COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gene Smith's shot at Jim Harbaugh that started his day-long "feud" with the Michigan head coach wasn't much of a shot at all.
But in order to understand the firestorm that led to arguably Harbaugh's harshest tweet yet and the Ohio State athletic director's subsequent apology, it's probably best to know the backstory of how they came to be.
I was there standing just a few inches away from Smith on Tuesday as he spoke to a gathering of reporters following the announcement of an international soccer match to be held at Ohio Stadium this summer. Eventually, the conversation shifted toward Ohio State football, as just an hour earlier, head coach Urban Meyer had held a press conference following the Buckeyes' third spring practice of the offseason.
At the earlier gathering, I had asked Meyer about comments he had made the week prior about Ohio State potentially holding spring practice down in Florida, just as Harbaugh and Michigan had done for a week this year. The Buckeyes head coach downplayed the idea, stating that he was just answering a question that had been posed to him by WUFT-TV (h/t SB Nation) at the Tim Tebow Celebrity Golf Classic during Ohio State's spring break.
"No, I didn't make comments. Somebody asked me a question, 'Would we look into it?'" Meyer said. "We look into everything. I can't see taking spring break away from players."
So naturally, when reporters talked to Meyer's boss merely an hour later, the topic was brought up again. Smith, however, seemed to take a harsher stance against the Buckeyes potentially taking spring practice down South.
"I think it's a creative idea and I understand that. But I would not be supportive of taking away student-athletes' free time to go practice," Smith said. "We're talking about spring practice. What was my man's name? [Allen] Iverson? We're talking about practice.
"I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't support taking that time away from our student-athletes. Is it creative? Does it help from a recruiting and marketing point of view? I get it. If we were jump-starting our program, I'd probably try to do that, too. But we're not jump-starting our program. We're in a different place."
Smith's strong opinion—and comparison of where Ohio State currently stands in relation to Michigan—raised my eyebrows, literally, as you can see from this video of the question provided by 97.1 The Fan.
I didn't view the comments as a "shot" at the Wolverines so much as I did a stating of the facts considering where the Buckeyes are coming off of a 50-4 start in four years under Meyer and where Michigan stands after Harbaugh's 10-3 debut in Ann Arbor. In an effort to relay Smith's message, I posted three tweets from the gathering, including an analysis stating that I didn't see the comments as a "dig."
But the only one of the three tweets that gained much traction was the one where Smith directly compared the current statuses of college football's fiercest rivals.
Three-hundred-plus retweets later and Smith's "one-liner" that wasn't a one-liner found itself in the college football blogosphere and eventually, Harbaugh's radar.
Responding in a way only he can, the Wolverines head coach took to Twitter and addressed Smith directly, referencing the Ohio State AD's involvement in the "Tatgate" scandal that led to the ouster of former Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel.
Responses from several ex-Ohio State players followed, including actual shots from Ezekiel Elliott, Michael Thomas and Darron Lee. The fun, however, calmed down on Wednesday, when Smith took to his own Twitter account to issue an apology to both Michigan student-athletes and UM athletic director Warde Manuel.
Give Smith credit for not using accusations of his comments being taken out of context as an excuse, as so many others in similar situations seem to do. The reality is that's not what happened here, as it was merely a misunderstanding between the intent of his comments and how they were perceived that caused Tuesday's Twitter firestorm.
Smith's point wasn't to discredit Michigan for taking its spring practice down to Florida—he even stated that he'd be willing to do the same if necessity dictated so. But with the way the Buckeyes are rolling, both on the field and the recruiting trail, spring practice in Columbus will suffice, as opposed to taking trips that double as publicity tours.
Perhaps Smith overestimated the sentiment that the Wolverines are still in a rebuilding phase under Harbaugh following his first season in charge of the program as a widely accepted fact. While the more rational Michigan fans might agree the Wolverines still have developing to do, nobody likes to be told their favorite team doesn't measure up to its rival at the moment—even if it's true.
Smith's words read harder than they sounded, but in each case, the message of the content was the same: Gimmicks like spring practice in Florida are worthwhile if needed, and right now, Michigan needs them and Ohio State doesn't.
In any form, that message wasn't going to sit well with Harbaugh. And perhaps the only part of his response that was surprising was just how strong the Wolverines head coach came at the Buckeyes athletic director, who's actually bounced back strongly from the controversy that surrounded his athletic department just five years ago.
In the end, Smith apologized and Harbaugh will likely just move forward, searching for the next perceived slight that will give him an opportunity to keep Michigan's name in the headlines, just as he has with Tennessee and Georgia this offseason.
Whatever it is, however, there's a good chance it won't match the fireworks that were witnessed on Tuesday—even if they stemmed from a slight that was never intended to be just that in the first place.
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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