jim harbaugh watch

The shape this column was set to take underwent a bit of a change in the whirlwind last week of Harbaugh Watch 2k22. I knew I wanted to write something and began to take an introspective look at my time back as a fan and then student broadcaster and then writer/analyst during his tenure. As Wednesday drew closer and the reports asserted that it was approaching a done-deal, the picture started to come together. And with it came a title that I was planning to run with: After the Gold Rush. 

The name was inspired by the famous Neil Young song (and album), but I liked the meaning it had for this instance and I planned to explain it at the start of the piece. That Harbaugh returning to Michigan was akin to the striking of gold in a western mine, kick-starting a gold rush. That we, as Michigan fans, were the miners who hitched the future of this program and our emotional stakes in it to that gold rush. We didn't have fun prospecting names like Geo W. Hemmings or nicknames like "Gooseneck" or "Diamond Jim", but we were in that boat.  

Like the miners who set out to descend on a given gold mine, we began with lofty dreams of high fortunes, that the treasure of the mine would bring us all the glory that we ever dreamed of. But with Harbaugh planning to leave after a lone B1G Championship in seven seasons, we were set to be left like many miners after the end of many gold rushes, richer than we began, but with a pang of emptiness at not getting all that we wanted. And we would also be left with a tinge of sadness at how quickly it all went. 

Of course, this didn't happen. Wednesday night we learned that Jim Harbaugh is returning as Michigan's head coach for the 2022 season and Adam Schefter has reported that the coach plans to stay as long as he is wanted in Ann Arbor. Since I already planned to write something about him leaving, I figured I might as well stay on the thought and write something about this dramatic reversal of fate. With the old framework still in my head, I landed on only one plausible title: The Gold Rush Continues. 

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If you're looking for a more detailed and fact-first column, luckily our site has one. It just won't be this one. I'd recommend checking out Seth's piece from yesterday if you're searching for immediate answers. If you simply want the basic facts of the situation, and where we go from here in a black-and-white sense, that piece is the one you're looking for. This one will include facts, but will be more of a window into my mind as both an analyst and fan, a collection of thoughts but also feelings about what this all means and how to reckon with it all. I hope you'll enjoy the ride. Or, at least find insight in this messy set of ideas. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: The Column]

I made a hype video.

How did Michigan get a top five NFL coach to come back to college? There's actually one word for it: passion.

The school is so passionate about football that it was willing to give Harbaugh whatever tools and control he asked for. The big money donors are so passionate that they offered to finance NFL-/Saban-like money for Harbaugh and a top-echelon staff. The fans are so passionate that they flooded onto every message board and commented on every medium every time some writer or TV person seemed likely to breath so much as "Har…" Jim's friends and former teammates are so passionate that they reportedly formed a train of callers and kept up an unrelenting press since November. And finally Jim is so passionate about his school that he gave up/set aside his (apparently real) NFL aspirations to come back to the farm.

College doesn't have the NFL's money, nor its cachet, nor is it the pinnacle of the sport. But the thing about college football is we care way more. That's why it happened.

It's the holidays. Friends and family are in town. They know that you pay heavy attention to this kind of stuff, and expect that you'll have some bit of information, some bit of inside dope, some general sense of the way things are going.

You are sick of answering these people. Let your shirt do the talking.

Of course if there's a crowd of people hugging you and jumping for joy you still may need to vocalize it. Or maybe they'll figure it out.