Ohio State Football: Buckeyes AD throws shade at Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

Ohio State athletic director throws some serious shade at Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines.

Ohio State football vs. Michigan football is one of, if not, the best rivalry in college football and that was on full display despite the two still eight months away from meeting on the gridiron.

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Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith was asked his thoughts on Harbaugh’s idea to hold a portion of their spring football practices in Florida and took a not-so-subtle jab at Harbaugh and the program he inherited from Brady Hoke.

Smith said, “If we were jump starting our program, I’d probably try to do that too.”

Let’s break this comment down.

The AD points out Michigan is not on the level of Ohio State football and they need to try new things to try to close the gap after Hoke did his best to run the program into the ground.

But then admits it’s a good idea and something Ohio State could try. It’s an idea Urban Meyer liked and left open the possibility of the Buckeyes doing the same thing next spring if it’s still allowed.

This comment can easily be interpreted as Smith throwing some serious shade at the rival.

But, I’m not so sure Harbaugh would be offended. Harbaugh knows he had to inject some life into his alma mater and there was a clear divide with where they were at and Ohio State who was two weeks from winning the national championship when he was hired by Michigan.

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So you can take it as a diss from the AD toward Michigan if you’d like, or you can take it as Smith stating what’s painfully obvious for anyone who watched the Michigan football team under Hoke’s watch.

Michigan had to jump-start the program and Harbaugh has done just that.