Harbaugh Harbaugh Harbaugh? Harbaugh!
We've been locked in a never-ending, pointless loop since March. Things are supposed to happen. They do not. Wheels are spun. The press is avoided. Reality is twisted. Absurd things are said out loud by purported adults. People get angry and scream at each other on social media. A sickness has descended on our nation.
Also there is a pandemic.
Anyway, we're on day one billion of Harbaugh Extension Theater. Yesterday there was widespread reporting that he would indeed get one, and sign one. Yes, again. Nick Baumgardner had the most detail so he wins the embed:
Source tells The Athletic Michigan and Jim Harbaugh are close to finalizing a five-year deal -- expected base salary is $4 million. With incentives, he could get it back to $8 million. Buyout is expected to be low.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) January 8, 2021
Harbaugh hasn't signed. Is expected to soon.
Harbaugh, of course, has not signed this extension. We will wake up tomorrow to Brandy and Dierdorf singing "I Got You, Jim," like we do every day.
[After THE JUMP: one more excuse to reference Scottish twitter?]
This has caused the usual riot and tumult on Michigan twitter, especially since it's paired with this obscure NFL name as defensive coordinator:
Sources: Michigan is targeting Ravens linebackers coach Mike Macdonald for its defensive coordinator job. .
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 8, 2021
Currently working with John Harbaugh. May soon be working with his brother.
Macdonald has been with the Ravens in some capacity for seven years and has been a position coach for four. Before that he was a grad assistant at UGA. This is not exactly the Don Brown hire; Brown had the best defense in the country at Boston College. Macdonald has no meaningful track record and hasn't recruited, ever.
Try to keep a couple things in mind:
- It was always going to be difficult to find a replacement for Brown as Mr. Low Buyout.
- It does not matter at all who the defensive coordinator is since Michigan does not recruit DTs or CBs anymore.
I mean, I guess it matters at the margins. But the situation here is that Michigan went 2-4 with a humiliating loss to a year zero MSU program. OSU is one of the three perennial playoff participants. Harbaugh has been looking for an NFL exit that does not exist and is being roped into signing a contract that makes him easy to fire. The defensive coordinator who's able to come in and wave his magic wand to make next year's OSU game competitive does not exist, and even if he did he would not come to the least stable situation in the Power 5. And if next year's OSU game is not competitive Harbaugh is gone.
You can ask why the administration is looking these facts in the face and not pulling the trigger. I am certainly baffled. But the identity of the defensive coordinator is not worth getting bothered about. Eat at Arby's.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:11 AM ^
Spot on take Brian. This is pure insanity on all sides.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
Spot on take Brian. This is pure insanity on all sides.
At this point it's fair to ask if pure insanity is our new normal
January 8th, 2021 at 11:43 AM ^
Not sure how this is pure insanity on al sides, though it certainly may appear that way. Manuel is a full on disaster over the last month, and everything flows from that. Fire Harbaugh end of season, this doesn’t happen. Tell Harbaugh negotiations must be concluded a few days after the season and put your full confidence behind him, it’s at least not as bad.
Instead we half-heartedly endorse a coach who is like 80% certain to fail after letting it seem like coaching Michigan is a backup plan while our rivals get to dunk on us in celebration throughout the process. Somebody send the AD to a public relations seminar.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:56 AM ^
Not sure how this is pure insanity on al sides
It appears insane via:
1. Giving an extension to a coach whose record is <insert East German Judge's list of JH bullet points here>
I'm not as critical of Warde as JH (see below). Personally I wish he would have just moved on from JH.
2. Hiring a position coach with no relevant college or coordinator experience.
Please note, I'm not against people moving up when they switch jobs but I don't have any faith this program is going to be able to groom this new guy for success. If Saban was hiring him, I'd be cool with a position coach going to DC (one has to get the experience somehow afterall). In the JH administration, not so much.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:05 PM ^
I said the “insanity” is a result of one person - the AD, not all sides - making terrible decisions. If you want to include “the administration” in there......ok, sure.
From that one person’s bad decisions, most results seem rational. This is exactly Brian’s point as well. The D-coordinator will not be a great hire, because no great hire will come into this situation. This guy might be a great hire given the circumstances. I agree that extending Harbaugh is also a bad decision.
The twitter craziness is also understandable because experts and non-experts are attempting to fill in an information gap, created by the AD.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:07 PM ^
my hope here is that John Harbaugh is giving this dude a strong endorsement which lead to the hire. It doesn't do much to increase my confidence, but I guess it's something...
January 8th, 2021 at 12:37 PM ^
That is kind of my takeaway. I would hope John would be able to shoot Jim very straight on this guy which gives me at least a little hope.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:47 PM ^
It is 100% this. John wants his brother to have success and get Michigan back to competing for Big10 championships. This is like insider trading.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:47 PM ^
It is 100% this. John wants his brother to have success and get Michigan back to competing for Big10 championships. This is like insider trading.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:04 PM ^
That's the optimistic take; I hope it turns out to be correct.
The other obvious possibility is that, apart from his own brother's coaching tree, there is nowhere left for Jim to look. Nobody else will come. The Ravens are the only distributor left who can provide Jim with product to bring to retail.
And that's, yeah, bad.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:40 PM ^
That does feel like a pretty big possibility as well after hearing some of the other "bigger" names that were being floated previously.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:40 PM ^
FWIW...we've hired a Ravens coach to be our DC before. But that guy had a resume the length of my arm as a collegiate DC. And he was a proven recruiter.
So now we get to find out...was the magic potion Mattison or being a Ravens coach? I know where I'm placing my bets.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:29 PM ^
As I recall, the Ravens needed a scapegoat that year for their post-season playoff exit so it fell to Mattison to take the hit. It worked out well since they arranged a soft landing at Michigan in a (more-or-less) lateral move. We were all happy to have Mattison back because we knew what he could do.
I wonder if this time around was John saying to the guy "Hey, help my brother out for a year, climb up the ladder and get a better paycheck, and I'll remember the favor."
So yeah, this is a really different situation (and smells like it too). But I guess it doesn't matter if the guy can't recruit because he probably won't be around long enough to need to.
Man, Warde has done a lot of things right, but it's that loyalty thing coming around to bite us in the arse again.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:20 PM ^
I've been critical of Warde but after listening to Johh U this morning Warde has done well so far with his Mel and Juwan hires. Perhaps he deserves some slack.
Harbaugh is a problem. If the delay is due to him shopping for an NFL job, and I wouldn't blame him if he were doing so, it's time for plan B.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:24 PM ^
Mel and Howard almost fell in Warde's lap. Not saying they weren't great hires, but not as tricky as Harbaugh.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:18 PM ^
There were a lot of people on this very blog that argued that Howard was not the best available person. Give credit where credit is due.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:18 PM ^
Juwan wasn't a slam dunk hire and not all Michigan fans and alums were crazy about the hire.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:34 PM ^
All true, but Warde didn't really have many options, did he? Belein left late so the search was slim pickings. Coach Howard was the best option available from candidates willing to take the job, and fortunately for us it seems to really be working out.
Harbaugh isn't working out. Letting him pick his exit is a lot like Lloyd hanging around longer than he should have (and wanted). We saw what happened then, and it will be no different now, maybe worse.
January 8th, 2021 at 3:37 PM ^
I think this take is bad. Not so bad that I think you should feel bad though.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
Harbaugh and Warde played chicken with each other and now we get a lameduck coach who can't hire anyone actually worth hiring. Good times.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
Clearly we’re tanking so we can get Matt Campbell next year in a more cost effective transaction. Campbell wants to coach next year’s ISU team that brings back the heavy majority of this year’s talent. Everything lines up.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
The new contract has a low buyout. Maybe Warde will fire him before the ink is dry. Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha
January 8th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Ok, there were some good takes, but the following statement, referring to Michigan as "the least stable situation in the Power 5" is so spicy I had to drink some milk.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:13 AM ^
who has the meats?
January 8th, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
Considering ads for Outback are popping at the top of the comments sections, I assume them?
January 8th, 2021 at 12:31 PM ^
"We"!!!
January 8th, 2021 at 1:06 PM ^
We do! Ving Rhames for DC!
Why not?
January 8th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
The dragging out of this has almost completely eroded what support Jim had left in the Michigan Nation. It’s clear he isnt jazzed about being here either.
We should have known it would come to this when he ate that booger on TV.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:42 PM ^
He has support left?
January 8th, 2021 at 1:23 PM ^
I saw one guy on the Ann Arbor Townies FB page defending him this week. Figured he’d downvote me if I didn’t carve out a space for him. Blame the tyranny of the minority.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:37 PM ^
Not sure how there are any more defenders left...this looks just bad all around. How can you want him as the coach anymore?
dont get it
January 8th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
Such negativism, Brian!!
Let's just give peace a chance.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:25 AM ^
Nihilism is all the rage nowadays.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:03 PM ^
All words that end in "ism" are bad things.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:02 PM ^
Prism? Professionalism? Equalitarianism? Allelomorphism? Heroism? Tourism? Paleomagnetism? Stereoisomerism? Colloquialism? Ferromagnetism?
January 8th, 2021 at 5:43 PM ^
Priapism?
January 8th, 2021 at 9:00 PM ^
Seriously. This does nothing but damage, to an already shaky program, small though that damage may be. Death of a thousand cuts is a real thing.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:18 AM ^
So if year 0 is the first year in a rebuild, does that make 2021 year -1? The year before a rebuild can even begin
January 8th, 2021 at 1:04 PM ^
and my question is why the fuck are we keeping a coach that caused us to need a "rebuilding" year in the first place! Is Northwestern rebuilding? East dakota? OSU doesn't even blink, let alone rebuild.
Sure as shit any 2nd to 6th yr coach that deserves to earn Michigan money should never need to "rebuild" unless they have the good fortune to loose a bunch of all americans to the NFL draft.
Keep shuffling those deck chairs Jimmy.
January 8th, 2021 at 2:10 PM ^
What was Northwestern's record in 2019?
January 8th, 2021 at 2:12 PM ^
It's northwestern, who fucking cares?
January 8th, 2021 at 4:14 PM ^
Apparently Jabberwock did.
January 8th, 2021 at 5:04 PM ^
Well, you got me there.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
Warde is not up to the job of replacing, or even improving, the Michigan football program. There is no other explanation...
This has been bungled by everyone involved. Harbaugh clearly doesn't want to be here - he won't even sign a contract he could negotiate his way out of before signing it! I mean, if Warde wants him to check the NFL, sign an extension with a free out for an NFL job now. That would've saved face for everyone involved, and still have been a sham. But noooo... Ignore the press, keep everyone on ice, tell the world you don't want your coach, tell the world your coach doesn't want you, and ignore players, recruits, and potential transfers.
What a clusterfuck. If Schlissel actually cared about sports, he'd be talking to the lawyers about getting Warde and Jim out of their contracts.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:26 AM ^
I disagree...if Warde is trying to save Michigan the buyout $$$ he's handling this the right way. The program may take a step back for a year but that buyout savings could fund some quality assistant coach upgrades.
January 8th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
Wait you mean Warde has to concern himself with the budget of an entire athletic department (during COVID), not just football!?
It's not that hard to understand, Warde is looking at the long term health of the athletic department over football for the next year. People may disagree with that choice, but he's not incompetent.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:01 PM ^
The long-term health of Michigan's athletic department is much more dependent on the success of the football program than on saving a couple million dollars over one year. Come on.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:19 PM ^
Do you honestly believe that the sickos who have flocked back to support the program after Rich Rod and Brady Hoke are going to say "enough is enough" after Manuel renews Jim Harbaugh and lets him, most likely, field an 8-4/9-3 team next year?
January 8th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
What did you see from our 2020 team that makes you think we will get 8-9 wins under Harbaugh?
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