Once upon a time, Jim Harbaugharrived at Stanford as an unproven coach on the major college football level, turned the previously downtrodden Cardinal into a force through building a staff that used innovative strength and conditioning methods to build a team that stayed healthier than its opponents and, consequently, won games by physically whipping them at both lines of scrimmage.
Then he left for the San Francisco 49ers for four years. Now he's back and wants to do it all over again - this time at Michigan.
Harbaugh is looking to get the gang back together, or at least as much of the gang as possible.
Sources tell us Harbaugh initially sought to bring Greg Roman to Michigan as offensive coordinator but Roman is continuing to evaluate other possibilities. Harbaugh then hired an "offensive coordinator" in Tim Drevno, hiring him away from USC after the two spent a decade together in San Diego, Palo Alto and San Francisco. We expect Harbaugh to work closely with Drevno regarding play calling.
Next, there's Lance Anderson. Harbaugh made a run at his former San Diego and Stanford assistant, now the Cardinal defensive coordinator, but FootballScoop has learned that Anderson has told David Shaw that he plans to stay in Palo Alto.
So, too, is strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley.
Many around the Stanford program credit Turley and his progressive methods with the Cardinal's sustained success under Harbaugh and then David Shaw. Turley is the 2011 FootballScoop Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year.
Finally, Harbaugh made a reported run at Kentucky tight ends coach Vince Marrow, the one coach on the list that has not previously worked under Harbaugh. Still, Harbaugh reportedly offered the Wildcats' tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator a job on Friday.
In fact, Marrow went as far as to have a conversation with the nation's top tight end recruit, Chris Clarkout of Avon, Conn., about playing for him in Ann Arbor. Sort of.
"It's not officially done, but it sounded like he's going there, he said it was a great school, but he was sort of talking about it generally -- he really didn't mention Michigan specifically," Clark told MLive.com. "He didn't really (talk about Kentucky either, though), we sort of talked about how he could really help me in terms of coaching, help get me ready for the next level.
"But if I had to say, was the conversation leaning more toward Michigan? Yeah, I'd have to say that. Because, Kentucky, I'm not really looking at Kentucky. ... I think he's going to end up (at Michigan), if I had to guess."
But then Marrow, too, elected to remain in his current post, FootballScoop has confirmed. Both Kentucky Sports Radio and the Louisville Courier-Journal first reported the news on Sunday night.
Where does this leave Harbaugh? Well, he'll still build a team capable of dominating both lines of scrimmage. He'll just do it with some different assistants than the ones he had in mind.