Question for those blaming Warde: did you want Harbaugh fired in 2020?

I want to focus on #6. I agree that money wasn't a motivator, but I believe it's the principle of the act in itself that I think started this whole chain of events. 

Would he have walked away in '21 or '22 if the Chargers offered him then what they're offered to him now had Ward not restructured his contract? Would he had left with unfinished business of no national championship? 

I read the recent Detroit News article that they published on Harbaugh and this stood out to me:

“And (at the Chargers), I was there in the building, people were still there who were there when I was still playing (1999-2000). They were good to me then, they’re good to me now and good to me through the years. Just felt like they left the light on for me.”

In my opinion,  this speaks volumes. I think that Ward's restructuring left Harbaugh not "feeling the love" as many others were quoted about what seem to matter to him. The Chargers made him feel that again, on top of getting what he wanted.

Would he had stayed at Michigan forever? No. I think he would eventually found his way to the NFL but I don't know if it would have been now? 

• Football--the Big Kahuna--is in great shape now, and Warde gets points for not firing Harbaugh after 2020, which led to the Natty and the current state of the program.  Hopefully, Michigan will remain an elite program under Sherrone
• Basketball--Horrible.  Last place in the B1G.  From an inherited elite program.
• Hockey--I don't follow it as closely, but Hockey made the Frozen Four last year; this  year I'm hearing "Not great, Bob" around here.  Also, the Pearson foot dragging.
• Baseball--Doesn't carry much weight, but Warde didn't try to retain Bakich.

Those don't seem like the conditions in which you fire your AD.

Now, if football slides under the promising but new coach, then yeah, Warde won't have much to fall back upon after sandbagging in the Harbaugh retention effort.  Warde owns the success or lack thereof of Sherrone.

No and I didn't want his pay reduced. The story of his pay reduction being a talking point of the 2021 season also didn't help as a man has his pride. This man was losing to Ohio State and their fans wanted him to return to the NFL, why? They knew he was a good coach and eventually would start beating them.

I also didn't think his suspension for cheeseburger gate or Stallions was justified. I do not think the athletic department did enough on behalf of Jim Harbaugh.

Also, saddling Moore, a man with no head coaching experience, as head coach of one of the most pressure filled coaching jobs in America is also foolish. The Michigan athletic department has made many foolish moves and expects to thrive simply because "It's Michigan." 

Question for those defending Warde: do you think the holocaust didn't happen?

Considering Michigan won the national championship, and nearly everyone agrees that Harbaugh would be leaving to chase his aim of a Super Bowl championship, the board seems very angry. 

No I didnt want Harbaugh fired. I believed my eyes watching him coach college and pros.  You don’t lose knowledge and ability.  He had issues getting the right assistant coaching. I also think The learning curve with Dom Brown was especially costly.

We all underestimate the difficulty getting the offensive recruits necessary to compete with OSU.  

Covid was a weird season.  This year, the last minute offer was all about CYA to the Michigan fan base. There is no other way to read it.  

Great coaches don’t come along often for Michigan. I think the philosophy he laid down points the way forward. But that is yet to be seen.  I still believe it.

When not in a game thread, I believe my opinion was mostly fine with it happening but knowing full well there was no clear attainable upgrade out there to hire at the time. RR and Hoke were clear steps down from Jim even with 2020 included so the chances it would be worse were good maybe even likely 

No. 

I never wanted Harbaugh fired. 

This is a spurious topic, but since people are revisiting their takes on Harbaugh after 2020, I feel obliged to mention, again, that I wanted him fired. But I’m not in the fire-Warde-for-Harbaugh-leaving camp, a camp that I find has significant overlap with the camp that wanted Warde fired for every other reason.

I thought Warde’s action at the end of 2020 threaded a narrow path, and once that call was made, my position was that the best option was for Michigan to stick with the plan and do well. For example, after the 21 MSU loss when the claws were out in full force, I was firmly on the “don’t panic” side of the ledger, and where some imputed to my position hostility toward Harbaugh in my pessimism prior to the 21 OSU game, my position was that I felt that victory was unlikely and that was ok, because Harbaugh had already matched or exceeded all reasonable expectations for the season before that game was played, and a hypothetical loss would not be reason to divert course.

Now? I think people who blame Warde for Harbaugh leaving are overreacting. But I am indifferent to him staying; the fact is that he grossly mishandled the Mel Pearson situation and this is clearly true regardless of whether you thought Mel’s conduct merited more, the exact same, or less consequence than was eventually meted. That (in)action casts into doubt a number of other choices or delays to which I would otherwise give benefit of that doubt to.

I will suggest that there is a need for internal consistency with Warde takes that may be lacking: a lot of people mad at Warde for not giving Harbaugh everything he wanted were also mad at Warde  for the perception that some of Harbaugh’s hires were poorly vetted. But based on what we’ve heard from sources, it sounds like one of the struggles in the AD was that Harbaugh did what he wanted and Warde struggled to deal with that. That is, giving Harbaugh what he wanted included the ability to make hires that Warde wasn’t really able to vet. 

To think that we're only three weeks removed from a national title and this board has once again gone off the deep end. 

I blame Juwan.  If the basketball team were better we’d have stuff to talk about. 

I was never on the fire Harbaugh train.. The realistic replacement candidates never felt like an upgrade. However, I did come to terms that 10-2 was Michigans ceiling. I' m glad I was wrong. 

Tho I'm not putting all the blame on Warde for Harbaugh's departure, I do think it's time for a change. 

No.

Yes I did, and no I don’t regret it. Nor was that feeling wrong, because it was made on the information I had at the time. That’s how decisions work. 

All you’re proving is hindsight is 20/20. 

For example, I didn’t know before this post that your logical reasoning was poor and suspect. Now I know it is. 

Definitely did not want Harbaugh fired. I have a feeling we have a lot of liars on this blog, however, because I remember fighting A LOT about it and now all of a sudden (almost) everyone never wanted him fired....

Then again the dissenting voices are always the loudest, no matter how much of a minority they are. But there sure seemed to be a lot here and on Twitter back then. 

Absolutely hilarious to think about Matt Campbell today -- Jesus what a mistake that would have been. 

hahah you struck a nerve here well done

I was one that hoped for the firing of Harbaugh after 2018, but glad he remained.  Warde definitely has some blame with his lack of relationship with Harbaugh, and the negotiations, but not all the blame for Harbaugh leaving.  I will say it is 50% Warde's fault, and 50% Harbaugh wanting that NFL job. It is obvious Harbaugh wanted an NFL job, which is why he interviewed with the Falcons and Chargers who are nowhere near playoff teams.

I did not want Harbaugh fired in 2020; it was a lost year to COVID19.   I’m not sure what the deal is with Warde, but became super concerned when Santa had to step in the first time.

I think what a lot of people are failing to understand is that there are a lot of divisions in confidence and opinion about what has transpired. The fact there is tremendous division is a sign of fractured leadership and sufficient indictment alone to warrant consideration of removal. Warde has earned this division through poor leadership and a failure to control the narrative to any degree and instead let everyone run around with rumor and conjecture and division. 

That's bad for a culture. It's all related to his position and his failure to promote an effective culture from his position. He should be gone for that alone.

No, I did not want him fired in 2020.  That was an anomalous year, which should have been evident at the time.  Beyond that, I didn't think Michigan would get anyone better at the time anyway.  Turns out, we had the right person.

I did not. 2020 was a beyond stupid season. 

Jfc, this board

No, I did not want him fired in 2020 and you will find no post of mine saying that he should be. My point then was that if we can't win with Harbaugh, a former Mich QB whose dad coached here and who had a long proven track record of success everywhere, then we can't win period, and I did not believe that. I was also highly skeptical of Matt Campbell and I think, not positive, that I may have compared him to Jeff Tedford at Cal who some years earlier members had been touting as a coach we should go after. Brian and Seth are brilliant guys who have an uncommon understanding of football but they have been known to over-react on occasion. (and I'm not saying that I never do that either, but not with respect to Jim).

I don't know if there was a scenario that Jim would have stayed even with strong interest from the NFL, but I personally believe that was possible, and I don't accept the dogma that it was not possible at all. And yes I think Warde was a huge factor in his leaving, dovetailing in with the NCAA BS, which is a big add on but not entirely separate because I think Warde undermined Jim's defense of the matters.

No.

But I was pleased he made coaching changes. 

Many wanted Jim gone in 2020

Points 1 & 2 are correct.  Point 3 doesn't tell the whole story, only part of it.  Points 4 & 5 are off base.  Points 6-8 are good...

Actually by cutting his salary Warde was hoping Harbaugh would leave I don’t believe he had the guts to fire him, it just worked out for Warde so IMO I don’t want to hear he was the reason that Harbaugh stayed.

Some light reading on a Friday night

https://mgoblog.com/content/wisconsin-49-michigan-11

https://mgoblog.com/content/indiana-38-michigan-21

https://mgoblog.com/content/penn-state-27-michigan-17

OP, I have used my critical thinking skills to understand that your post is pointless and it is about as far from an important question as you could ask .

I agree with the OP's reasoning on the decision to retain Harbaugh after 2020. However, I didn't think Harbaugh should have been fired after 2020, nor do I think he deserved a pay cut. 

I'd be curious to know the behind-the-scenes discussion that led to that decision. Maybe there was pressure to fire Harbaugh that Warde resisted by saying, 'Give him a pay cut and let's see what happens'.

Or not.

I detest this situation. There would be no win-win, and it's bad for cohesion among the alums, students and fans to argue about this, but one would suppose  it was inevitable.

Dangnabbit.  Can we just stop these insufferable rehashing threads and move on?  OP, get a hobby or something other than Michigan football bpone. 

I am blaming Warde for:

Not maximizing Michigan's chances to retain Harbaugh. I do not and did not think he could ever guarantee retaining JH. FWIW, it's clear that other members of the UM administration, including Ono and the regents also bear some amount of blame here.

I literally never wanted to fire JH after 2020. I had many arguments with my friends who thought Matt Campbell was the man. Yes, I still make fun of them. 

No, and I didnt read any of your post

I think the bigger question is why don't we have the rest of the UFRs for the UW and Bama games yet?  FIRE...UH...SOMEBODY!

/s

No; absolutely not.  It was a once in a hundred year pandemic.  Heck, he had a coach that refused to leave his home and tried to coach via Zoom.  Lolol.  NOTHING was normal.

Nope, I didn't. I had lost hope that he was going to get us to the top of the mountain... but I didn't want him fired. I just figured if he couldn't do it, no one could. 

I was indifferent at that point. I wasn’t calling for Harbaugh to be fired, but if he was I don’t think I would’ve been devastated at that time. Obviously in hindsight things really changed.

Yeeeesh. 

Check my posting history and get back to me. Only thing I remember about 2020 was watching Hallmark movies and putting puzzles together.

I did I’m a man I’m 40! And I can openly admit I wanted him gone and he made me eat a big shit sandwich thanks for the natty! He’s a legend 

I am in the fire Warde camp. Although I was frustrated in 2020, I was not in the fire Harbaugh club.

I consider it a question of whether an individual adds value to an organization greater than the replacement value.

I'm not sure what Warde does to add value than 90% of Michigan grads couldn't do. 

Honestly for a couple years there I was on the fence of being fine if he left and also feeling a little more time was needed as he had a great record year after year (and wasn't sure we could do better with a coaching change) before that.  The offense drove me crazy for several years (mainly the over and over runs up the middle when it wasn't there - Lack of big plays) is why I felt that way.  So ... for me anyway it was a "wasn't sure it was a good idea" but would not of completely freaked out if he had left. 

Now though I am good with it (that JH decided to head to the NFL) and certainly thankful he stayed (especially the last 3 years) and really appreciated all he did for Michigan, yes even looking back now on all of it. 

I personally don't really blame Warde for anything. I don't think it's an easy job overall at a big program like we have (football, basketball, baseball, softball, hockey, etc). 

I've been pretty neutral with him overall. 

did not want him fired in 2020. Ask Rob