3 Logical targets if Michigan Football fires Jim Harbaugh

Matt Campbell

If Fickell is option 1A than Matt Campbell of Iowa State is 1B and really you can make a lot of arguments why he would be the perfect fit for Michigan football.

Like Fickell, Campbell has a background in Ohio. He coached at Mt. Union and Toledo and he would be a natural recruiting for the Wolverines in that area.

But beyond that, Campbell is just a great coach and he’s proven at Iowa State that he can win the sort of games Jim Harbaugh hasn’t been able to.

Yes, his Cyclones team beat Oklahoma and Texas this year but that’s not the first time. He has also won in Norman and Austin — not to mention beating a fourth-ranked TCU team in his first year on the job.

Campbell has also done this routinely with lower-ranked recruiting classes, which is a great trait because even when Michigan football recruits really well, it’s still less talented than Ohio State.

Even in the days of Charles Woodson and Griese when the Wolverines controlled the series, Ohio State was loaded with NFL talent and had more than Michigan did.

That’s never going to go away. But if Campbell could get the best out of the recruits Michigan can get, which have been good whether it’s Brady Hoke, Rich Rod or Harbaugh — the school has always sort of recruited itself — then U-M might have something.

What I like about Campbell is that he has won at two places, so he’s not a flash in the pan. He seems to have built a fantastic culture and his football teams have an identity.

Michigan needs all of that and if it offers to double Campbell’s salary, it might just be able to woo him away from the Cyclones who are getting set to play for the Big 12 title for the first time.

The Wolverines will need to act fast though and there’s no guarantee Campbell will say yes. So if Fickell is the most unrealistic candidate based on his Ohio State history, Campbell is the No. 1 candidate that might actually say yes.

If he says no though, here’s my backup option.