At a rally organized by parents of Michigan football players, coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters he has sent text messages and emails to Michigan president Mark Schlissel, but has not talked to the president about the decision to postpone the Big Ten's football season.
Harbaugh was in attendance, along with some of his players and their parents, to protest against the conference's decision with hopes of changing the league's mind. Harbaugh himself was vocal about wanting to play, telling the Detroit News that his team is ready and willing to play.
Jim Harbaugh says they could be ready to play in two weeks pic.twitter.com/TzKZv9K8ze
— angelique (@chengelis) September 5, 2020
"Everybody has been, we want to play as soon as we possibly can. And we're ready to play, we could be ready to play a game in two weeks," Harbaugh told the newspaper. "Just get the pads on and our guys have trained without a pause since June 15. That's our position, we're ready to play as soon as we possibly can play."
Other Big Ten schools have had protests of their own, including Ohio State, who had parents of players gather at The Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio, on August 30.
The Michigan players in attendance spoke out about their displeasure, as well, including quarterback Dylan McCaffrey, whose father, Ed, is the head coach at Northern Colorado.
"We, frankly, didn't really know they were going to cancel, they kind of egged us on saying they gave us a schedule. We were doing well, we had I think it was three full team tests in a row, zero cases," McCaffrey said. "We were doing everything like you're supposed to do, and then our season got stripped from us. Right at a time where things were looking really up for us; up for us as a program, up for us as players in general. We're just kind of here to almost vent and hopefully something changes in the process."
Harbaugh, the players and parents marched on State Street near Michigan Stadium, and while the conference has not publicly stated it would consider changing the decision to postpone, there are hopes from the players and parents that the conference will hear Michigan's, and other Big Ten schools', plea to play.
"Just doing what we can, doing our part, and trying to get our voices heard," Michigan defensive tackle Carlo Kemp said to reporters. "I woke up and I woke up pretty happy and pretty excited today. I didn't think this is how I would wake up on Saturday, the first Saturday of college football. But I haven't had the chance to even think about that and I'm happy, because my mind's been here focusing on Michigan, focusing on trying to get the season again."