Michigan Football: All signs still point to Jim Harbaugh at U-M

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh still hasn’t finalized his contract, but the timing delay isn’t something to be overly worried about.

At this point, every Michigan football fan has got to be sick and tired of the Jim Harbaugh fiasco. The talk about a contract extension being imminent has been ongoing for weeks now and still, there hasn’t been an announcement.

There was a report from The Wolverine this week that the deal was essentially done and just going through a legal review. Chris Balas reported that on Tuesday and updated the status of things on Wednesday (subscriptions required), basically saying he still expected Harbaugh to remain with Michigan football.

However, that’s not what everyone is reporting and as we all know, the rumor mill is working overtime and Michael Spath, a long-time radio host who has covered Michigan football, essentially disputed what Balas reported, saying he has two sources close to Harbaugh saying that Jim still wants to wind up in the NFL.

Spath is known to have some connections to the program but despite what he’s been reporting, I have a hard time believing that Harbaugh is still angling for the NFL.

I can buy that if the Chargers or the Chicago Bears came calling, Harbaugh would be interested, but Spath is making it seem like Harbaugh is using the current negotiations with Michigan as leverage for an NFL job.

According to Spath, the NFL is where Harbaugh prefers to wind up, which if true, would mean that he’s been lying to current players, coaches, recruits and parents for the past month.

And I frankly just don’t believe that’s the case. I will agree that the longer this saga goes on, the less likely it is that Harbaugh returns, but there is just too much smoke about him returning for there not to be some fire.

Coaching an NFL team with a young franchise quarterback in California probably would be appealing. But I don’t believe that Jim is using Michigan as leverage or as a fallback option in case the NFL doesn’t work out.

Harbaugh still seems like he wants to be at Michigan and I don’t think he’s going to leave with the program where it’s at, at least not unless he’s forced to.

Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider (subscription required) has also reported a bunch of interest about different assistant coaches, so it seems as though Harbaugh is building a staff.

Maybe it’s all a façade as Spath suggests and Harbaugh is waiting for the NFL’s black Monday to arrive but I just don’t see it. However, the longer this goes, the more doubts remain.