Quiet not a rule for Cardinal

Bless Jim Harbaugh for making the woeful Stanford football program seem interesting again.

That could change when the Cardinal actually plays a game, opening the season against UCLA on Sept. 1 at Stanford Stadium.

Until then, the action has been from Harbaugh’s mouth, stirring it up with USC, California and Michigan. The Bruins should be insulted he hasn’t said more about them.

The first-year Stanford coach irked the Trojans by saying this would be Pete Carroll’s last year, disparaged Cal’s graduation rates, and upset people at his alma mater by criticizing Michigan’s academic handling of athletes.

“Michigan is a good school, and I got a good education there, but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in, and when they’re in, they steer them to courses in sports communications,” Harbaugh told a Bay Area reporter earlier this year.

Sure doesn’t sound as if Harbaugh aced that course.

The fallout from Ann Arbor: “He’s not a Michigan man,” running back Mike Hart told reporters last week. “I wish he had never played here, but it is what it is.”

Coach Lloyd Carr didn’t think much of Harbaugh’s remarks, either.

“Do I think they’re elitist? Yeah. Arrogant? Yes. Self-serving? Yes.”

Have an element of truth to them?

We’re guessing yes.

Trivia time

Who are the highest-drafted brothers in the history of the major league draft?

Stadium cuisine

New menu items available at Angel Stadium: Ratatouille and vermincelli.

See Christine Daniels’ “Day in L.A.” blog on latimes.com for more on a story that really has legs.

Split decisions

Kevin Burton figures to have a polarizing effect on fans at the PGA Championship this week in Tulsa, Okla.

Burton, who qualified by competing with club pros and coaches in the PGA Professional national championship earlier this summer, is the golf coach at Boise State, and he’ll be wearing a school shirt when he tees off Thursday.

It was Boise State, you might remember, that pulled off that tricked-out upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

“I’m not sure if I should wear a bulletproof vest,” Burton said.

Not to worry. He’ll have all the Oklahoma State fans in his corner.

Real estate preview

Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis claims not to be worried about the school’s history of turning coaches into ex-coaches, citing his home as evidence he expects to be in South Bend awhile.

“First of all, I bought an expensive house and dumped a lot of money into it to make sure that my family is happy,” he said. “I’ve got indoor riding arenas, I’ve got outdoor riding arenas, I’ve got paddocks, I’ve got a baseball field, a pool, a playroom. I’ve got a TV room downstairs that’s pretty sweet, pool table, ping-pong table, a game room.”

Sure, things have gone fine for Weis and the Irish so far.

We just hope the next guy’s kids like to ride horses too.

2 bad 4 u

Weis is a fan of text messaging to recruits and bemoaned the NCAA ban that went into effect Aug. 1.

“Ask my wife if I text,” he said. “She gets mad at me all the time because I’m sitting there -- you should have seen me on the 31st. I was miserable. I don’t know how many texts you can send in a day, but I might have set a record on that day because it was the last day you could do it, and I was saying, this is it. I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow.”

Trivia answer

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Justin Upton, who was No 1 in the 2005 draft, and his older brother B.J., drafted No. 2 overall by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2002.

And finally

This review of David Beckham’s MLS career from Norman Chad in the Washington Post:

“It’s felt more like ‘Waiting for Godot,’ than ‘Bend It Like Beckham.’ ”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com