The secret to his success

I have no doubt that Jim Harbaugh’s early success at turning around a moribund Michigan program is going to have people scratching through what he does there to see how much of it can be emulated elsewhere.  The answer is probably not as much as those people hope, because a lot of what Harbaugh’s done is simply to get his players believing they can succeed, but I bet this is something that catches the eyes of some.

“A lot of people are trying to explain,” linebacker Joe Bolden said. “I would say finishing. Just being able to finish football games.”

Or even halves. Last season, seven Michigan opponents scored in the last two minutes of the first half. Four scored in the last four minutes of the second half. Bolden believes this year’s team began to learn to finish in the spring, when Harbaugh held four-hour practices.

A quarter-century ago, the NCAA instituted the four-hour rule: no football-related activity could last longer than four hours a day. That includes meetings, conditioning, practicing, you name it.

“His idea was, why spend any of that in the meeting room? We need to get better on the football field,” defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin said.

Linebacker Desmond Morgan said he learned the first week that the key to surviving a four-hour practice is simple: Don’t look at the clock. He and the rest of the Wolverines learned something else. If you can finish a four-hour practice, if you can maintain focus and be as mentally sharp at the end as at the beginning, then a three-hour game should be no problem…

The next big thing.  There you have it.