It’s that time of year again, but…
So the annual Harbaugh to the NFL clickbait has started.
I am pretty sure I saw video of Harbaugh declaring simply that he will be coaching Michigan in 2023. Does anyone here have that clip? My recollection is that he had a blue shirt with horizontal stripes.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:46 PM ^
I swear people read way too much into "negative recruiting". Mel Tucker openly pined for the LSU job during the season last year. James Franklin's name constantly pops up in college openings. Ryan Day's name came up for the Bears job last year. None of those guys seem to get dinged with "negative recruiting" stigma. Yes, Harbaugh interviewed with the Vikings last year and was telling recruits he was doing that at the time. He wasn't trying to hide his interest. But this year he's said multiple times he's not interested and has told the recruits the same. I'm sure some college coaches will keep saying that but Michigan can just as easily say "oh yeah, Franklin is always looking for a way out and by the way hasn't won shit since you were in grade school" and "Ryan Day has gotten embarrassed by us for 2 straight years and will probably get rode out of town on a rail if we beat him this year. Oh also, he hasn't won shit in 2 years". I can't imagine recruits really care about the machinations of head coaches especially with the portal being so available and prevalent.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:24 PM ^
Yes, Harbaugh interviewed with the Vikings last yeaR
You basically just negated your whole post with that statement. Did any of the other coaches you mentioned interview with teams? No. Not publicly anyway. JH interviewed with an NFL team less than a year ago. If you think this doesn’t make recruits a little gun-shy with rumors floating around, I don’t know what to tell you.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
But Harbaugh was open about this interviewing both to the team and the recruits; those other guys absolutely had their agents talk to those other teams and programs because there are a couple of mega agents like Jimmy Sexton who coordinate all of these behind-doors interviews. And I know this is the case because Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly, two of the biggest names in the sport at two of the most high-profile schools in the country, both shockingly moved to other coaching spots in college football seemingly without anybody knowing. And because it's a close-knit community amongst these high-level administrators and agents there's huge incentives to not piss anyone off or play these talks out publicly.
Harbaugh's interests in the NFL were made public because the NFL doesn't give a shit about secrecy or protecting a college coach's reputation and recruiting prowess, so they'll publicly list every guy they're interviewing with because it generates interest by the fans and doesn't cost them anything.
Do some recruits care? I'm sure there are. But I'm fairly certain that UM's recruiting suffered this year way more because they lost both lead coordinators, have (per this site) an awful NIL system, and some underwhelming performances by coaches who were supposed to be better recruiters this cycle. Oh, and the local 5* QB wanted to start next year and that wasn't going to be the case. It's all a big cauldron of factors at play and yet people freak out about someone saying "Harbaugh may be leaving for this job" as if it's a 5-alarm fire.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
NFL teams don't care about buyouts . . .they have $800 million in active buyout being paid out now currently according to the league office. If a team wants Harbaugh, they will buyout any sized deal.
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:32 PM ^
Do you realize what it would take to make the buyout "prohibitively expensive" to many (most?) NFL teams?
January 2nd, 2023 at 6:50 PM ^
Exactly. Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong and what needs to go down is giving him long extremely lucrative contract. Big buyouts and all
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:41 PM ^
This is pure copium.
Feldman is one of the most reputable sources in college football today. Just because he is reporting on things you don't like, it does not mean it is BS.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
Also, just because he says things doesn’t mean it’s true either. He could also have bad sources.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:28 PM ^
The issue here, Toby, is that none of the reporting has anything directly from Harbaugh himself. So if you go back to Harbaugh’s latest comments that he’s going to coach UM in 2023, then shouldn’t that be the word we go with until we hear back from Harbaugh himself?
With everything that’s happened regarding similar situations in the past AND the fact he told Warde he’s not flirting with NFL teams again, he would have to be the biggest douche/liar to put himself in the same predicament as last year.
So you have to ask yourself - Do you believe Bruce Feldman or Jim Harbaugh himself?
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
Forget Feldman, Auerbach who’s Michigans own is reporting it so might have legs.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
He also said he couldn't predict the future....
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Don’t tell people things they don’t want to hear. Bury your head in the sand and pretend things you don’t like never happened. To be clear I am in no way saying he is thinking of leaving but if you listen to what he said it is not inconceivable.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:07 PM ^
i never said i couldn't predict the future....
and i'm telling you, Jim is going to be enthusiastically coaching the Wolverines in 2023.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:22 PM ^
He said the only NFL gig he’d be interested in is the Colts, so gotta see what they want to do after the season.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:28 PM ^
He never said that.
Also he interviewed with the Vikings last year.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^
I don’t believe Jim is going anywhere. That’s one opinion of many. I am hopeful this crap gets out to bed soon. NIL and pay raises are in the offing. Should be an interesting next 30-45 days.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:34 PM ^
Yeah the Vikings were like nah, and he had to come back.
https://twitter.com/outkick/status/1605338506162802692?s=46&t=OdiLWk5y-…
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:40 PM ^
If you've got a source of Harbaugh saying he'd only go back to the Colts please share because he interviewed for the Vikings last year and is brought up seemingly every time an opening occurs.
Again, I don't get this piece of the fanbase that almost wants Harbaugh to leave so they can be offended he left as opposed to wanting him to stay because Michigan has finally broken through in a big way. He said he wasn't interested in NFL jobs and that was well after the Colts job came open a month earlier.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^
There's only one way Harbaugh leaves Michigan. If Andrew Luck suddenly announces his return to the Colts, it's happening.
Short of that, all of these stories are garbage.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
Queens need drama tho. Agree with you 💯
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^
Honestly, watching the clown show of Harbaugh and Russell Wilson would be pretty amazing. Add in the fact that he'd have a GM above him pulling the strings would be the icing on the cake.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
why isn't there talk about NFL teams interested in Ryan Day????
BWAHAHAHA
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:29 PM ^
Don’t you mean major-league baseball? They could always use a guy that starts out at third base…
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:46 PM ^
Harbaugh leaving for the NFL to potentially never get back to where he was at San Francisco would be the most depressing way to end his coaching career.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:50 PM ^
The AD should always have a short list of possible replacement for Harbaugh. I still think Harbaugh will want a future NFL job but the question is will he try to win a NC here in the next couple year, or does he think the chances for Michigan are too low and he will jump to the NFL in the next month. I have a bad feeling he will be gone since there are teams that will be looking for new coaches that Harbaugh likes, like the colts and the bears jobs.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:57 PM ^
There’s no way Harbaugh’s personality would get along well with Irsay’s constant meddling.
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:02 PM ^
But Irsay LOVES Harbaugh. Might give him full control.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^
JJ will be a year older. National title is next. Bank on it.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
Yeah but he’ll be the same player (good not great) on a team that runs the ball 3/4 of the time. Nothing will change next year.
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
I wouldn't dismiss out of hand the possibility that JJ improves.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^
If Harbaugh leaves, and I still do not believe he will, give the job to Bike Hart and see what happens.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:54 PM ^
I prefer Skateboard Hart.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:56 PM ^
I think it would be Sherone and Hart will take his place as OC.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
Mike Hart deserves a ton of credit for what he did as a player at Michigan but the idea his brother Bike deserves a HC job just be association seems off.
Also, Mike Hart the position coach seems fine, but there's little I've seen from him as a recruiter or coordinator to lead me to believe he's ready to be an HC right now, especially at a place like Michigan.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:18 PM ^
more nepotism...... damn it!!!! Mike does a good job, so his brother Bike gets a job just riding the coattails.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
We need Harbaugh to come out today or tomorrow and explicitly state “I am not interested in the NFL, I’m staying at Michigan so don’t even reach out to me!”
He needs to get in front of this NOW.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:57 PM ^
He won't and it because he has not made a final decision yet. This could mess up recruiting again since he may not make that final decision until FEB.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Doubt he’s ever do that. Man wants paid and wants his assistants paid. Play the hand. Sucks for us but I’d assume he will. Michigan needs to pony up $$$
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:56 PM ^
If he goes, he goes. If he leaves then there will probably be a mass exodus of players, recruits, and we'll start over, but at least we won't have to deal with this shit every off-season. He if he stays then that's great too.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:08 PM ^
If Harbaugh leaves, he’s done a great job.
I would assume Weiss goes with him and Moore is one of the top candidates to replace him
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:07 PM ^
I'd be ok with Weiss leaving.....just feel like a lot of the word is he hates recruiting and doesn't really like college gsme in general
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:09 PM ^
Haterade and hater-tots...... and jive turkeys....
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:13 PM ^
I don’t think Harbaugh is leaving. I just want to address the Broncos/Colts thing. The Broncos are -75 in scoring margin this season. The Colts are an NFL worst -137. If the Broncos job is so terrible, how is the Colts situation better? Andrew Luck hasn’t played in 4 years. Russell Wilson had a bad season, but he’s only 1 year older than Luck, has played the last 4 seasons and is 107-60-1 in his career. He is a winner. The Colts current QB is the corpse of Matt Ryan.
Harbaugh is staying. JJ McCarthy is Jim’s Andrew Luck 2.0. He’s not walking away from a chance to win a championship with JJ at his alma mater to chase a Super Bowl with a 4-13 team with serious QB issues (Denver or Indy).
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
contrast those to teams to the Vikings of last season..... The Vikes are pretty well loaded with talent, you can see how that would be enticing.... plus they play in the NFC North....
Jim's staying...... he told Warde that this dance with the NFL wasn't going to be an annual thing.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:28 PM ^
Excellent take ⬆️
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
The Colts job is better because they have draft picks and don't have an albatross contract they can't unload, like Denver. It will be difficult for Denver to rebuild a roster in a way Jim would like, and he would like full roster control.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:27 PM ^
If he interviews, clean out his office and start the coaching search the moment he leaves Schembechler Hall. Its bad for the program to go through this shit every year.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
Realistically, would you blame him if he took a huge NFL contract? We just went 13-1 and half the fanbase is calling him an idiot and solely blaming him for the loss. I mean holy shit, we just won back-to-back B1G titles, including back-to-back OSU ass-kicking's. We should be pretty happy right now. And if Georgia wins it all, that means only one fan base has been "truly happy" since January of 2020.
Michigan is also noticeably behind in the present-day Wild West known as NIL. If the administration is fighting him on this he may view it as a non-starter, much like many people on this board would/do. This can't be 100% out of JHs control, IMO.
Lastly, Jim has probably been slightly envious of his brothers position in Baltimore for quite some time. John has setup a program that is pretty successful, and doesn't have to deal with recruiting, NIL, compliance, the transfer portal, etc. Instead, the GM manages the salary cap and John gets input on what players he wants/needs. A lot less to worry about if you ask me. Oh, and more time at home. Just my $.02.
January 2nd, 2023 at 5:16 PM ^
and half the fanbase is calling him an idiot and solely blaming him for the loss.
I have heard very fair criticisms of the playcalling on both sides of the ball, but have not heard anyone putting the loss solely on Harbaugh.
January 2nd, 2023 at 7:02 PM ^
Well…do you think an NFL fanbase isn’t going to say the same things? That comes with the job. Nothing unique to Michigan.