Michigan Football: No movement on Jim Harbaugh contract extension

While Michigan football fans waited on pins and needles wondering about an announcement regarding Jim Harbaugh’s contract, there isn’t anything new.

There was some outside hope that the fiasco between Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football would be resolved on Tuesday. Instead, literally nothing new happened in this saga that won’t die.

Harbaugh was back in the office following his vacation to California and the thought was that he would agree to his extension. There was supposed to be a staff meeting to talk about all of this, but according to reports from Rivals and The Michigan Insider, it was business as usual.

Maybe the biggest thing to report is that according to Chris Balas of Rivals ($), Harbaugh once again told his staff his plan was to be at Michigan going forward.

Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider ($) also had a similar update on Tuesday. Basically saying that Harbaugh was still focused on hiring staff and going through his normal work.

What now for Harbaugh and Michigan?

For now, it’s more of the same — work and wait.

Assistant coaches are doing the same and as we have seen, some of them have been out on the recruiting trail, notably guys like Brian Jean-Mary, Ed Warinner and Mike Zordich.

But their contracts are expiring Monday, so you would think that Harbaugh and Michigan would want to hammer something out and get the assistant coach contracts done too, which will likely include a few new hires if Harbaugh does stay on.

No new names have really emerged in the search for Don Brown’s replacement. Charlie Strong, Lance Anderson of Stanford, Jim Leavitt of South Florida, Derek Mason and Tim Banks are some that have been mentioned.

Strong and Mason make the most sense to me, although the Wolverines should also get Banks on staff and I’m higher on him as co-defensive coordinator than most.

There has been talk of adding guys such as Joe Moorhead or Mike Hart on the offensive side of the ball and that would be great too, but first things first, Harbaugh needs to agree.

Both Webb and Balas said Harbaugh did not have serious interest in the NFL and that he intended to be back at Michigan.

Of course, some have reported that the NFL is his preferred destination and while I don’t believe that, Harbaugh makes you wonder as this drags on.

However, with his assistants needing new contracts by Monday this timeline can’t extend much further and at some point, Warde Manuel needs to press Jim to make a decision.

The problem is that if Manuel fired Harbaugh, he would have to pay his buyout, which is something the University appears reluctant to do.

So Harbaugh has the leverage and he knows it. I think that’s where these NFL rumors are coming from. It’s more about negotiating than a serious interest, at least that’s my guess.

But whether you believe he’s angling for a better deal or the NFL, this all has to come to a head soon and for the sake of every Michigan football fan, hopefully it does.