After last week's satellite camp ban, we knew it was only a matter of when, not if, Jim Harbaugh would respond publicly. After all, Harbaugh is the man who took advantage of satellite camps like no other and never is afraid to speak out publicly.
Well on Tuesday, Harbaugh came out firing in a wide ranging, no-holds-barred interview with Sports Illustrated. What began as a diatribe about the word "student-athlete" morphed into something much more, as Harbaugh took direct shots at both the SEC and ACC, and Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze.
For Harbaugh his frustration was mostly aimed at the two conferences that voted against satellite camps, and then used the excuse that it would cause "too much time away from their families" if they were forced to work them.
That's a fair point, but the real reason most (if not all SEC coaches) were against the camps is that it allowed schools like Michigan, Penn State and others to set up shop and recruit right in their backyards.
So, as you can, "the time away from family" excuse, which was used last week by Freeze, didn't jive with Harbaugh.
Here was Harbaugh's response on Freeze's comments last week:
"You've got a guy sitting in a big house, making $5 million a year, saying he does not want to sacrifice his time. That is not a kindred spirit to me. What most of these coaches are saying is they don't want to work harder."
Woah!
Harbaugh didn't just come after Freeze, he straight out called him lazy. Honestly, at this point we'd say Harbaugh is like a "WWE heel," but the thing is, he's more than that. This isn't scripted drama, this is real life. And Harbaugh ain't backing down from anyone.
That included not just Freeze, but also the SEC and ACC:
"It seems to be outrage by the SEC and ACC," Harbaugh says. "They power-brokered that out ... the image that comes to my mind is guys in a back room smoking cigars, doing what they perceive is best for them. It certainly isn't the best thing for the youngsters. It's not the best thing for the student-athletes."
From there Harbaugh goes on and on, but those are the two money quotes. And whether you like Harbaugh or not, he is 100 percent right about the satellite camp ban.
As he says in the interview, the NCAA's decision to remove them not only was short-sighted, but it also will literally impact thousands of people across the high school and college football landscape. As Harbaugh notes (and Urban Meyer did yesterday), it isn't just kids being recruited by power-five schools who lose out on opportunities, but also those being recruited by smaller schools , whose staffs routinely work these camps.
It really is a spectacular interview with Harbaugh, and we encourage you to read it all here.
Aaron Torres covers college football for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres and Facebook.
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