York: High expectations at Michigan after Harbaugh hire

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Disneyland had nothing on Ann Arbor on Tuesday, when the happiest place on earth held a "homecoming" -- as Jim Harbaugh described it -- and proudly crowned its king.

If factions of a football community that sometimes are only happy being unhappy can't be happy today, they never will be. Michigan won the coaching lottery, and there's no question about it.

It was a must win for a program wallowing in mediocrity and waning relevance. Harbaugh's arrival immediately restores credibility and, perhaps sooner rather than later, the Wolverines' place among college football's elite.

Make no mistake about it, there's work to be done. Harbaugh wouldn't bite, however, when asked about "turnarounds" or "recent struggles," claiming, "This (Michigan) is greatness."

This probably wasn't the day to take a realistic look at the task at hand, but Harbaugh will quickly realize that the football program he left in 1986 isn't what it used to be -- making him the perfect man for the job.

Harbaugh likened himself to an architect building one cathedral and then being asked to build another. He certainly doesn't need to dig a hole here. His immediate predecessors already moved that earth.

But there is a foundation in place. Upon it, Harbaugh said he wants to build a permanent home, and some of those closest to him believe that's exactly what he'll do.

The NFL will no doubt knock on that door, perhaps repeatedly, until Harbaugh convinces them that he's content to retire in the job he said he's dreamed of having since he was 9 years old. There's something to be said for being wanted.

Lloyd Carr, who had to win a national championship to win over Michigan's fickle fan base, admitted as much. Carr and a litany of former Michigan coaches and players on hand Tuesday were part of a maize-and-blue full-court press for Harbaugh's services, leaving no doubt in his mind that he was desperately needed at his alma mater.

Despite the "Plan B's" supposedly in place, Harbaugh was really the only choice. That maybe more than any of the $5 million Michigan will pay him annually is what paved the way for Harbaugh's return.

That Michigan was able to "land the best coach in the country" -- as interim athletic director Jim Hackett said -- reaffirms its nationwide integrity. And whatever tarnish had smudged the block "M" in recent years was seemingly wiped clean with one introduction.

It won't always feel as good as it did Tuesday, which Harbaugh acknowledged when he addressed a raucous Crisler Center during halftime of Michigan's Big Ten Opener against Illinois.

"We have not done a darn thing," he said.

No, not yet, but the expectation that the Wolverines will is darned higher than it's been in seven years.