Jim Harbaugh Refers to Ohio State by Name, Praises Mike Ditka and Urban Meyer

In unsurprising news, things got all weird and congenial at Jim Harbaugh's Big Ten media days presser Friday morning.

The new Michigan football head coach went before the assembled press at Day 2 of the conference event to do the requisite Q&As and speak on the upcoming season.

He kicked things off with some vintage Harbaugh, praising Mike Ditka and then holding his jersey aloft in some kind of reverse Simba ceremony, per ESPN's Joe Schad:

He also made it clear that he won't be playing into some of the pettier traditions of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. Harbaugh said he refers to Ohio State as "Ohio State" and that's that:

The Columbus Dispatch's Tim May noted Harbaugh's praise for OSU head coach Urban Meyer:

He's also never been more excited for a football season—just like last year, per ESPN's Brett McMurphy.

The coach then departed, leaving everyone in a lathered state of Harbaughna and apparently too tuckered out to focus on Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald:

Don't let it get you down, Pat. Kiss would have had a hard time following Harbaugh at Big Ten media days.

As for this gentlemanly detente Harbaugh seems to be enacting with OSU, it's a good thing. There is no good reason grown men in charge of multimillion-dollar programs should feel compelled to refer to other multimillion-dollar programs by oblique nicknames. None. Zero. Nada.

That is baby stuff, and for all his tantrums, Jim Harbaugh is far too high-waisted and dad-ly to give even the ghost of a damn about it. Now if someone could just get him to not eat at McDonald's while in Paris, we'd be making some real life progress.

Dan is on Twitter. "Is Ditka is football Mufasa?" — Plato