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PHOTO: Jim Harbaugh uses creative way to wish recruit happy birthday

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

Football programs aren’t allowed to send gifts to recruits under NCAA regulations. Obviously.

So Jim Harbaugh and his staff got creative.

The Michigan coach knew that three-star linebacker Jonathan Jones was celebrating a birthday on Wednesday. Instead of sending him a birthday cake, Harbaugh, defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin and recruiting coordinator Chris Partridge had a birthday cake made that read “Happy 18th Birthday Jonathan Jones!” and took a picture with it.

https://twitter.com/KingCaarlos/status/667149437026869250

As you can see, Jones was obviously blown away by the simple, non-materialistic gesture. The 30th-ranked outside linebacker in the 2016 class, Jones has his choices narrowed down to Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame, Stanford and UCF.

According to 247sports, Michigan is the favorite to land the Orlando native, birthday cake picture or no birthday cake picture.

This actually isn’t the first time Harbaugh got creative with his recruiting messages with the 2016 class.

He also once copied a 2016 recruit Boss Tagaloa’s sign that he used to ask a girl to prom. It read “UM will be SOUR without you, so lets make it SWEET. Mich?”

Both of the 2016 recruits are still considering Michigan. Even if they don’t come to Ann Arbor, Harbaugh and his staff are proving you don’t necessarily have to roll out the red carpet to make a connection with a recruit.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.