Harbaugh refutes reports that he is leaving - Bleacher Report
Good for him. I think it takes some courage to acknowledge that he wants to stay. It may not be his choice if he continues to fail to meet expectations. It is respectable to put yourself out there and state that you want to/ intend to stay in a situation where you may be fired against your will. I respect his character - regardless of how this works out for him.
Go blue - and if Jim stays, may he realize his/ our dreams at Michigan. If he leaves, may our new coach help us realize our dream.
December 4th, 2020 at 8:38 PM ^
While I would prefer Matt Campbell is the 2021 coach, I hope the worst-case scenario is Harbaugh remains, but does not have Don Brown as a DC...and has a Safeties coach actually..coaching?
December 4th, 2020 at 9:10 PM ^
U Texas after Campbell
December 4th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
One of these days Texas will get it right, and when they do, we will be watching a resurgence of their football program while ours remains mired in barely mediocre.
Yes, BPONE is setting in deep in my soul now...
December 4th, 2020 at 11:34 PM ^
I can't wait for the coaching recommendation letter from the Michigan state politicians.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:20 PM ^
Auburn fans think Fickell is going to Auburn.
December 5th, 2020 at 12:39 AM ^
I read that Campbell is not interested in the Texas job. Could be coach speak so take it for what it’s worth
December 5th, 2020 at 1:17 AM ^
Meyer is the #1 guy for UT. If UT gets Meyer then Ewers commits back to UT.
OSU boosters have treated the Ewers family like royalty. ?
December 4th, 2020 at 9:14 PM ^
I'm sorry, I must be bad at reading comprehension, but nowhere in that article did I read that Harbaugh wants to stay. I read a blurb about recruiting that he addressed at his press conference a week ago, but other than him denying the report that he was telling recruits he wasn't sure if he would be back, that story didn't say anything we didn't already know.
December 4th, 2020 at 9:22 PM ^
I don't see enough evidence that Matt Campbell is a significant upgrade from Jim.
December 4th, 2020 at 9:46 PM ^
You must not have been paying attention to the last 5+ years of Harbaugh where we have SUFFERED through this debacle:
- 0-5 vs OSU, covid will save us from 0-6
- 3-3 vs MSU
- 0 B1G titles, not even playing in the B1G title game let alone CFP
- best road win is against #20 Northwestern
- 1-4 in bowl games
- 0-15 when Michigan is an underdog
- 2-12 vs. top 10 teams
- worst halftime deficit in Michigan stadium history & 2nd worst loss ever at home
- home loss to an 0-5 team
- 4 straight home losses
- talented players transferring / leaving the program early
- 4th highest paid coach in the country
Surely Campbell could improve on one of these points, like maybe not cost us $7.5 million a year.
December 4th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^
How long have all these bullet points been copied in your clipboard?! I've got these almost memorized since I've seen them so much.
December 4th, 2020 at 10:33 PM ^
He has multiple clipboards.
December 4th, 2020 at 10:34 PM ^
Well, until they're refuted you're going to continue seeing them. They make a great question for the remaining defenders - why keep him? I mean, there isn't any tangible benefit to continue with doing the same things we know doesn't work.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Except he wasn't defending Harbaugh. We all know that Harbaugh has underperformed expectations here. Nobody needs a list to bullet points to tell us what we already know.
The point is that there isn't a lot of convincing evidence to suggest that Matt Campbell would do a lot better.
Campbell's resume is okay, but hardly exceptional. Certainly not as good as Harbaugh's resume at the time he was hired. So I'd love to hear why people are so convinced that Campbell is such a slam dunk hire.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:53 PM ^
I agree that Campbell doesn't have the strongest resume. But, a lot of times the guys with the best resumes at lower levels have had teams with a massive talent advantage. Then they get to the top level in P5 where talent is more equally distributed, they struggle. That is my biggest hesitation with Fickell. Fickell screams Herman to me.
Campbell has proven he can win games with teams at a talent disadvantage. That should carry a lot of weight, in my lowly opinion. In theory, if you give a guy like that access to UMs resources and talent pool, he could have a very high ceiling.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:49 AM ^
I'm inclined to agree with you on the first part. In particular, people seem to discount how much easier it is turn a bad team into a decent/competitive team in a weak conference, than it is to take a team that averages 9.5 wins a season (Jim Harbaugh's record at Michigan prior to 2020) and turn them into an elite, playoff contender type team.
I think you've laid out one of the factors that can potentially translate, i.e. if you can win with less talent then it suggests you have some talent in terms of scheme, game planning, play calling, etc.
However I think its more important to look at coach's trajectory. Campbell took Iowa State from 3-9 his first year to 8-5 his second year - impressive. Then, in his third year they improved to....uh, 8-5. In his fourth year they went 7-6. They have a good record so far this year, but it not a trajectory were you say that he's continually improved over time. His record at Toledo was basically the same. He was stagnant for several years, then had one good year and got poached. Now he's basically in the same spot again - several stagnant years, then becomes a hot name after one good year.
The other thing I want to know is whether the coach can elevate recruiting. Campbell hasn't appreciably improved recruiting at Iowa State basically at all (from ~60th nationally, ~8th in conference to mid 50s nationally, 7th in conference). If he can't improve recruiting at Iowa State, how exactly is he going to step into Michigan and improve recruiting here?
December 5th, 2020 at 7:57 AM ^
The fact is, he’s doing that at Iowa State. That’s a Rutgers level job without the football talent being located within driving distance. It’s basically impossible to recruit top talent there, and his teams have consistently outperformed their recruiting rankings. They’ve improved their SP+ ranking each year he’s been there (66, 44, 38, 24, 12).
Imagine Rutgers having that 5 year stretch and the sheer coaching ability it would take to do it while signing only four 4* players (2 of which are true freshmen. Matt Campbell can flat out coach. Nobody knows if he can make Michigan elite or not. He comes with some question marks and concerns. But you can’t really look at his resume in context and not come away impressed with the job he has done.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^
Winning at Michigan moves the needle.
December 6th, 2020 at 10:41 AM ^
What are you talking about? He went from 1 win to 9 wins at Toledo in his second year. And he finished the last two years there winning 9 or 10 games and winning his conference.
December 5th, 2020 at 2:07 AM ^
I keep seeing this. IT'S IOWA FUCKING STATE!!! Of course he doesn't have numerous conference championships. Except guess what, he's actually teetering on one this year! IN AMES, IOWA!!! I don't think many of you understand the significance of that. It isn't Mississippi St, or Auburn, or Virginia, or Boston College. It's a bottom-5 program. And now he's there yet hasn't had/doesn't have Andrew Luck at the helm (albeit he's got a future NFL roster guy, but certainly not generational talent).
December 5th, 2020 at 9:15 AM ^
I didn't say he was defending Harbaugh, nor did I pine for Campbell. Although, I must admit, he would be my top choice in the limited field of (more or less) 'available' coaches.
You do raise excellent questions about him in following posts, but I'll address your main premise here - that he isn't a 'clear upgrade' over Jim MF'in Harbaugh based on his resume 6 years ago. And you're right - there is no candidate today, yesterday, or tomorrow that will have a better resume coming into the job than Harbaugh's from 6 years ago. There are, however, several that have a better resume today than Harbaugh's resume TODAY. As well as Jim has done here, as much as he rebuilt the program from the RichRod/Hoke days, Michigan football is on a downward trend, and has been for 4 years.
There is no promise than any candidate - even Meyer, Saban, or Vince effin' Lombardi - that can do better than JH has here. But we know what we have with Harbaugh, and it isn't good enough to win anything of note - including something as little as being competitive against our biggest rival, let alone big games against higher ranked opponents. A different coach gives us that opportunity.
It may not work out. Hell, it may be worse than what we currently have. But there's a chance, which is something we don't have today. That is what a coaching change brings - opportunity that currently doesn't exist. Unfortunately, there are no promises in life...
December 5th, 2020 at 9:17 AM ^
I agree with you trustblue. People around here talk about Campbell like he’s Urban Meyer and if we land him we will start winning championships. I think he is intriguing and a good coach but I would hope we would do an extensive search first. I’ve said a few times UM has unlimited resources. We need the right coach let’s make sure we get him
December 5th, 2020 at 10:24 AM ^
"People around here talk about Campbell like he’s Urban Meyer and if we land him we will start winning championships."
Hyperbole much? Not one single person has ever said anything of the sort.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:52 AM ^
Maybe, perhaps, present the positives of Campbell’s record, record against rivals, championships won, offensive and defensive statistical positives, recruiting map/connections.
One big problem with any new coach would be—you don’t pay them like a top 5 coach when they’ve never had a team perform as run by a top 5 coach. Meaning: the next HC would need to take much less, and be sold on performance incentives to prove they deserve what Harbaugh has been making.
This are all details that have been knocks on Harbaugh: what he has not accomplished here despite how he is paid to not underperform.
This is all important because a P5 coach is going to expect a big pay raise to leave the place they are at. I wouldn’t pay any logical candidate what JH is getting paid. Fans will eat him alive when he underperforms and loses his first game.
I don’t think you inflate HC pay just because you have the donors. I think any coach that bets on themselves needs to be okay with taking a much lower salary than JH makes with the promise of winning bring Top 5 salary extensions. If a coach believes in himself, he’d take that offer.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:26 PM ^
Awesome, we'll be having a pop quiz tomorrow!
December 5th, 2020 at 2:41 AM ^
East German Judge can keep posting the bullet points as long as he wants, some people do need a reminder, those bullet points show how pathetic Harbaugh's tenure has been, it ain't good enough.
And for people who claim that 9 and 10 wins is who we are historically, I say that's BS, we play 12 games now, potentially a BTCG, a bowl game or 2 games in playoffs, so 9 or 10 wins now is like winning 7 or 8 games in the old days. Not fucking good enough!
December 4th, 2020 at 10:42 PM ^
Low score for Harbaugh from the East German Judge.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:50 PM ^
At first I read your third bullet point as "0 B1G titties" and was sincerely upset Harbaugh has not brought any of these to Ann Arbor
December 5th, 2020 at 12:42 AM ^
Campbell has never won a conference title.
December 5th, 2020 at 7:29 AM ^
...and Harbaugh has only won the non-scholarship Pioneer league, 15+ years ago.
December 5th, 2020 at 1:09 AM ^
Cant imagine even Harbaugh himself on the day he was hired would have believed he could post those kind of results. Time to turn the page, move on!
December 5th, 2020 at 3:26 AM ^
Campbell is 0-4 against Iowa just a heads up
December 5th, 2020 at 7:59 AM ^
and your point?
December 5th, 2020 at 8:42 AM ^
The problem with this argument is that it doesn't say anything about Campbell.
It does point out Harbs has underperformed though, which I agree with. However, the next guy has to be BETTER, not just another good-ish coach.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:19 AM ^
Sounds great! But there is no better resume than what Harbaugh had 6 years ago. That guy simply doesn't exist. But, based on Harbaugh's resume from the last 6 years, there are better candidates today than what he brings TODAY.
Can't look for someone that doesn't exist 6 years ago...
December 5th, 2020 at 10:15 AM ^
No. I don’t think that “surely Campbell can improve.”
Maybe. But just maybe.
Harbaugh has also had 9-10 wins a year in a tougher conference than when I was there in the early 90’s and we hit 8-4 twice. Hes oceans better than where we were under RR and Hoke. We had some bad losses, but so what? For the most part Prior to this year Michigan football was fun again. He’s 2-1 vs MSU the last three years after nearly a decade of getting owned by MSU under previous coaches.
I don’t give a shit about his pay I’m not paying it.
Yes. He’s 0-5 vs OSU. That sucks. I don’t know any coach, including Campbell, who might have improved on that the way OSU is right now. It’s also not uncommon to get beaten by OSU. And that’s for teams without OSU’s target in our back.
Someone else said that “Harbaugh is pathetic” and that’s just unmitigated bullshit, so typical of the worst part of this fan base. So damned fickle and looking at the world through BPONE colored glasses like they revel in it.
I listened to the post Minnesota podcast and heard Seth and Brian talk about how awesome everything was and how much they liked Gattis. How impressed they were with Brown was able to assemble the defense despite losing so many things. It was a laughy & jokey love fest.Go one game forward to post Michigan State pod and he has utterly given up on the program the coaches and the team.
It’s insane and stupid.
I don’t know if Harbaugh should stay or not. That is a question for people who know more about the inside state of the program. I do know, that given the rapid shifts of this Fanbase and our loving desire to criticize and fall into despair that Campbell has zero shot, short of winning a national title, of making people happy, especially the way he’s being built up here. I can practically hear the first podcast after he gets blown out by OSU the first year now.
And all this “surely he can make it better??”. I heard that before from the people who wanted modernity and change after Carr.
it didn’t happen.
December 5th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
This is exactly how I see things.
Campbell gets hired and is billed as the savior. Takes a bad loss the first year and this crowd turns on him immediately.
December 5th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
Forget OSU. They are on a different level.
Under Harbaugh, Michigan is clearly behind Penn State and Wisconsin and is roughly even with MSU -- probably a bit better, but the record says even, so I say "roughly even". Yes, it's better than under RR or Hoke, but this is not what Michigan should accept.
Even if one brushes aside the recruiting issues, problems with in-game coaching, problems with scheme, unexplainable widespread attrition, player development issues, and questionable position coach hires - I can't, but even if one does - then look at the records and the optics against the teams above that Bo and Carr Michigan teams quite frankly beat up on. I don't know how one justifies that he should be retained.
I guess you can if your bar for Michigan is "graduate players, stay scandal-free, and fight it out with MSU to be 3rd in the Big Ten East and maybe the 4th, 5th, or 6th best program in the conference", but I think Michigan can aspire to better.
December 4th, 2020 at 11:24 PM ^
Of course you don't and nobody else knows if he'll be an upgrade. Nobody knows if any coach will be an upgrade unless you're hiring Urban Meyer or Nick Saban, but jesus fuck dude this is a sinking ship as it is now just based on how poor the culture is.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:37 AM ^
I’d rather take a shot at a new coach and try to beat MSU more than 50% of the time and win a game here or there were not favored in than stuck with Harbaugh, let him rob the athletic department blind and watch shitty offense, defense and special teams for any longer.
im sick of seeing teams coming out with no fucking energy. Harbaugh teams look like they don’t want to be there half the time.
December 5th, 2020 at 1:12 PM ^
This is the long pole In the tent for me. Zero energy, a complete lack of anything resembling a sense of urgency—both at the macro- (coming out of the tunnel, you’d swear the banner is set up too high this year) and micro-level (have you ever seen a team that doesn’t huddle waste more clock when down two scores and late?). That’s 100% on the head coach, whether it be not setting the right tone/culture or not recruiting enough of the right personalities to help build that culture from within the locker room.
December 5th, 2020 at 11:47 AM ^
I've been meaning to ask what's up with Bob Stoops. Is he still willing to coach?
December 4th, 2020 at 8:40 PM ^
Now, if Harbaugh is staying, Manuel needs to get out in front of the speculation and announce that he'll be back. Sam Webb has repeatedly made the very strong case that Michigan needs to either confirm Harbaugh's return in the very near future or replace him.
December 4th, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
Not sure what advantage(s) are gained from waiting to make an announcement.
December 4th, 2020 at 8:57 PM ^
Yeah, I understand that you need time to look into things and make a considered decision, but Manuel needs to make a choice before early signing day and, if he's keeping Harbaugh, announce that immediately. Time passing is our enemy here.
December 4th, 2020 at 9:53 PM ^
Maybe look at it this way. The longer Manuel goes without backing Harbaugh, either verbally or contractually, the more likely it is that Manuel isn’t planning on keeping him.
December 4th, 2020 at 10:29 PM ^
Manuel is not going to fire Harbaugh because of this covid season, dude.
December 4th, 2020 at 10:52 PM ^
Then why not put an end to the bad press and rumors, which unsettle fans and put off recruits? If you're planning to keep him, there's an easy way to stanch the bleeding. But he hasn't done it. There's maybe a reason for that.
December 5th, 2020 at 12:14 AM ^
My concern in these situations is there are in fact not reasons for the things you’d think there would be reasons for.
December 5th, 2020 at 6:30 AM ^
Remember that everyone thought Bill Martin was performing a deep and thoughtful search behind closed doors when Lloyd Carr informed him of his intended retirement... when in actuality (according to JUB) he was waiting for candidates to come pounding on his door. When that didn't happen, he had to scramble late to find somebody, botched a few opportunities, and ended up with a guy that wasn't well suited to the role and had very little support built up within the system.
Let's hope Warde does better (and I think he will).