Luke Fickell clarifies exchange from spring phone call with Jim Harbaugh
It looks like the James Hudson eligibility waiver story isn’t going away just yet.
The story has been an ongoing back-and-forth war of words between Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell and Jim Harbaugh since Hudson’s immediate eligibility waiver was denied. The latest shot was sent by Harbaugh on Tuesday following a story in The Athletic.
According to that story, Fickell alleged that Michigan and Harbaugh did not back Hudson’s eligibility waiver. Harbaugh took time to respond to the story in his Tuesday press conference and admitted to talking to Fickell in the spring. However, Harbaugh felt his understanding of the waiver process did not match up with what Fickell was asking of Harbaugh. He even labeled Fickell’s claims “erroneous,” claiming Michigan did not block the waiver.
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As to be expected, Fickell fired back Wednesday evening. He clarified a bit of the phone call exchange from the spring, labeling the call cold and short. Fickell felt it was evident from the conversation what Michigan’s stance was on the topic:
Fickell on the spring phone call with Harbaugh: "It was kind of cold. It was short. It wasn’t a long conversation. It wasn’t hard to figure out what their stance was. They supposedly weren’t going to hold (James Hudson's waiver) up, but they weren’t going to help him."
— Fletcher Page (@FletcherPage) August 15, 2019
Fickell continued, saying all he asked for was whether or not Harbaugh and the Wolverines would help Hudson. He claimed the call was nothing different than the calls he has made to other head coaches:
"… Just like I called coach Day at Ohio State and Coach Saban at Alabama. I did nothing different than what I did with those guys and the results are different."
— Fletcher Page (@FletcherPage) August 15, 2019
Fickell did also appear to throw a little shade at Harbaugh’s comments from Tuesday, but he did not elaborate further:
Luke Fickell: "We had a couple kids (get hurt) yesterday and I spent time with them, spent time talking with their families. That, to me, was more important than what Jim Harbaugh had to say about us and our program or me in general."
— Fletcher Page (@FletcherPage) August 15, 2019
We will just have to wait and see if Harbaugh fires another shot in the exchange.