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CHICAGO -- It took every second of every minute of the full hour some of us had in a breakout media session with Jim Harbaugh on Monday.

The idea -- at least from this angle -- was to get past the cartoon that has become the Michigan coach.

Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you. What you cannot deny is that a 52-year-old man, one who's about to become a father for the seventh time, is known by some more for his Twitter high jinks than for posting only the second double-digit win season at Michigan in the last decade.

Part of it is entertainment for a coach who bragged about writing some of the lyrics for his new rap video.

"It's only uptight white people that don't like it," he said.

That fit right in with Harbaugh's sudden fascination with Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico.

Or that Harbaugh has this nascent idea to name his latest child after his father-in-law back in Missouri. That's an honor for Merle Feuerborn. Harbaugh isn't sure how his pregnant wife Sarah will feel about it.

We needed a full hour because, with Harbaugh, sometimes you have to mine for information. It doesn't always come willingly. This is a guy who thought nothing of stiffing the media for two-and-a-half weeks last August during preseason camp.

"Gosh, it was so fun," he said.

We needed a full hour because Harbaugh has become the face not only of Michigan but of college football. Whatever he says -- good, bad or wacko -- matters.

And what he said Monday revealed a bit about why he acts out the way he does.

"I've been made fun of pretty much since I can remember, since I was little," Harbaugh said. "Today, yesterday, my whole life. It's going to happen to everybody ...

"But you can't let that get you down. You can't let that keep you down. It's the thought that you should set your dreams so big that everybody laughs at them. If nobody is laughing at them, you haven't set your goals high enough.

"Everybody has critics. Well, screw 'em. They're irrelevant. I think it's the same way as a football team."

At his core, Harbaugh wants to beat opponents physically. We found that out when he laid a foundation at Stanford that endures today.

We found that out when he was questioned Monday about his sometimes brash behavior. If anything gets in the way -- Nick Saban, the NCAA, the media -- they become a target.

What buys him credibility is that, when he does win, Harbaugh's going to pummel you -- on Twitter and on fourth-and-goal. And he usually wins.

"If someone shots one over your bow, you shoot one back over their bow. Usually I subscribe to the sticks-and-stones philosophy, but when somebody talks about somebody you love or something you love or makes a personal attack, you have the right to shoot one over their bow."

Harbaugh was speaking about critics of his satellite camps. His Harbs-Over-America Tour was overwrought and overwritten, but it isn't going away.

"As you look back on it right now, it was all good," he said. "Good for student-athletes, coaches, parents. Anybody who had questions ... people talking about the sky falling and the Wild West, it was nothing."

But all of it takes away from the reason he's at Michigan. Sooner or later, Coach Khaki is going to have to answer to the same pressures that have weighed on every Michigan coach from Fielding Yost to Brady Hoke.

Harbaugh has to win at a high rate. That includes championships, preferably. And he's got to do it soon. That's why former interim athletic director Jim Hackett bum-rushed Harbaugh from the start. The coach's track record just about guarantees all of the above.

A 10-3 season is a good start. Now in his second season, the Wolverines are favored by some to win the Big Ten.

If Michigan gets there this year, it will have to win on the road at Ohio State, Michigan State and Iowa, three opponents that Harbaugh knows will shape his legacy at Michigan.

"That gives us a chance to go to three different places, some of the best places in the world to play football all in the same year," Harbaugh said. "I'd hate to deprive somebody of that."

Specifically, he is 0-2 already against the Spartans and Buckeyes -- two rivals he absolutely has to beat.

The hour was worthwhile and necessary After slogging through the dumb questions -- mine included -- we know now that Harbaugh gets it.

The coach of a 138-year old monolithic football factory may have greater notoriety for his recruiting sleepover and Tom Brady-infused signing day celebrity spectacular, but in some small way he has to know his job is on the line, too.

That is, if he doesn't start beating Ohio State and Michigan State.

"Nothing will make you feel like a man going into another man's stadium, beating them, beating their crowd, beating the elements," Harbaugh said. "Nothing will make you feel more like a man than that."

He was asked specifically about the Ohio State game on Nov. 26. Sure, that's four months from now, but careers have been built and destroyed on this rivalry. It will be Harbaugh's first time back in Ohio Stadium as a player or coach since 1986.

That year, No. 2 Michigan lost to Minnesota in early November. Then with a brash quarterback named Harbaugh guaranteeing it, the Wolverines won the next week in Columbus, Ohio.

Harbaugh hasn't forgotten or, apparently, backed down. Asked about the unique feeling of an Ohio State win, he said, "I'll let you know ... when we accomplish it."

The coach went on to say there is no need to apologize for the Twitter blasts he lobbed at Saban, Kirby Smart, and Ohio State AD Gene Smith in the offseason. All three at some point had criticized Harbaugh's satellite camps.

"If it's worth it [to apologize], I will," Harbaugh said. "I didn't feel like it was worth it. I don't think there are any apologies necessary there."

At this point, it's probably worth noting that the coach specifically wrote this lyric for that rap video, "Who's Got It Better Than Us?"

Roughest team in the B-I-G (Ten)

It should also be noted that this is also a coach quirky enough to reveal his wife's pregnancy publicly for the first time last month to a bunch of Michigan football campers.

At the end of that hour, we and he endured to find a new Harbaugh. As he left the room, the coach was reminded he'll be 70 when little Merle -- or whatever the new baby is named -- graduates from high school.

"I feel good about it," Harbaugh said smiling. "I feel good about myself."