Questions in the aftermath of Harbaugh announcing return

What is a "wilf?" 

Let me guess, you used to pick the scabs off of all your sores.?

- I don't care

- It won't matter past the next 2 weeks

- I also don't care

He simply wanted the this board to flip out, and post some of the wrost OPs and comments in its history.

Some folks need to dial it back a bit.

One can only hope that current team members and recruits know nothing about this site.

This Athletic article (paywall) has a lot of info. According to the author's sources, Harbaugh wanted the job and thought he was getting the job, but something (this is the one thing the article leaves a mystery, which is too bad as it is the central question) went awry during the day-long interview and he didn't get the job. The article makes it sound like it wasn't anything bad, just that they realized it wouldn't be a good fit. More to the point, the article explains why the Vikings were much higher on O'Connell.

JH is a certified maniac for the sport of football. 

He is a football coach and he loves the University. UM is lucky to have him.

I spoke a bit about what might have happened, though we can't really know.

I don't think this hurts recruiting. Harbaugh has been quite honest about his NFL interest this year, and in previous years he was quite honest about his lack of interest. If rumors swirl and he quashes them, he can point directly to this season's events to say "if I were thinking about it, you'd know." 

Organization and NIL is a much bigger factor. 

I don't know who was next in line and I don't think Michigan really did either. Balas suggested Rhule/Hart, and that is plausible, but of course he got the rest of the report dead wrong. Some others that have feelers inside also suggest Hart is a likelier internal candidate than Gattis, which is interesting and does sort of validate that theory. 

I think him and his wife stepped off the plane in -30 and said “fuck this” and headed back south to A2. I went ice fishing in Minnesota and I gotta believe it’s as close to the North Pole as you can get without actually going there. 

y.

I don't think it really hurt recruiting as UM had most of their class already signed, at least short term. For the next few years it could have had an effect, IF Jim hadn't said that he was done trying to get an NFL job. Which common sense says it was probably his last shot anyways as he'll be pushing 60 by this time next year. Even for UM, I would say he's only got say 5-10 more years most likely. 

I would love to hear what really happened, maybe one day JUB can write a book about it. More than likely just a few scenarios. The owners just didn't trust Jim enough to give him the reins and so didn't offer him a contract, it was mutually decided that it wasn't a good fit for either party, or Jim didn't feel comfortable with what he was hearing and at the end of the day withdrew his name for consideration. Irregardless, he's here to stay and I hope he has every success at UM and builds on what was done in 2021.

As for next coach? Hard to say, but I think they would have been comfortable with giving Gattis a shot at it.

So....what was a done deal is not a done deal. Now he returns to a team/program/staff that knows he was about to drop them like a bad habit. Cant wait to see how this works going forward.

I honestly don’t care what happened since it doesn’t matter at this point. I’m glad he is staying because it’s almost always better to have the devil you know than the devil you don’t. I am relieved for 2 main reasons. The first is obvious, we can now build on last year with most of the staff and roster in tact. Number 2 is I can’t be the only one who was worried about having Bill O’Brien as our HC. He left after one year at PSU and the NFL will always tempt him away.

Maybe we'll know the answers to these questions in time. The bottom line for me is JH isn't leaving and he's assuring us, his staff, his players and his employer this won't happen again. That's good enough for me and is the only condition that I would welcome him back.

In the event Michigan goes 15-0 next years and wins it all, maybe the NFL will come calling again but Jim had better have an assoc HC in place who could take over. (I shouldn't even be going there).

In the end, yes, this was a HUGE waste of time. Unnecessary drama and all for naught. I am thinking the football program is now in a better place that he's staying. It sounds like the players are on board per tweets. The high bar remains for 2022, must wins of sparty, Penn State and even Iowa. Go into C-bus undefeated and take it from there.

Since I have no control over past, current or future decisions within the program (and we likely will never truly know how things went down), I choose to believe this was an incredibly savvy move made by JH and WM to coax UofM into implementing a more robust NIL program and get Jim the raise he deserves.  Source: my brain (which wants to return to the joy of knowing our team just beat OSU, won the B1G and went to the playoffs).  :) 

All of this “what really happened” nonsense is ridiculous. The people that actually know anything have explained this to the best of their knowledge. the internet is a wonderful place. 
 

The does it hurt recruiting angle is annoying too. Clearly the only thing that really did anything to recruiting was a bad season and assistant turnover. The current staff, as explained in this blog, is set up very well. Recruiting has gone pretty well overall. Just not at the Alabama-UGA-OSU level but Michigan is in that next tier. 
 

can we all agree that in the next few days we can just look ahead to spring practice and the ensuing qb battle? It should be great. (Fingers crossed)
 

Since none of us know what happened, my 100% speculation is that the lunch at the interview was chicken with iced tea.  Jim wasn’t having a nervous bird and no milk meant no deal.  Then, he called Warde who promised him a steak and a gallon of 2%.  Deal done!

1. I'm happy he's back - we have a pretty full roster next year and the D will have some time to get into shape before Iowa and PSU and MSU in October.

2. I see likely 10-1 going into the Ohio game, maybe 11-0 if we can win at Iowa and don't lose a big home game.

3. MSU will slip back next year - I see them as a 3 or 4 loss team when they play us Halloween weekend.

4. Jim's always been a flaky and unpredictable guy - I think it was a MUTUAL understanding that probably started around Hour 4 or 5 of the interview - hey, we aren't a good fit for each other. Out of professional courtesy flying a guy during a snowstorm to a frickin freezin place, they decided to finish the full day. Eight hour interviews are common in the professional world (engineering, etc.) so not shocked about the length.

5. I do like the idea of a coach in waiting (Mike Hart, etc.) and be public about it - but mention that it is not a NEXT YEAR thing. Recruiting in NOT going to be impacted if we do this - and recruiting will be driven more by wins and any improvements to NIL.

6. The NFL is not only hiring 30 somethings as HCs. Some team (Dallas, etc.) may be happy to go after JH - they've already grabbed a long-time GB guy as a retread. JH can leave and Mike or someone is already here.

7. Coming back to Michigan isn't a "Shame" even for a high-ego guy like Jim. It's like Tom Brady and going with his 2nd choice for super model. The 1st choice I'm sure found some other happiness.

8. As fans, hopefully we realize that part of what made 2021 so special is WE made the Big House into a homefield advantage. Most other fan bases mock us for being the quietest 100K+ fans in sports. Last year was different and this year should be LOUD again.

Go blue!

First, I will acknowledge I made a bit of a donkey out of myself during the Harbaugh is going to leave frenzy. Glad it is over, pumped up he came back. Best possible outcome for Michigan in this saga. Already forgiven and forgotten.

Second, while all this was going on, Urban Meyer has weaseled his way back into the OSU facilities and has been meeting with players and staff. He met their new DC for the first time the other day. His message, you better beat that team up north. OSU is gunna be all in on revenge in 2022 and so Michigan better be prepared to match that intensity.

Imperative Michigan nails this DC hire. 

My theory is that he found out who the Vikings' QB is and booked it back to Ann Arbor.

Jim wants back into the NFL. His buddy was hired as the new Skol GM. They obviously talked and where under the assumption it was a done deal when apparently it wasn’t. At which point one of two things happened

A). Jim was pissed took his ball and went home

B). Ward told him there was a cut off date and Jim wasn’t going to wait and see with Skol when Mich was a sure thing.

As for recruiting this isn’t 1987, from now on it’s going to be about NIL and the “pay me” lifestyle. So Michigan needs to get on board

As far as what really happened, I can't believe that Jim Harbaugh, as eccentric as he may be, would go there for an official interview without having been given some strong signals that he was the favorite given all the obvious repurcussions if it didn't work out. Sam Webb retweeted ESPN's Vikings correspondent saying that Harbaugh came to Minnesota assuming that the job was his and that that wasn't where the Vikings were coming from.  My guess is that Adofo-Mensah (the GM) did want Harbaugh and communicated that Harbaugh was the frontrunner, but perhaps had less power/influence than he and Harbaugh thought.  I know that the "Harbaugh has no agent" mantra is overblown since he does have other advisors, but I also wonder if an experienced top sports agent would have had a better feel for the internal dynamics of the Vikings organization, and perhaps given Harbaugh a heads up that his position wasn't as strong he thought.

I think JH loves Ann Arbor, and he is a Wolverine for life.   But is this good for Michigan?   With the coaching shakeup and the subpar first 6 years, it became obvious to me that it was never Jim that lead to success.   It was his staff of coaches around him.    

I was hoping he would leave as I felt it might not benefit Michigan overnight, but help Michigan in the long term move on and find someone that was a better fit for the modern game.   

I would love more than anything for him to prove me wrong.    I will absolutely eat my words if he is to win another B1G title in the next 3 years.    I just don't see that happening.   

I know some are loyal to him simply because of last year, but what makes this worth it?   If 7 years from now we win another B1G title...   Is that good enough for Michigan?    In 5 years?   

The way all of this has went has caused even more uncertainty for my simple mind.   This is Michigan!   How is this ok?

People are way too quick to say that this is a resolved issue or it doesn't hurt recruiting. The only reason he's still here is because apparently nobody offered him an NFL job. This is an issue.

A billionty dollar buyout goes some way to solving this, but it feels a little weird and not great to be offering Harbaugh extremely generous terms when he just unsuccessfully jilted Michigan.

I have never really been on the fire Harbaugh train, he is the best option for Michigan, but this was a total shit show, and I don't appreciate the folks who just want to paper it all over, and act like you're just being unreasonable if you're not thrilled about the last couple weeks. .

The negative spin being given by some "insiders" is off base.

Jim Harbuagh didn't want to leave what he had at Michigan. That's what came to the surface in the 9 hours at Minnesota.