Jim Harbaugh’s pregame routine is beating up his quarterbacks

It’s time for Michigan football, and that means it’s time for Jim Harbaugh to act like a maniac — although to be fair, he acts like a maniac pretty much 365 days a year. He started off the season by giving starting QB Wilton Speight a thorough faux beatdown:

Normally, this would set off alarms and have me wondering whether the pad-puncher has gone off his rocker. But beating up a quarterback’s pads before a game to hype them up is a Harbaugh tradition. Here he is in 2012, attacking Alex Smith’s head and chest:

Harbaugh’s an old QB so he knows exactly where a guy about to play a big game wants to get punched. Or maybe he’s just trying to hype himself up? The brain of Harbaugh is a fascinating place.