The Michigan Wolverines and Alabama Crimson Tide will get together tomorrow for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.
Both head coaches Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban took questions from media members earlier today on a variety of issues. One such question posed was whether or not the two coaches would pick each other's brains. Harbaugh definitely sounded open to the idea:
“That'd be a real treat,” Harbaugh said. “There's really nobody better. Got tremendous respect for Coach Saban.”
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Saban's response: “I've always had a tremendous respect for Jim and his family as coaches. His dad, Jack, kinda came up with me. I was a little younger, he was one of the most respected secondary coaches — that’s what I coached. I used to try and visit with him as much as I could and had a tremendous amount of respect for him. Tom Crean, who is Jim’s brother-in-law … was an assistant basketball coach at Michigan State for Tom Izzo, so we've had a tremendous amount of respect for the whole family as coaches.
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“And Jim has obviously had a fabulous career in the NFL as well as college. I never ever stopped trying to learn. And I would certainly cherish and have tremendous gratitude for the opportunity to be able to sit down with Jim and talk to him about how he does things and how that can improve our organization.”
Of course, Alabama has set the recent standard for college football success with five national titles since 2009.
“When this game was arranged, there was just a lot of excitement to play an iconic program like Alabama,” Harbaugh said. “Coach Saban and their staff have really set the bar. Elite program, great football team and it's a big challenge for us. But a great opportunity for our season, and I feel good now that the game's been getting close to kickoff.
“A lot of preparation has gone into this game, our team's been hard at it. … We're fired up to play. We're ready to go. Kickoff approaches. And tremendous opportunity for our team.”
The two squads will kick-off tomorrow at 1:00 PM EST.
– – Quotes courtesy of Orion Sang of the Detroit Free Press Link – –
