Michigan State Football: Jim Harbaugh’s tweet reeks of desperation
On Monday, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh tweeted about Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio, and it reeked of desperation.
The tweet heard round the world. That’s what Jim Harbaugh was hoping for when he trolled Mark Dantonio on Twitter, taking a jab at his 3-9 season in 2016 and a squad that was “plagued with off field issues” in order to rile the masses.
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Michigan’s head coach decided that a Twitter war was what he wanted on a quiet Monday afternoon as he fired off an eye-opening tweet which took shots at Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio after his comments from Sunday.
In case you aren’t aware, Dantonio was asked at his bowl game presser what he thought of Michigan passing the Spartans for a bowl despite having a worse record and losing the head-to-head matchup, and he stated that all he could do was focus on beating Michigan and not worry about what’s out of his control.
Harbaugh apparently took exception to the quote.
Saw Coach D comments on continuing to "focus" on how "he" can beat Michigan. Congrats on turning around a 3-9 team, plagued with off field issues. Good for BIG to have him back.
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) December 4, 2017
If you look up the term “back-handed compliment” in the dictionary, you’d probably see a picture of this tweet. Harbaugh bashed Dantonio’s comments and stated how his team was 3-9 and plagued with off-field issues and then stated that it was “good for the B1G” to have him back.
What does this mean?
Well, it means that Harbaugh is getting desperate. He’s heard the chatter of his own fans all season long, complaining that they can’t win games against their rivals. Michigan is, in fact, just 1-5 against Ohio State and Michigan State in Harbaugh’s first three years as coach.
Moreover, the Wolverines lost at home against an unranked Michigan State team which was coming off a 3-9 season with off-field issues.
If you can’t beat ’em, tweet about ’em, right? The tweet reeks of absolute desperation to get the fans riled up for next year’s rivalry. Everyone knocked Harbaugh, saying that he doesn’t take the rivalry as serious as Dantonio does, which is ridiculous, and this is a way to get those doubters on his side.
Unfortunately, it backfired. Michigan fans loved it, but Dantonio responded with “it’s not over, it’ll never be over” and will likely use this Harbaugh tweet as bulletin board material for next year.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I guess that’s what happens when you’ve won a single game against a rival in three years and haven’t finished higher than third place in the Big Ten East.