No condolence could ever cover the pain of losing the way Michigan did on Saturday.

Jim Harbaugh doesn’t want people to feel sorry for his team. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, their bye week means they have two weeks to think about one of the craziest endings in college football history.

But a bye week also meant that Jim Harbaugh got a chance to take a trip east. And for once, Harbaugh wasn’t the most high-profile person in the room. He wasn’t even in the top two.

The Michigan coach and his wife, Sarah, went to Washington to promote a public-awareness campaign called Better Make Room for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative. While Harbaugh was there, he got to talk with Barack Obama about Saturday’s loss.

The president offered his sympathy.

“He was great. We talked about some mutual friends that we both know, and he said the same thing you just said: ‘Tough way to lose a football game,'” Harbaugh told the Detroit Free Press after leaving the West Wing. “(He) told the fellas to keep their chin up. … (He) likes the way our team plays and he told the guys to keep it going.”

The Obama family was actually watching the game live when Blake O’Neill fumbled the punt snap with 10 seconds left. They watched the Wolverines nearly knock off their first top-10 opponent of the Harbaugh era.

Obama wasn’t the first person to extend his sympathy. Michigan Athletic Director Jim Hackett wrote an open letter to UM students urging them not to lash out at O’Neill on social media. Even Alabama punter Adam Griffith, infamously missed the field goal that led to the Kick-Six, reached out to O’Neill.

The Wolverines will look to bounce back from the devastating loss when they travel to Minnesota on Halloween.