It was a no-brainer to stick with Harbaugh

Yes, anybody wanting to fire Harbaugh had no brain.

Last year was obviously a Covid-shortened anomaly.  And some very unlucky breaks have cost us against our rivals under Harbaugh.

I had my doubts that he could get us to the very top but I never doubted that he was an excellent coach who ran a clean elite winning program.  I also always knew that he's a competitor who wasn't going to quit, that he was going to give everything he had to beat OSU and compete for championships. That's why he took a pay cut and stayed committed to Michigan.  It's not easy to find that kind of coach. 

In hindsight, of course. In the midst of a storm, it really felt like this was not going in the right direction.

So glad he's still here. I'm 50 and personally, this is as rewarding a year as ANY (including 97) I've experienced. It also feels like this team has been molded the way Harbaugh likes to mold teams - which makes me more optimistic for the future. Young coaches most will be back. 

WHAT A FUCKING GAME YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!

I've never had a problem with Harbaugh. I'm glad he got his fire back. He is the right person for the job. 

I was never on the fire Harbaugh train.  I laughed at the dips in here that were back on the fire Harbaugh train after MSU. 

If somehow Iowa wins on Saturday the same idiots will get that train going down the tracks again.

I didn't want him fired because I thought it would send us right back to the Rodriguez-Hoke years.

Because the standard of success around here is beating Ohio State and to a lesser extent Michigan State. But if the bar is Ohio State, who is a lock on doing that? 95% of hires would be a risky choice and a lateral move at best. Harbaugh ticks all the boxes and that now includes the "Beat Ohio State" box. 

My feeling was always that the problem was more so with the institution than with Harbaugh, and that there wasn't anybody who would be able to come here and do much better because of how much behind the scenes stuff would be inhibiting them. Yes, he's been frustrating at times, such as his inability to deal with tempo. Poor clock management. Etc but every coach has problems, and winning often covers it up.

It sounds like nobody wanted him fired. I didn't simply because I had great confidence we couldn't do better. Not that he's not a good coach. But a sober analysis says that Michigan is at a deficit, at least geographically, when it comes to attracting great talent. But it struck me yesterday, that as much as we (and I include myself here) cuss the fact that we don't run an offense like the one we beat yesterday, maybe an old school punch 'em in the face with interesting wrinkles (the first TD and the flea flicker come to mind) and a modern passing game can be attractive to the kinds of players who fit that scheme. And of course consistent winning is the biggest thing to attract the best players. Yesterday was what I (and I think all of us) dreamed of when we hired him. We are lucky to have him.

Apparently we have quite a few folks around these parts who were brain dead for a short period of time. 

Glad that y'all have fully restored brain function. Science is amazing

Just went looking through some old posts of mine and I found this from July: "I think it'll be a reversion to the norm, like 8 or 9 wins doesn't seem unreasonable. But I don't think any of "win the big ten, beat OSU, make the playoff, have only one loss" are on the table."

As stupid as that looks now, it's crazy that other people had far worse takes.

morons will be morons. 3 10-win seasons in 5 full seasons before this year. some bad bounces, bad luck, bad refs and injured QBs derailed a couple of potential huge seasons and wins against osu and msu. yet, people clamoring for harbaugh's head were fools. is he perfect? hell no. clock mgt will likely continue to bother me. but practically everything else is pretty damn good. only a handful of programs "have it better than us" right now...and likely fewer in the coming weeks and years.

Go Blue!!!

I didn't expect this season, but was saying all last summer that the fans who wanted Harbaugh's head had an inflated idea of what historically a "good" Michigan team looked like. In most of the Bo years we beat up on a down Big Ten, and split with an OSU program that was good but not what it is now, and then in the 1970s lost to USC when we made the Rose Bowl. Under Mo and Lloyd the results were similar to Bo outside of 1997 and arguably 1999 & 2000.  Harbaugh's now had 3 good/great years (2015/2016/2021), 2 good/decent years (2018/2019) and two bad years (2017/2020). The fact is that having a recently dominant Ohio State program in the same division competiting for Big Ten titles, college football playoff berths and recruits makes the job harder than it was when we were competiting with a late stage Woody, Earle Bruce and then John Cooper. People discount the RichRod/Hoke years as anomalies attributable more to poor hires than the challenges at Michigan, but the recent histories of Texas, USC, Nebraska, Florida State, Miami etc. suggest that simply having a big name in college football history doesn't mean that wins will come easily. In my Harbaugh's done something incredibly impressive.

I bitched about Harbaugh's lack of progress over the last several years.  It was looking to me like he was not right for the college game.  I thought he and the AD might mutually part ways for the best for all parties, with him returning to the NFL.

But he eventually did get there on the college game.  All of the things we bitched about, he did eventually address - crony assistant coaches, living in the under-center past on offense, a defense with only one fastball pitch, schemes that college players cannot consistently execute, and so on.

If this was year 2 of the Harbaugh regime instead of year 7, everybody would be ecstatic with him.  But here we are now, regardless of how long the winding rocky path took to get there.  We are where we want to be.  So, you have to look at the first 6 years as a sunk cost and move forward from here.

I don't understand for the life of me why he did not do what he is doing now 5 years ago.  It was always in his power.  It will make a great "John U Bacon" book someday when somebody figures out that mystery.

If Harbaugh was never going to get there and it was a matter of Warde forcing the issue, then he is AD of the year.  Something or someone eventually made it happen.   We are where we want to be.

I can say with certainty that 50%+ of this board disagreed with that a year ago. To give you a sense of the desperation, there were a number of people all out begging for Matt Campbell. 
 

The true “Harbaugh or Death “ crowd was small but I’m proud to have been a part of it. I don’t blame the others, last year was really difficult. But it goes to show you that the pack mentality is a truly weak way to make decisions, thank heavens. 

I have believed in and defended him his entire tenure at UM. Living near Columbus has been brutal until today that is!!! All I have been asked is are you sure he is the guy? Do you think he will ever bring you back to competing with the buckeyes? Hell even some radio guys have suggested we move on, but I always ask who do you replace him with? They had no answer. Jim Harbaugh was the right choice and he didn’t bet on himself when he restructured his contract, he bet on his team and his new staff. Thank you Coach Harbaugh for rewarding this fan base with what it desperately needed. In the immortal words of John Walton(Capitals radio announcer) “The demons have been exercised!!!!” GO BLUE!!!!

Hindsight fixes everything, right?  I've said it a couple of times before - this type of thread is bullshit.  I'll also say that most everyone on this blog wanted him gone last year, funny how nobody remembers that...  There were only a handful of posters that wanted to keep him, most were ready to part ways but cried 'who do you get'.

Given the three year trend, and the way the 2018 and 2019 teams finished, it was little wonder that 2020 was a breaking point for a lot of people.  So Warde had a decision to make, with two options: 1) part ways and start over; 2) extend and hope (expect?) positive change.  This is a decision every team faces when they partake in seasons like UM 2020.  

Warde made a decision that the majority of us were good with after the fact - extend with a large paycut.  And to his credit, Harbaugh bought in.  Its a safer path than starting over (unless you're Ohio State), and it worked out in spades.  We're all happy as larks that it worked out like it did - but there was no expectation of this season.  None.  Hell, there wasn't much expectation for anything more than 8-4!

BTW, as far as 'who do you get', it doesn't matter.  You start over because you've hit rock bottom, so you find the best guy you can and start over.  If it doesn't work, you do it again - this is Nebraska's problem.  It could have been Michigan's problem, too - thank god it's not.

I wanted him fired after 2020. Not all because of 2020, but because of his record against rivals, his seeming disengagement from the team, the lack of positive team culture, and a coaching staff that just clearly had something wrong with it.

This year, Jim re-engaged, re-built the coaching staff, and helped -- along with excellent new coaches and existing ones put in good places as well as stellar player leadership -- rebuild a super-positive team attitude. He also beat OSU and no one will hold the MSU game against him.

In other words, Jim did what he had to do. I was climbing on-board after Wisconsin, but after PSU and especially OSU? I'm fully behind Jim.

What we saw yesterday it is not just good coaching but consistency within the program. It  obviously took JH a lot of different things to get the right recipe but that was expected with the way he was handed off the program and talent.  You can’t keep dumping coaches every 3-4 yrs (unless you are bama or osu) or we will be another texas, usc, fsu…As much as everyone wants to win right away it is hard to do so, coaches need time to figure out what works and doesnt. What worked this year might not the following year or two years from now. It is really hard to be consistent unless you have 5* pouring in every season like bama or osu. JH has done a decent job considering the QBs we have had in the roster up to this year.

I had this team anywher from 7-5 to 9-3.  I was in the "if a change was to be made so be it" camp.  I have neve never been more happy to be wrong.

I was definitely a Harbaugh apologist and didn’t understand the criticism. He had Michigan competing as a Top 10 program from 2015-2019 and then because of a truly bizarre COVID year, people wanted him gone. 
 

I think the 0-5 vs OSU was really the sticking point.

Well, he finally got over the hurdle. Finish the job in Indy, and hey if Michigan can get to the NC game, I’d imagine nobody will be happier than him. 

I was in the wishy-washy category.

I was disappointed in the results against rivals through 2019, and 2020 I thought was the end because very few coaches turn programs around in year 7 after a losing record in year 6 (most never get a shot).

Forgetting about 2020, to me, it seemed like Harbaugh's teams just didn't have what it took to get over the hurdle.

Some of those things were bad luck:

• Injuries before the game
• Harbaugh's best teams having to play its biggest games at the Shoe (2016 and 2018) while the more flawed teams had home field advantage
• Unlucky close calls going against him

Some of those things were squarely on Harbaugh:

• Bad clock management and decisions that should be common sense to a football coach 
• An offensive philosophy that made it feel like if you were down 10 points the game was over (compared to how you never feel safe when Ohio State gets the ball again)

Assuming they beat Iowa, Saturday gets the monkey off of his back. But it's just one game, one year. You've still got to build on it with recruiting and more wins. 

GO BLUE!!!!

I'm amazed at the stupidity of some people.  I have a friend who despite being 11-1 with a win over OSU he still wants Harbaugh gone.  He knows it won't happen this season, but he feels he's going to revert and this is nothing more than Brady Hoke 2.0 just slower.  Said he'd need to see Harbaugh win 3 to 4 in a row against both MSU and OSU before he'd feel confident that Harbaugh's the right guy.  I just can't put that together in my head.  

I remember defending the shit out of Harbaugh and the team last year.  Genuinely shocked so many people here wanted him fired during the covid season...

Just dumb.

Jim Harbaugh is not off the hot seat because people changed their minds and admitted they were wrong about him, he is off the hot seat because he addressed some structural issues and started winning games he was always losing.

That is kind of how it should be.

"Corrective action" was taken in corporate speak.

Beating MSU and OSU and winning the Big Ten are part of the very DNA of Michigan.  If Jim Harbaugh is starting to do that, people will stop looking around elsewhere.

I have always agreed. I just didn't think it was worth saying it before, and of course anybody could say it now.

I think there is a lot to be said for going with the best coach your program can produce. Jim Harbaugh is what Michigan Football can produce. As a Michigan fan I am ok with Michigan being Michigan. 

Then again, I am probably just still salty my PhD department is too obsessed with being elite to have hired me so I could have stayed in Northwood forever.

I thought the energy had vacated the program, and Jim didn't seem to have the desire to do this anymore last Fall.  I just wanted him to step aside, contract to run out and for Michigan to move on even it meant another long painful transition.

I'm ecstatic at the hires he made and the overall changes within the program.  NIL should make Michigan a top 5 program.  Jim's always been a hell of a coach if flawed, but it just wasn't working last year and no one should feel bad for feeling like it was time to move on.  Its been a heck of resurrection.