It's almost normal at this point, the daily headlines, the continual uploading of photos on Twitter, the nonstop coverage of Michigan's Mr. Ubiquity, Jim Harbaugh.

It may have felt different in the beginning, an irrepressible wave engulfing college football.

But now?

He's changing our perception of what's routine. Even though what he's doing is not.

Where is he today?

Well, he's in Kansas. No, wait, he's in Utah. No, he's in New Jersey, in Ohio, back in Michigan ... then off to Tennessee.

Every day, a different city, a new football field, more photos, more press, the local television station chasing a coach with no ties to the region. Think about that for a moment. Then think about how much time the media in the Detroit area would give to Jimbo Fisher if he held a satellite camp in Brighton, Mich.

All Fisher did was win a national title at Florida State two years ago, but he's a speck of dust compared with Harbaugh in this way. Fisher may be a fine coach, but he _ and almost every other college football coach _ is competing against a force that is transcending the sport.

It astonishes, really.

Harbaugh is a one-man publicity tour because we can't turn away _ as I can't now, as many of you can't, either, by reading these words about a college football coach who has upended a sport through cult of personality.

It sure isn't what Harbaugh saying. Nor preaching. He talks about the same things at every stop: that he loves coaching, that it's all about the kids, that he is teaching the game the right way, that there is a war on football and it's his job to push back.

"Prejudice against (the game)," he has called it, at every level. "We'll overcome it, though."

In many ways, Harbaugh is right. Society has an increasingly complicated relationship with the game. It can make us feel uneasy, which is why Harbaugh sees part of his satellite barnstorming tour as an opportunity to restore football's good name.

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said as much Thursday, in an interview with reporters.

"He's out there promoting the game of football, which is important to me, to him and to Michigan," he said. "For us, it is an investment that is worth it."

Higher education, if you will.

Manuel doesn't agree with critics who say that Harbaugh simply is on a recruiting tour and trying to promote himself. (Harbaugh, of course, doesn't buy that, either, and got a little testy when pressed about such topics at a recent camp in New Jersey.)

"He doesn't need that," said Manuel, "and we don't need that to know who we're going to recruit. That, I think, is an important piece to talk about, as it relates to the expenditure and the investment that we're making."

Manuel went on to say that, yes, it's about football, too. Specifically, football as it's played at the University of Michigan.

"I'd be lying if I told you that it wasn't also, along the way, marketing the university, marketing our football program," he said.

Of course it is. It's good that Manuel said as much this week. Colleges are in the business of explaining reality. And the reality is that this summer rock-star tour is great for U-M and Harbaugh.

Recruits aren't fools. They see. They listen. They spot the social media barrage that arrives with every Harbaugh stop.

Just recently, a top-shelf recruit from Alabama listed U-M among his finalists. All of the other schools that he's considering are in the South. That this promising receiver _ his name is Nico Collins _ is interested in the Wolverines tells much about Harbaugh's imprint and the importance of polishing a brand.

It's hard to remember a coach who has done so much to change the image of a program _ for the better _ by his actions away from the field. All it has taken is a schedule that would kill most mortals.

Harbaugh's relentlessness is winning the spring and summer. Let's see if he can do it again in the fall.