49ers beat writer offers insight to dealing with Jim Harbaugh

College and professional football fans, and even fans of niche sports like baseball and soccer, are aware that Jim Harbaugh has left the San Francisco 49ers to take over head coaching duties at the University of Michigan.

What is much less widely known information, however, is how to handle the famously mercurial and intense coach, himself a former Michigan player.

Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee has stepped up to fill in that knowledge gap, offering some hard-earned insight into Harbaugh's thinking, as well as some of his more perplexing habits.

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Barrows' tips include:

"You may notice that your Harbaugh never shuts off. This is normal."

"Your Harbaugh will be enormously affectionate one day and cold and distant the next. This is normal."

"Your Harbaugh will not alter his attire in a 1,460 day span. This is normal."

"Your Harbaugh may arrive one day with a chipped tooth, a bent finger or a gash across his forehead. This is normal."

Barrows describes a very complex and competitive coach, but, as he notes, Harbaugh is a one-of-a-kind football mind.

"In the end, you will realized that your Harbaugh is perhaps the most unique operating system ever created and that you have been lucky to have had a chance to experience it. Some assembly required. Ages 18 and up."

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Michigan fans no doubt have an exciting, or at least interesting, season to look forward to, while Michigan's opponents will have a new challenge to overcome.

- Christopher Woody