Jim Harbaugh never runs from a fight.
Hours after Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith made a sly comment about Harbaugh and Michigan making a trip to Florida to practice during spring break, Harbaugh fired back.
Smith said to reporters about the issue earlier Tuesday: "If we were jump starting our program, I'd probably try to do that too."
Subtle shade from Smith.
Harbaugh was less subtle, saying in a Tweet: "Good to see Director Smith being relevant again after the tattoo fiasco. Welcome back!"
Harbaugh's direct shot refers to Ohio State's 2011 NCAA sanctions that centered on players having a financial arrangement with a tattoo parlor. Smith was the AD throughout that scandal, which led to the resignation of Jim Tressel.
In early March, Michigan took a five-day trip for four practices to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, one of the most talent-rich high schools in the country, an encroachment move that clearly got under the skin of other schools and coaches, not just in the SEC, and may very well inspire NCAA legislation to ban similar excursions in the future.
That Florida trip is still causing ripples.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer addressed the issue Tuesday, as well.
"Somebody asked me a question, 'Would we look into it?'" Meyer said after practice, according to ESPN, citing an answer to a similar question recently in Florida for the Tim Tebow Celebrity Golf Classic. "We look into everything. I can't see taking spring break away from players.
"It doesn't mean we won't do research or keep an eye out, but it's funny. ... Somebody said the other day, 'I saw you guys were going to Florida.' I said, 'What are you talking about?' Somebody stuck a microphone in my face and I said (we'd look into it). We wouldn't take their free time away from them. If there's some way to do something like that and it helps the players, we'll look into it."
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