When former Michigan and current Ohio tight end Keith Heitzman revealed to Mark Znidar of the Columbus Dispatch (h/t the Washington Post) on Wednesday that new Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh held tryouts for fifth-year seniors upon his arrival in Ann Arbor, it was easy to assume the worst.
After all, it's not exactly unheard of for a coach to do everything he can to free up as many roster spots as possible once he accepts a new job.
Harbaugh has already been accused of such practices. According to ESPN.com's Joe Schad, defensive tackle OndrePipkins claimed the former San Francisco 49ers head coach pressured him to leave the program before he eventually transferred to Texas Tech.
"College football is a business. New coaches have to win games. They want to go with guys they think can win," Pipkins, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in 2013 before returning for the 2014 season, said. "If I’m a victim of making room, so be it."
But while Pipkins' departure from Michigan is a matter of "he said, he said"—Harbaugh has vehemently denied the accusation, stating that the Wolverines medical staff's decision to disqualify the defensive tackle was only medically related—it's unfair to lump Heitzman's hard feelings in the same category.
In fact, team tryouts fall right in line with the culture that Harbaugh has been trying to create at Michigan, which has struggled to maintain stability since Lloyd Carr's departure in 2008.
And if there's one characteristic that's been prevalent ever since Ann Arbor's prodigal son returned home last December, it's the competition that's seeped into every aspect of the Wolverines program.
From quarterback camps to spring-game rewards, there have been plenty of winners—and maybe just as many losers—in Harbaugh's first seven months as Michigan's head coach.
"Within the program, the intensity and the enthusiasm of going out every day and competing and not only competing on the field, it never stops," Wolverines senior linebacker Joe Bolden said on a May conference call. "Just being in meeting rooms and when we're working out and running and stuff, too, the competition and enthusiasm, it's in every aspect of this building right now."
This would help explain why Harbaugh may have found it necessary to have fifth-year seniors try out this spring, proving that spots on his roster will be earned rather than given—even for the team's elder statesmen.
Only Heitzman didn't see it that way, telling Znidar that he felt disrespected by having to prove his worth to his new head coach.
"That definitely took me off guard," Heitzman said about the senior tryouts. "I was bummed out."
Rather than participate, Heitzman announced his intentions to transfer in January, ultimately landing at Ohio University as a graduate transfer eligible to play immediately in the 2015 season.
That's obviously his prerogative, seeing as playing time would have likely been hard to come by behind Mackey Award watch list member Jake Butt, but it shouldn't be viewed as an indictment of the way Harbaugh is running his new program.
Especially when considering that aside from Heitzman, only three other fifth-year seniors have opted to transfer from the Wolverines program since Harbaugh was announced as the team's new head coach. Both quarterback Russell Bellomy and running back Justice Hayes ended their respective Michigan careers before the start of spring practice, and neither player was projected to receive significant playing time in 2015 in the first place.
The third, cornerback Blake Countess, who has since enrolled at national championship contender Auburn, would've been the only returning Wolverine with an All-Big Ten selection to his credit, making it highly unlikely Harbaugh would've pushed him out the door. Another fifth-year senior, center Jack Miller, opted to end his football career altogether.
That would indicate that when it came to Harbaugh's alleged tryouts, every fifth-year senior who wound up participating—if they even happened—made the cut.
"We don't run off players," Harbaugh said about the Pipkins situation earlier this month, via MLive.com. "When it comes to the health and safety of the players, that argument trumps all other arguments."
And as for holding tryouts for fifth-year seniors, the ability to free up roster spots hardly suffices as logical reasoning, considering the logistics of the Wolverines' 2015 roster were pretty much set after national signing day in February.
If a coach was attempting to run off players from his program to gain a competitive advantage, it would certainly make much more sense to do so with players with eligibility remaining beyond the 2015 season.
That's not to say the practice isn't happening to a degree, whether it be at Michigan or other programs across the country. Sometimes it simply makes sense for both parties to move on, especially when a new coach comes to town hoping to instill a different mindset than the one his predecessor possessed.
But in the case of Heitzman's departure from Ann Arbor, that hardly appears to be the case. Rather, the situation screams of Harbaugh's desire for nonstop competition—something that not every player in college football is cut out for.
Whether that type of culture will work to Harbaugh's benefit or detriment with the Wolverines remains to be seen. But for now, he's letting his track record speak for itself.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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