 'The Daydreamer.'

"And sometimes we got called to class. 'Jim is looking out the window, staring out the window. He's a daydreamer.' And I told them, 'Thank God! He's a daydreamer!'"

Just outside—as one of the most unique camps in all of college football took place—that may have never been clearer. With just more than two months to go until the start of the season, Harbaugh's vision was on display, his one-of-a-kind personality accenting a competition-driven event aimed at raising his program's reputation.

"How much fun was that?" Harbaugh asked rhetorically as the nine-hour camp came to a close with his infamous "Who's got it better than us?" chant. "Name me a better camp. You can't, can you?"

Looking on, neither parents nor campers seemed to disagree.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.