Couch: Harbaugh an odd duck, but a coaching savant

• No. 7 MSU at No. 12 Michigan
• When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
• TV/Radio: ESPN / WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM
• Line: Michigan by 8

It was clear this week that Jim Harbaugh has no interest in explaining himself.

That's too bad. There is magic in that man and a great story happening at Michigan.

You wouldn't know it to listen to him speak to other grown-ups and professionals at his weekly press briefing.

It's 20 minutes of one-word answers, confused awkward stares, bizarre anecdotes about the Lion King and, once in a while, a canned reply that might almost be a soundbite. If it were actually true.

Just about anyone else in such a high-profile position would be ripped for such incoherency in that setting. Or committed.

His players, minus the odd behavior, aren't much better at explaining the Harbaugh Effect. Not this week especially, when their personalities have been wiped clean for fear they might say something that stirs the opponent.

So to spell out how and why, only half a season into Harbaugh's tenure, Michigan football has seemingly fixed itself while shredding seven years of history, one should look at Harbaugh's beginnings elsewhere. Stanford, for example.

And when one considers what he took over in Palo Alto, and what endures there four years after he left for the San Francisco 49ers, the zest he's given Michigan — even this quickly — shouldn't be a surprise.

It isn't to Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer, who has a unique perspective, having served as Harbaugh's first defensive coordinator at Stanford in 2007, before leaving to be Rich Rodriguez's defensive coordinator at Michigan in 2008.

Stanford couldn't get to a bowl game with John Elway. It was viewed in the coaching ranks as a place you could win once or maybe twice every four years, with a senior-laden group.

"Stanford was in need of a coach and a coaching staff that believed they could win and they could win at a high level and they could do it at the same time their kids were doing profound things in the classroom," Shafer said Tuesday.

"The thing that's special about Jim Harbaugh is that he believes, he believes he can win every day at everything he does. And it's so simple it's hard for a lot of people on the outside to understand. Jim's the ultimate competitor and he really doesn't care what anybody thinks. He just goes and works his tail off all day long, all night. And he spews that enthusiasm that the kids take and run with.

"For me, it's interesting, because Jim gets a lot of flack in the press sometimes because a lot of people say he's hard to understand. But he's just one of the most competitive people I've ever met in my entire life. And I love him dearly for that."

Perhaps he should try to win the press conference, too. Or, perhaps he is.

He shuns ESPN's College GameDay, blows off the Big Ten Network, does national radio interviews in a comatose state …

But he's right. For him, none of it matters. He doesn't need it. He wins. And, in Ann Arbor right now, he walks on water.

And based on his track record at the University of San Diego (2004-06), Stanford (2007-10) and the 49ers (2011-14), the anxiety in East Lansing — as it pertains to Michigan — is well-founded.

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Shafer saw the formula firsthand at Stanford. Harbaugh took over a 1-11 program and won four games that first year. Then five, eight, and 12, and then turned the program over to offensive coordinator David Shaw, who's kept it rolling.

There were signs of a new day even in that first season in '07, notably when the Cardinal upset top-ranked USC, 24-23, at the Coliseum in Los Angeles.

Shafer orchestrated that defense. It's part of what led Rodriguez to hire him away. Current Michigan defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin was on that staff, too, as special teams coordinator and working under Shafer as defensive ends coach.

"If anybody can turn it quick, it's Jim," Shafer said. "And D.J., D.J. is one of the best football coaches I know. It really doesn't surprise me at all.

"More than anything it's enthusiasm coupled with discipline. And you can either do it right or you're not going to be on the team. And then those coaches are tireless workers. And when the kids see that, both in recruiting and the way they coach spring ball, the way they attack everything in the daily process, that's probably the biggest thing that's passed on to the players because they see it."

Harbaugh inherited far better talent at Michigan than he did at Stanford. But it wasn't confident talent.

In that respect, Michigan's players Tuesday were correct, albeit pithy, in their analysis of what's changed.

Harbaugh's handling of quarterback Jake Rudock is a big reason why this team is maximizing a limited quarterback. Rudock struggled in the opener at Utah. Harbaugh didn't waiver in his support. He might not have had much choice, but players see that.

Podcast: Spartan Speak, Michigan edition

This is clearly a dynamic and detail-oriented staff, with an old-school offense that's become cutting edge and a defense that moves laterally as one as well as any you'll see.

"Old-fashioned football, lining it up, trying to run it down your throat," MSU linebacker Darien Harris said Tuesday, "using fullbacks, which you don't see in this day and age, so it's similar (to Stanford). And we were successful obviously against Stanford (in the Rose Bowl), so we are going to go back, look at that film, see what we did and try to apply it to this week."

That Stanford program, four years later, still has Harbaugh's fingerprints on it.

"I laugh a lot about our time together at Stanford, because it was just competition every day all season, competition," said Shafer, whose many connections to this rivalry including a close longtime friendship with former MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. "You'd go to practice and you'd have a period that was supposed to be 12 plays and then you're supposed to move on to the next period. And if it wasn't going well for one side of the ball, and Jim's an offensive guy, he'd say, 'We're off script, Shaf,' and we'd just scrimmage and play. And you'd get on play 27 of a 12-play script. It was just the competition.

"The kids then say, the coaches are competing against each other and I'm in this. I'm on my side of the ball to win like hell, to win this practice. It's the simplicity of the nature of not always going by the book. Jim's always been a guy that goes outside the book."

That's the Harbaugh I saw Monday. For better and bizarre.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.