Harbaugh: Photo depicting offside doesn't tell real story

Ann Arbor -- Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh ended his Monday news conference by addressing a photo he had been shown that indicated Michigan’s defense was offside on the final goal-line stand at Minnesota. The Wolverines stuffed the quarterback sneak to preserve the victory Saturday night.

“I’ve studied this a lot and have really good clarification on this,” Harbaugh said. “The centers will oftentimes come up to the ball and move the ball forward. That’s not a penalty. What the officials tell you is the defensive line gets the ground that’s coming to them. They won’t penalize the center for coming up and picking up the ball and moving it forward, but the defensive line gets the ground that belongs to them. So, optically it can look like that in a picture, but the way I understand it and been told by officials, that was legal.”

He was asked if this had been an issue since the end of the Minnesota game.

“Some people were commenting, the bloggers, fans and things, 'Isn’t Michigan offsides?'" he said. “This is a subject I know a little something about. Our defensive line took the ground that was coming to them and executed that stop as good as you can.”