Jim Harbaugh's voice might have been reduced to a rasp, but that megawatt smile of his that he kept flashing Tuesday said everything he felt about being the new head football coach at the University of Michigan.
Harbaugh talked about sitting in Bo Schembechler's chair as a 9-year-old, and fulfilling childhood dreams, and generally said the kind of feel-good things that made everyone in Ann Arbor desperate for him to return to the program that he quarterbacked to the Rose Bowl nearly 30 years ago.
That, of course, and his ability to win, which he has displayed in the FCS (San Diego), FBS (Stanford) and the NFL (49ers). Harbaugh recoiled from the way in which Michigan greeted him as a savior.
"I'm not comfortable with that at all," Harbaugh said Tuesday at his news conference. "As I said, I'm standing on a foundation that has been built for over 100 years by some great men."
Harbaugh arrives in Ann Arbor with a reputation as a winner who doesn't wear well. He has held three head coaching jobs, none for more than four seasons. That's not entirely fair; each job change before this one represented a higher rung on the career ladder.
But Harbaugh has made it clear that his focus on winning doesn't include public displays of respect for those in his way. When he pulled Stanford from the abyss of leaving the Pac-10 Conference -- and the university considered it before hiring Harbaugh after the 2006 season -- he threw elbows at Pete Carroll and USC.
He literally threw elbows in lunchtime basketball games with the big wallets that funded the Stanford program, playing so rough that they uninvited him from playing.
More to the current point: While at Stanford, Harbaugh even threw elbows at Michigan and its ability to steer academically "borderline" football players into classes they could handle.
He apologized for that comment Tuesday, saying, "I made the mistake of not knowing that you don't compare things. You don't compare great to great. That's what I did. That was a mistake."
He didn't say he was wrong, mind you. Harbaugh demonstrated that thrusted-jaw attitude when he refused to acknowledge that Michigan hired him because the Wolverines have been treading water (55-48) since Schembechler died at the end of the 2006 season.
"This is Michigan. There are no turnarounds. This is greatness," he said.
"I didn't see the struggles you're talking about," he added.
If he didn't see them, he's not the football coach his record says he is. Harbaugh wouldn't be in Ann Arbor without those struggles.
Michigan wouldn't have departed from the way it has hired head coaches in the postwar era if the program didn't need to change.
For one thing, Harbaugh is the most successful head coach Michigan has hired since it swiped Fritz Crisler from Princeton in 1938. All Crisler did in 10 seasons in Ann Arbor was slap the wings on the helmet, invent two-platoon football, go 71-16-3 (.806) and finish with a 10-0 record in 1947.
Brady Hoke might not be a tough act to follow, but the standard that Harbaugh is expected to meet remains high.
Of the eight Wolverine coaches hired since Crisler retired, four of them were promoted assistants. Rich Rodriguez came to Ann Arbor without Michigan on his résumé, and the Michigan Men never gave him a chance to succeed.
Harbaugh is different from all of them, if only because of his ability to win at every level. He's the most successful head coach to return to his alma mater since Bear Bryant said, "Mama called," as he left Texas A&M for Alabama in 1958.
That list of head coaches hired by their alma maters includes Steve Spurrier. Yes, Spurrier had three good seasons in the USFL and three good seasons at Duke before he went to Florida. But he didn't reach the top of his sport until he made his return to Gainesville.
Harbaugh won the Orange Bowl with his last Cardinal team four years ago, and he coached in the Super Bowl two years ago, losing to the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his brother John.
"I want to be good," Harbaugh said Tuesday. "I want to win."
He still has the sharp edges that winning has rounded off of Nick Saban (yes, hard to believe, but Saban has mellowed). But there is a parallel there. When Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa nearly eight years ago, two things happened: Alabama surrendered its hierarchy to him, and a fractured fan base united behind him.
If one day is any indication, Harbaugh already has both of those.
Interim athletic director Jim Hackett treated Harbaugh's introduction as a command performance. Former head coaches Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr; Harbaugh's quarterback coach, Jerry Hanlon; Bo Schembechler's widow -- Hackett rounded up everyone, in short, but Hurry Up Yost to come out to welcome the new coach.
If Harbaugh is to succeed, it will be because he makes Michigan adapt to him, and not the other way around.
Now, if you will excuse him, he has some scarlet and gray toes to step on.