Urban Meyer gives blunt opinion of Jim Harbaugh: 'He's a different duck, man'

It’s ‘The Game’ week, so obviously that means that it’s time for former National Championship winning head coach Urban Meyer to talk all things Ohio State/Michigan.

Meyer spent seven seasons at the helm at Ohio State, where he was a perfect 7-0 against Michigan in ‘The Game’. Four of these wins came against Jim Harbaugh, who took over the Michigan program in 2015. Once Meyer stepped down from the program following the 2018 season however, Harbaugh dominated the series.

Harbaugh remained at Michigan for five seasons (2019-2023) following Meyer’s departure from Ohio State. In this time, the Wolverines owned the series 3-1. Since 2019, Michigan has won four of five rivalry meetings, including a 13-10 win last season over the eventual National Champion winning Buckeyes.

On the latest edition of ‘The Triple Option‘ podcast, Meyer discussed the character Jim Harbaugh. There, he called the now Los Angeles Chargers head coach a ‘different duck’.

“I think this is the first time that I’ve ever asked this question,” Meyer said. “This’ll get some traction. Jim Harbaugh. I’ve got a lot of respect for him as a coach. Obviously, he’s killing it in the National Football League and the day he was hired I said ‘oh boy’. The guy’s a rugged guy. He’s tough, but he’s also a different duck, man. When he got hired, they did the ‘we’re gonna go see the Pope in Rome’. We’re gonna go to IMG. We’re gonna do the Signing with the Stars. I’m gonna go coach without my shirt on across camps across the world.”

“Everyday I’d have a guy on our staff, Tim Hinton, was in charge of that team. I wanted to know who (Michigan) was recruiting and what they were doing. And all of a sudden I was like ‘They’re going to Rome? What the hell are they doing?’ So I go to our AD and say, ‘we’re going to Rome next year then’. You know how that goes. And I know John Harbaugh pretty well. Back in the day when I was a special teams coordinator, I met his father a few times. Great respect for that family. But he’s a different duck. So I say that respectfully.”

Harbaugh stepped down as Michigan‘s head coach following the Wolverines’ National Championship victory in 2023. He headed back to the National Football League as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, where he’s led the team to an 18-9 record across two seasons.