It was reported on Wednesday evening that head coach Jim Harbaugh is departing for the Los Angeles Chargers head coaching job. Harbaugh finished his career with the Chargers in 1999-2000, completing 58.5% of his passes for 4,177 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 24 interceptions.
Hit the jump for more.
Harbaugh was hired prior to the 2015 season to succeed Brady Hoke, who had started off 11-2 and slowly regressed to 5-7 before getting fired following the 2014 season. Some of Harbaugh's accomplishments at Michigan:
- 86-25 overall record
- 60-17 conference record
- 3 Big Ten Championships (2021-2023)
- 1 national championship (2023)
Harbaugh takes over from former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, who went 9-8, 10-7, and 5-9 the past three seasons before getting fired in the middle of 2023. The Chargers have a lot of good pieces in QB Justin Herbert, WR Keenan Allen, OT Rashawn Slater, DE Joey Bosa, OLB Khalil Mack, and S Derwin James, but they have salary cap issues for 2024 and beyond that could prove to be daunting. Harbaugh went 44-19 in the NFL from 2011-2014 with the San Francisco 49ers.
Harbaugh is likely to take defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and safeties coach Jay Harbaugh - who happens to be Jim's son - to the NFL with him. There are mixed reports about strength coach Ben Herbert.
Most insiders are saying that offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Sherrone Moore will be named head coach as soon as possible, though Michigan state law says that public jobs must be posted for at least 7 days before being filled.
A 30-day window will open for players to enter the transfer portal. While most of the players seem to be behind Moore taking the job, it's still a significant upheaval to change coaches, especially from a proven coach with NFL experience/ties to . . . a 37-year-old guy who has never put together a staff, faced significant public scrutiny, faced the true adversity of a losing streak as the head man, established a recruiting vision, etc.
As for Harbaugh's decision, my personal thoughts are that Harbaugh did a great job for Michigan from day one. He won 10 games his first two seasons and averaged 9.4 wins a season from 2015-2019. When many fans and pundits were ready to fire him after the 2-4 season in 2020, I stood behind him and wanted him to remain. We had over a decade of him being a great coach at the college and NFL levels, and people wanted him gone because he went 2-4 in the midst of a pandemic when some of his best players (Nico Collins, Ambry Thomas, Jalen Mayfield, Ryan Hayes, Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchinson, etc.) missed all or large parts of the season. Michigan probably wouldn't have been great in 2023, either, if they lost their #1 receiver, #1 cornerback, #1 offensive lineman, #1 defensive lineman, #2 defensive lineman, and another quality offensive lineman . . . all while dealing with the distractions of a worldwide sickness that nobody really seemed to understand.
Michigan stuck with Harbaugh, and Harbaugh stuck with Michigan. I don't need to recap the last three years any more than I already have. We all know the story by now. Harbaugh flipped the script against Ohio State, winning three in a row. He went to the College Football Playoff and lost to Georgia. He went to the CFP again and lost to TCU. Learning from those mistakes, he went to the CFP again in 2023 and beat all comers, knocking off powerhouse Alabama and upstart Washington.
Sam Webb has addressed Harbaugh's situation and said Harbaugh had "parallel dreams." He wanted to win a national championship at Michigan - something Bo Schembechler never did - and he wants to win a Super Bowl. You can't win a Super Bowl at Michigan. He was very close in 2012 when the 49ers lost to his brother and the Baltimore Ravens.
We generally don't begrudge juniors or redshirt sophomores who leave Michigan for the fame and riches of the NFL. It's great when guys like Blake Corum, Zak Zinter, and Brandon Graham come back for their senior years, but it's also understandable when guys like J.J. McCarthy, David Ojabo, and Charles Woodson leave with eligibility remaining. The frustrating times are when guys leave early for the NFL when they're clearly not ready . . . but Harbaugh is ready.
The Lions will always be my #1 team. But just like when Tom Brady was leading the Patriots and then the Buccaneers, that made it easy to have a second favorite team. I'm going to keep an eye on where McCarthy and Corum end up, but there's a pretty good chance that the Chargers will be my #2 in 2024.
Thanks to Coach Harbaugh for all the great memories over the past nine years.
Go Blue!
Who had it better than us!
ReplyDeleteWell put Thunder. If the NFL stuff doesn't work out he has a home back in AA.
You should have linked your defense of Harbaugh in 2020. Receipts!
ReplyDeletehttps://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2020/12/addressing-michigans-coaching-situation.html
Many will forget that the fanbase was roughly 50/50 on keeping harbaugh. Or perhaps 1/3 said keep, 1/3 said dump, and a 1/3 reached a point of indifference on stay vs go.
There are even some people now saying that Michigan should have cut bait a few years ago and moved on because Harbaugh was always messing around with the NFL. We had to sit through some tense January/February months in exchange for a national championship in 2023. I'll take those tense winter months anytime if that's the reward.
DeleteJim was always overqualified for the job. That's how I look at it. His connection to Michigan runs deep (growing up in AA, playing here, his family connections, Bo, etc.) and that made him stick here for 9 years. I believe he could have had an NFL job when we hired him in 2015. The stink was mostly on the 49ers, not Jim. After 2016 and 2018 if he wanted to return, I speculate he could have, and probably other times as well.
DeleteObviously 2020 was a low point and Jim faced really the first time in his career where he wasn't clearly ascending and thriving. At every other stop it was straight success, up up up. So the shine was off a little bit - but it was still hard to argue with the idea that he was one of the best 30-40 football coaches on the planet.
He's an NFL caliber coach. He has always been an NFL caliber coach. He went to Michigan because he loves Michigan and I don't think he would have coached 9 years anywhere else in college. We are lucky to have had him and lucky he didn't jump ship after what happened in 2020.
Good on him. He did more than anyone expected for this university. He's got a shot at going down among the greatest coaches of all time with a Lombardi trophy.
ReplyDeleteWe've been nothing but blessed to have him around. I am now a Charger for the first time in my life.
We've also been mightily blessed to have had Beilein and Harbaugh back to back. Two of the most innovative coaches of all time in their respective sports.
Roanman
DeleteYeah I appreciate you lumping Beilein in here. These the 2 greatest coaches in Michigan basketball and football coaching history IMO. Guys who thrived as coaches both in team building, developing coaching staffs who fit around their weaknesses, and knew X's and O's while also having a strong identity in scheme. They also won "the right way" and understood the Michigan culture and thrived within it. Nobody is perfect but you can't really ask for more than what each man did in their roles.
DeleteAfter 2020 and giving up 60 and 52 points to OSU (luckily, we bowed out playing OSU in 2020 or it would have been another 60 spot), choking against MSU, bowl game disasters, and QB play that sucked (hey wasn't he QB once?) I would have sat down with Jim as the AD and made sure he was up to the task of unfooking the situation. A clear plan and made sure my coach had the fire to see it though.
ReplyDeleteBecause it certainly looked like he check edout TBH.
As it turned out, UM became the Ravens.
All is well the ends well. Statistically, the greatest team since the 1902 Minnesota Gophers.
The new coach will have his work cut out for him. I think Moore is the guy but the job is tough one. This isn't Harbaugh's Big Ten. There will be 5-6 toss up games or game we out right underdogs. I hope we continue to be the Raven's farm club to develop defensive coordinators. Now maybe we work with the Chargers.
We are going to need all the help we can get to stay at the top of the B-10.
At first I wanted to say that Sherrone Moore doesn't have NFL connections...
Delete...but then again, Jim Harbaugh (and perhaps Jesse Minter, Jay Harbaugh, etc.) will be those NFL connections.
College football is in the process of changing dramatically, and the next few years are going to be full of turmoil. The voices saying "something has got to change" are getting louder. The game needs leadership and vision at the national level, and it doesn't have it yet. There is coming a point where the NCAA will be told to step aside, and a new ruling body will take over. The game is going to semi-professionalize and become more and more corporate. It would not shock me to see schools spin off their football programs into separate legal entities.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Harbaugh will do well enough in the NFL, but I doubt he'll make the Superbowl.
semi pro? OSU just dropped 13M on players. We lost the #1 recruit that plays 20 miles from UM to LSU and their 5M bucks
DeleteAnd the players are under no contract to play, perform, go to practice...play in bowl games. Or stick around
Ewers took OSU for 1.4M dollars, played zero snaps, got free training, and then bolted to his home state.
UM is still working out their NIL program and don't seem to be in any rush which is resulting in recruiting rankings to the worst in UM history. We have overcome it....for now. Maybe we can just poach upperclassmen and let other schools drop millions on a 17yo.
By "semi-pro" I mean paid athletes under contract to play football, and that includes every player on the team. The NIL landscape is a mess, and I hear more and more calls to "fix this" from those inside college programs. The way you do that is you get rid of the pretense and just pay the players, and by that I mean everyone on the roster. Not the same amount, but some kind of structured minimum with tiers for skilled positions and abilities. That's why I mentioned the possibility of universities spinning off programs as separate legal entities: because it helps isolate the university from potential liability, which will surely come when contracted players are injured and claims of negligence are levied.
DeleteThe NIL structure that we see today will not last. Nobody in position of authority likes it because it's so unstructured and so ripe for abuse.
Hence my firm belief the big programs will start to hold discussions about forming a conference without NCAA oversight, and with a structured pay-for-play model. That conference will have 24 to 30 big-name schools, and the media contract will be huge. Those not in that conference will suffer something akin to what Oregon State is facing: a slide into second-tier semi-irrelevance.
I agree with Anon and expect tremendous change to continue in the next 5 years. The landscape is already so different than it was in 2019, let alone 20+ years.
DeleteI spent 2yrs in Virginia/Carolinas, 3 in New Orleans, 6 overseas, and 9 in SoCal. The Chargers are my family's second team!
ReplyDeleteJim can win it all. Yeah, yeah salary cap, but what would he rather face: salary issues or an empty QB room & no pass rush?
Jim is the guy who beat ohio (3x) even when his biggest defenders accepted an inferior position to the elite program urban built. He won a NC while Bama, UGa & ohio had historic monopolies on top talent, and did it without the best recruiting, without the best portal additions, and without the best NIL. He did it with coaching
Jim exceeded everyone's expectations, incl those deemed unrealistic and those accepting of 9 wins, struggles with sparty & no championships
He'll have this team in the playoffs in year2, and will win a Lombardi
Best of luck Coach!
It's a good rule in theory, I think. Kind of like the Rooney Rule in the NFL. It's put in place to make sure other people have a fair shot at a job rather than someone just being shoehorned into a job straightaway in the case of nepotism. But when it comes down to it, an NFL team can interview two minority coaches and then just go with their #1 choice, anyway. It seems like the Chargers wanted Harbaugh all along, so whoever the black coaches were that they interviewed (David Shaw is one, I know, and I think Raheem Morris was another), the Chargers still got their guy and kind of wasted Shaw's time in the process.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, theory v reality
ReplyDeleteIt's a good rule when your remember that this is an public/academic institution and not just a sports franchise. It's not just about fairness to candidates but it's the best for the institution as well.
ReplyDeleteImagine if you posted the job publically and a great person you didn't know was interested was in fact interested. Like for all we know perhaps somebody like Bill Belichick, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Kirby Smart might secretly want this job. Not holding my breath but you never unless you put it out there. It's not just about race or whatever else is being asserted here, it's about putting the opportunity out there for anyone who thinks they want it.
It's not theoretical - I've seen it play out numerous times where surprise external candidates emerge due to patience in the public process and are hired over expected incumbents within the org. Anecdotally, these situations have worked out great for both parties (though not always the assumed incumbent, to be fair).
It's a good policy. Period. Even if as sports fans we think in this case it's 99% likely that Sherrone is going to be our guy and that waiting has real costs (which I do, and it does).
If it were a good rule, why would it be appealed, and almost certainly granted? If not theoretical, why is your example a hypothetical?
ReplyDeleteI think the point of the rule is to make sure that interested candidates have time (7 days) to find out about the open position. You can't just post a high school math teacher position for 5 minutes and then be like, "Oh well, nobody but my buddy Larry applied because he was the only one I texted about the position, so I guess my buddy Larry is getting the job."
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Michigan head coaching position...everyone who might be interested knows about the open position. It's the biggest national non-secret in the sports world. Plus, if there's any part of the rule geared toward giving minorities an opportunity...well, that seems to be taken care of.
I'll concede that - in theory - it's reasonable policy
ReplyDelete- two examples, both hypothetical
- both examples support outcome that don't exist, vice process that is on is obviously a virtue signal. Entry level through mid-management jobs will be held to this standard, but executive & other elite positions will not ... I'd like to see examples of say, Governor appointments that adhear to a 7day, anyone can apply rule
- I am a minority, and am connected to minority social & professional groups. It's almost universally complained about that Rooney & laws like this are a matter of appeasement, not results
- two days in, the University has not posted the position
- in reality, even Coach Harbaugh knows the right thing to do, and has endorsed Moore for immediate hire
Yeah Thunder I agree. The point goes both ways though. Your buddy Larry might be legit and a good enough hire but maybe if you (as the hiring manager) aren't lazy and look around for a minute or even invest in a legit external search there could be 3 candidates who are much better than Larry. I've seen this process many times. Sometimes it's indeed a formality and other times it's not.
ReplyDeletePick your favorite, smartest, most charismatic dream of a head coach candidate on your planet. If you had your pick, maybe you'd hold your nose and hire Urban Meyer because he's a great football coach, or maybe you like Dan Lanning and SURPRISE, he secretly loves Ann Arbor and we just don't know it until someone lets him know we are interested...or maybe you want tried and true Nick Saban who has changed his mind about retiring already and decided his legacy would be strengthened by coaching elsewhere and oh yeah BTW he has a bone to pick with MSU from 20 years ago still. Well, whatever it is, it's worth the 7 days to at least open up that opportunity for them to find you AND you to find them.
This stuff is a lot more random than we think. In my experience. I have feel like our timing was really lucky with the Michigan job opening at the same time that Harbaugh was going through the divorce with the 49ers. A year earlier or a year later and our head coaching search probably doesn't get us Jim Harbaugh... Point is - maybe somebody else out there is in a state of looking around that you'd never consider, like the super bowl head coach of the 49ers.
The policy is good. Period. In theory. In practice.
That said -- There are two issues though that make this an unusual case where it's probably not helpful.
The first is time. Usually you are hiring for more than 1 year so whatever short term effects might be are supersceded by getting the best person for the job. That's true here too but there's no skirting around the fact that the offseason is very important in college football and losing a week or two to a search means lost opportunities both in the portal and in filling out the coaching staff.*
The second is that it's hard to imagine a better hire than Sherrone Moore. Including Urban Meyer or whoever else, nobody can keep this team together like Sherrone can. This isn't a 1 year decision but continuity matters in college football and Sherrone is a key architect, if not THE key architect of an ELITE culture. He's the right guy for the job, as Harbaugh and everyone else who isn't just digging for attention has been saying.
*This is a real thing and should be distinguished from a thing that doesn't matter which is ever increasing fan impatience and annoyance at things that take time. Hiring people takes time.
The best possible path here seems pretty obvious to me. You tell Moore we have a process to follow but he's the guy and he should be acting accordingly to fill out his staff, talk to the players, and hit that portal for a QB, TE, and WR. A waiver is fine but Moore has plenty to do this week with or without it. I don't think the public face of things matters to outcomes as much as fans in the moment believe. But it probably matters on the margins so I'm still in the sooner-the-better camp.
Go get the waiver if that's an option but let's move ahead either way.
My uninformed opinion (I have no connection to the NFL) is that the Rooney rule's main benefit has been marketing/education - elevating the issues so that everyone is aware.
ReplyDeleteTo JE's point about appeasement I think it's largely been true. Everyone hires who they want to hire.
The correlation is there to argue for it's success, but I don't think the Rooney rule is the cause of increased minority hiring in the NFL. At the same time I don't think it's caused any harm, though I'm sure it has caused a good bit of annoyance and eye-rolling at some orgs. I doubt that happens much anymore though.
The devil's advocate argument here is, if it wasn't the Rooney rule, what changed to create so many more minority coordinators and head coaches in the NFL compared to 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteA lot to say, but only more hypotheticals
ReplyDeleteThe University of Michigan obviously agrees, and just made Moore the Head Coach without ever posting the position online. Fxck virtue signaling, go meritocracy
CONGRATS COACH 〽️
Coach Moore knows who will be his OC, and probably most of the staff. Coaching is a fraternity; no need to post online for 7 days
ReplyDeleteAll hires will be made based on connections & qualifications, not "fairness" or a law meant to signal equity for entry level through mid-level management
https://careers.umich.edu/search-jobs?career_interest=50&work_location=4&position=All®ular_temporary=R&job_id=&department=Athletics&title=&keyword=
So triggered. Lol
ReplyDeleteSherrone Moore deserves to be the head coach of Michigan. He will bring stability to the football program. But I think expectation should be tempered. I do not think he can be expected to win 3 Big Ten titles in a row, much less a Natty. If the over under for Big Ten titles is 1.5 under Moore, I am more inclined to bet the under. What are your expectations for the Michigan football team under Moore?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. We just lost 1o starters on Offense ... 9 wins will be tough. In 2o25, the same thing happens on Defense, making it a potential 2o17 experience
DeleteThe portal offers an opportunity for Coach Moore to reload. Get the right staff put together (ASAP, not 7days), and recruit High Schools & Portal guys, whether they're in the portal right now or not
*and don't lose to sparty ... not in the first three years
I would say that 9 wins is a good year and that if you get 10 or more win seasons more often than 7 wins or less seasons over the first 5 years you are doing a good job.
DeleteRodriguez and Hoke are good coaches who couldn't hit that bar. Moore is "born on third" though, so expectations are deservedly higher.
I would say in the new realignment world conference championships are going to be harder to come. I would bet the under on 1.5 with Oregon, USC in the conference and OSU being entrenched in the top 5 like it is. If Moore can get 1 in the first 5 years that's pretty solid. More important is to be contending for it in more seasons than not.
I think the more relevant measure may evolve into how often the team makes the playoff/tournament. Kind of like basketball. I would say if Sherrone makes the tournament at least once or maybe even twice in the next 5 years that's a solid line for expectations.
The real question to me is the trajectory of the program. If Moore can be successful in maintaining strong results (9 or 10 wins a year) like David Shaw did post-Harbaugh, that's a tremendous success. If you see things go quickly downhill after year 1 (as with Hoke) then you can wonder if he's the right guy.
And yeah, avoid embarrassing losses. One of the underrated things about Harbaugh was that other than 2020 he almost never got beat by inferior teams. That spoke to the job he was doing. We were not losing to App State (Carr), Toledo (Rodriguez), or Rutgers (Hoke). Everyone complained about records vs top 5 teams or whatever prior to 2021 but Harbaugh only lost to good teams and there's definitely something that's easier said than done.
The team will want more than 9 wins a year. Coach Moore had better too
DeleteMy guess for 9 wins in '24 is based on no QB, 1o new starters on Offense, and the loss of Harbaugh & Minter ... But if Coach Moore attacks the portal this year & every year after - while getting recruiting to top10ish levels - we should be a playoff team 3 of every 5 years during his lengthy tenure
@JE
DeleteYeah the team and the coaches hopefully want a lot more than 9 wins. It would be a leadership failure if they did. That wasn't the question that was asked.
For people who played, produced, and performed at a high level in life they know there is a difference between those doing and those watching and the same standards and expectations don't apply. Rest assured, the players on the team know this very well. They know their role and they know your role and confusion around that is only on one side.
YES, there is a HUGE difference between those who do & those who don't. Competitors don't hope for mediocrity ... tough to explain to someone who never played
DeletePlayers compete. Fans aren't competing. You'd know if you didn't define competition by middle age suburban rec basketball. But you already called yourself out on that. Enjoy the fantasy.
DeleteYou don't ... at all
DeleteBut yeah, I do. And I can relate the the need to win
I don't blame you for not understanding
"there HUGE difference between those who do & those who don't."
DeleteThere's a quote you got right.
"You don't ... at all"
That's correct also, I don't define myself by pickup games at the suburban Sacramento rec center.
"I do."
Yes, we all have covered how you, a grown-ass man (if only by date of birth) define competition. You already admitted to it.
"I don't blame you for not understanding"
Here again we agree. I don't understand dudes who take playing dungeons and dragons seriously or strut when spending lots of money on jewelry or feel anything but embarrassed about buying $70K trucks or feel comfortable living off the government. Etc. I will not ever be able to get into a mentality where I can understand someone mashing their dumb fingers to yell I AM RIGHT on an internet message board while simultaneously bragging about how competitive they are via rec center basketball games. Embarrassments all around in my eyes.
Anyway, seems like a lot of agreeing here.
Someone is big mad ... you don't get it. That's okay. The keyboard is your safe space
DeleteJEverytime here to project feelings. Where's the emojis?
DeleteMy criteria is: win the games you should win, and play hard and competitively in those you lose.
ReplyDelete