Michigan wasn't supposed to be in Ann Arbor today. In a normal world, the Wolverines would be in Seattle, taking on Washington in one of the biggest Week 1 games in the country.
Instead, there was no trip to Washington, there is no Week 1, and there is no season. At least not now.
So, rather than play, the Wolverines marched.
"We want to play as soon as we possibly can, and we're ready to play," Jim Harbaugh told reporters as he walked, masked and khaki'd, through the streets of Ann Arbor. "We could be ready to play a game in two weeks. Let's get the pads on. Our guys have trained without a pause since June 15. That's our position. We're ready to play as soon as we possibly can play."
The most curious comment of the day came when Harbaugh described his level of communication with Michigan president Mark Schlissel. Or, more specifically, his lack of communication.
Harbaugh told reporters he's texted and emailed Schlissel, keeping him abreast of the testing results inside the Wolverines' football program, but that's the extent of it.
Now, running a major university is a massive job in normal times, and even more so today. We're led to assume from Harbaugh's other comments that Harbaugh and Schlissel do not have a regular line of communication.
But... to not even talk to your head football coach? Does that strike anyone else as weird?
It's possible Schlissel is simply too busy to speak to Harbaugh, or he would prefer all their communication to go through AD Warde Manuel. It's also possible Schlissel is actively ignoring his head football coach, in the days following the cancellation of the football season.
“We want more answers,” senior defensive lineman Carlo Kemp told The Athletic. “We want to see why some of these decisions were made. They canceled the season or postponed the season, but now we’re kind of in this limbo where it’s like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Can we get some follow-up? Can we see how this is going to progress?’”
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.