Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was not impressed with his opponent’s locker room on Saturday.
During his press conference on Monday, Harbaugh heavily criticized Purdue’s visiting team’s locker room, angered by its appearance, size and pretty much everything about it. He even called on the Big Ten to step in and establish a “minimum standard of grooming.”
Here is his rant, edited for clarity, as transcribed by Land of 10:
“We will look at everything we do for the visiting team because it is a standard of guest care. On several levels. Having visited all the visiting schools over the last few years, it has become clear that it is a deliberate tactic. It is unsportsmanlike when you have dressing rooms that are too small. They are not heated or cooled properly. In this case, there is no air conditioning, it is such a tight, cramped environment.
“People walking by watch you get dressed. There’s a row of urinals or restrooms for the players, I think there were two. There’s not even a private door. And then it’s all about the health and safety of the players. Very small space for a training room, nothing special. This is no different than the facility I saw in 1986. I don’t blame this on Purdue. This has to be addressed by the league and the commissioner. We’ll take the lead.
“It doesn’t even look sanitary. They were all in there. We’ve already talked about the heat. And it seems like a deliberate attempt to use tactics to gain an advantage over the opposition. I wish I had taken a photo of the table that is given to visitors so they can lay their injured players on it. It looks like it’s from the ’20s. It was torn up. It’s just not good.
“I asked (defensive coordinator) Don Brown if he’s seen that in the ACC? Not there, not in the Pac-12. Injured players being taken in a van to a student health center? There are a lot of things that need to be addressed.”
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You can watch a video of his comments below:
Harbaugh admitted that making the opponent’s locker room look worse than the home team’s is a certain tactic, but he feels that goes too far. We’ll have to wait and see if the Big Ten actually decides to take action against Purdue.
