It Was A Roller Coaster, But Jim Harbaugh Fulfilled His Destiny At Michigan

It was quite possibly the most hyped hire in the history of college football. In many ways, it was set up for letdown. The expectations were astronomical. By year two people were already expecting Michigan to at least make the playoff, if not win the national championship under Jim Harbaugh. For the longest time, it seemed as though it was heading sideways. I don’t know of anybody who truly believed that Jim Harbaugh was a bad coach at any point, but several years back, the Harbaugh era at Michigan was looking like something that was going to go down as one of the great disappointments in college football history. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but Michigan just couldn’t get over the hump, and then, magic. Now that Jim Harbaugh has taken his final bow at Michigan, it’s hard not to be grateful for what is undoubtedly the greatest three-year stretch in the history of Michigan football.

I don’t know if there was any situation in which Jim Harbaugh would’ve returned to Michigan. It wasn’t for the lack of love that he had for the school or the players, but I think even he was getting tired of the NCAA hammering his ass. The idea of this guy missing one football game in a season probably tore him in half; having to sit out six of them, including the Ohio State game, was probably pretty devastating. In the long run, it didn’t matter. Michigan won the national championship, but his stock would probably never be higher, and he set himself up in a pretty good situation in Los Angeles. They obviously weren’t a playoff team last year, but they were the year before, and they’ll be bringing back one of the best quarterbacks in football with Justin Herbert. It’s not a team that will need to go through a full-on rebuild with Harbaugh at the helm. He turned the Niners around very quickly. I suspect he’ll do the same in Los Angeles.

There are things about Jim Harbaugh leaving Michigan that I am comfortable with. The offseason headaches and the constant controversy, even when the team was undefeated, had a tendency to wear on you. It was always a circus. It was a very entertaining circus. It was a circus that resulted in the national championship, but the first six years of the Jim Harbaugh era were like drinking Mountain Dew and Skittles for breakfast. It might seem like a fun idea at first, but over time, you just kind of want to throw up. They have fixed their diet over the last three years and turned themselves into champions. It’s been marvelous watching other fan bases gravel and sip their copium as if Michigan will have everything taken away from them after the NCA investigation. In many ways, Harbaugh leaving the way he did is only fitting. It wouldn’t have been right for him to step away quietly. He had to piss a lot of people off in the process. God bless him for it.

As far as what Michigan will do next, I would be surprised if they don’t promote Sherrone Moore. It feels like that’s what the players want, and I think the last thing Michigan wants to do is rock the boat with a coaching search. The last time they did that, they ended up with Rich Rodriguez. In general, I believe that the state of Michigan football is very stable. It was going to be stable with or without Jim Harbaugh. Will they ever be able to reach the heights that they’ve reached over the last three years? I have no idea. I saw one national championship. That’s one more than I expected to see.

When Jim Harbaugh arrived in Michigan, the culture was bad; the infrastructure wasn’t there. Michigan was a dying star. He stabilized things for a while, but even that felt like it wasn’t enough. Ultimately, even when fans like myself were on the verge of giving up on him, he never gave up on the program. I appreciate what he did here. Thanks for the memories, Jim.