It's hard to imagine Nick Saban starring in a rap video. Or running around shirtless. Or giving speeches that combine the can-do sunshine of life guru Tony Robbins and the intensity of a drill sergeant.
The Alabama football coach employs a more stoic tactic when selling his program -- and by stoic, we mean humorless.
Then there is Jim Harbaugh, the anti-Saban -- heck, the anti-college football establishment. The Michigan football coach was on the move again this week, appearing in a rap video, screaming: "Who's got it better than us?"
Well, apparently, no one.
At least not according to Harbaugh, which is the point.
The point is also this: Here we are, a couple of weeks before training camp, and Harbaugh has now dominated the offseason news cycle for nearly eight months. This is unprecedented, really, especially if we consider the actual college football season lasts only four.
So, what does the wave of 24-hour Harbaugh coverage mean?
That's hard to say. People certainly talk about the Wolverines more than they did before Harbaugh arrived last season. Resent the program more, too.
The cumulative effect is the football program's profile hasn't been this shiny in years. This matters ... for recruiting, for soliciting alumni donations, for lifting the collective psyche of a proud fan base.
If Harbaugh has accomplished nothing else, he's accomplished that.
The video shows us as much. Opening with an overhead shot of Michigan Stadium, followed by a tracking shot of the rapper Bailey, who is walking past slogans at Schembechler Hall, followed by a rear-angle view of a maize-colored Corvette rolling down the tunnel of the Stadium, guided by Harbaugh and Bailey himself.
From there, we see a quick montage of spring game images, another shot of the Corvette, and then we settle into the practice facility where Bailey raps the song and Harbaugh leads the refrain: "Who's got it better than us?"
The question is borrowed from Harbaugh's dad, Jack, who used it as a motivational tool. The son took it and made it his own.
First in San Francisco -- where its use caught on with the 49ers and where Bailey, a Bay Area rapper, first turned the phrase into a rap song -- and now in Ann Arbor, where Harbaugh and Bailey combined for a remix.
Harbaugh is unencumbered in the video. He is, in fact, himself, dressed in khakis and a baseball cap with the block "M" stitched over its bill.
He doesn't hold back as he bobs to Bailey's lyrics about Charles Woodson and Bo Schembechler. Nor as he screams the refrain.
This juxtaposition of middle-aged football coach and rap star is part of the appeal, of course, and part of the sales pitch, too. Harbaugh isn't worried what he looks like, or what he sounds like, or whether it's cool. That indifference is the key to his authenticity.
This is partly why his barnstorming tour the past several months attracts so much attention. Well, that and the almost daily connections he seems to make with celebrities of various backgrounds.
None of it means squat if the fall isn't as successful as the winter, spring and summer.
In that sense, Harbaugh's escapades have brought something more than attention -- they've brought increased pressure and expectation.
Michigan had a very fine football season a year ago and finished with so much promise by blowing out Florida in a bowl game. The team returns a lot of talented players and should be as good as anyone defensively.
So good that the program is considered a lock to open the season ranked in the top 5, despite not returning a proven quarterback.
Think about that when you watch the new video, and think about how differently we thought of this program just 12 months ago.
"Who's got it better than us?"
He's about to get his chance to show the world.
Sports on 07/22/2016