Jim Harbaugh on naming dad Jack Harbaugh assistant head coach during suspension: 'I do what he tells me to do.'

When Michigan doled out game day head-coaching duties as Jim Harbaugh serves his 3-game suspension, one line raised an eyebrow: "Jack Harbaugh will continue to serve as the program's Assistant Head Coach." 

Harbaugh's dad? Continue to serve? 

The elder Harbaugh is not listed as an assistant head coach on Michigan's online staff directory, so news that Jack Harbaugh will continue serving in a previously unannounced role was, well, news to most of the public. 

Asked about it on Tuesday, Jim Harbaugh said Jack Harbaugh was essentially Michigan's head coach off the field already. Maybe "head coach to the head coach" is a more appropriate title. 

"I do what he tells me to do, when he tells me to do it, how he tells me to do it, and things just keep working out well for me," he said. "So I'm just going to keep rolling with that."

It's no secret that Jack Harbaugh has wielded a major influence on his son's career. You're likely familiar with Jim's mantra "Who's got it better than us?"

That phrase and its resulting meaning was born in the back of the Harbaugh family vehicle, when Jack tried to sooth his adolescent sons John and Jim as they uprooted their young lives moving from town to town while Jack rose the coaching ladder. When the Harbaughs left Morehead State for Bowling Green, Bowling Green for Iowa, Iowa for Michigan, and Michigan for Stanford, Jack reminded John and Jim that nobody had it better than them.

Jim Harbaugh would not be the Michigan head coach today if not for Jack Harbaugh. Jim played for Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School before transferring to Palo Alto High School for his senior year, then, of course, returned to Michigan in 1982, eventually becoming the starting quarterback, and later the head coach.

Jack Harbaugh's seven seasons as Michigan's defensive backs coach put him on the path to become the head coach at Western Michigan (1982-86) and Western Kentucky (1989-2002). The 2002 season was his last until Jim hired him as his running backs coach at San Diego in 2004 before his 2006 retirement. 

Jim appointed Jack his interim running backs coach for the 2009 Sun Bowl after Willie Taggart landed the Western Kentucky head coaching job, and that spot duty was Jack Harbaugh's last official coaching duties.

But, it turns out, he's unofficially been coaching Michigan's head coach this entire time.