Michigan Football: The pros and cons of firing Jim Harbaugh
Why Harbaugh shouldn’t be fired
Certainly, a lot of Michigan football fans will disagree with this but there is an inherent risk in firing Harbaugh. Yes, he hasn’t turned Michigan into an annual playoff contender but he won at least eight games in his first five seasons and won 10 on three different occasions.
The performance against top-10 teams and in rivalry games has been disappointing. It’s also been shocking to see the Wolverines play as poorly as they have this season.
That wasn’t something I ever thought I would see under Harbaugh, not matter how bad it got.
But, to be fair Michigan did lose its starting quarterback and as flawed as Shea Patterson was, this team wouldn’t be 2-4 with him as the QB. Yet, 11 players were drafted into the NFL, then Nico Collins and Ambry Thomas opted out.
Michigan’s other highly-rated NFL prospects such as Jalen Mayfield, Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchinson and Cam McGrone have all missed multiple games due to injury. So if you consider the 11 guys drafted, plus Patterson, Collins, Thomas and the injuries, that’s 18 NFL caliber players that the Wolverines had a year ago that they don’t have now.
That’s not an excuse for not competing and there is still enough talent to have beaten Michigan State and Penn State, but this team was overrated from the jump.
Harbaugh and his staff still need to get the most out of their talent and this year, that effort has been an abysmal failure. Even if Jim returns, he needs at least one new coordinator, maybe two.
But even if he revamps the coaching staff, can Harbaugh turn things around like Brian Kelly, who went 4-8 before getting the Fighting Irish back to the College Football Playoff in 2018?
While I don’t know if Harbaugh can do that and to be frank, Kelly wouldn’t have been able to at Michigan either, Jim has proven to be a consistent winner and I don’t think it’s a long shot to think he could continue to crank out 8-10 win seasons for the foreseeable future.
It also means he could get to 0-8, 0-9 or 0-10 vs Ohio State before things finally go south for good. That’s a difficult thing to think about, but does Michigan want to be Nebraska?
The Huskers twice fired coaches after nine-win seasons in the last two decades and both times, it has turned into a disaster. Looking back, if the Huskers had stuck with Frank Solich all those years ago, their program would probably still be relevant.
Not a powerhouse by any means, but not a joke either. And that’s my biggest worry if Michigan fires Harbaugh — there’s no guarantee the next guy is the right one and if he’s the wrong guy, it could be Rich-Rod or Hoke all over again.
We were ready to get rid of Lloyd Carr too when he retired and now, we all pine for the good-ole days.
That being said, not firing Harbaugh also sends the message that Michigan accepts being second-tier and that doesn’t sit right with me either.