Michigan Football: Positive buzz about Jim Harbaugh staying

While we wait for an announcement about Jim Harbaugh, there is some positive buzz that he will remain with Michigan football. 

For over a year now, I’ve been telling people that didn’t want Jim Harbaugh as Michigan football‘s head coach, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Now, it seems many of the people that wanted Harbaugh fired a year ago are desperately hoping that he returns with a fancy new contract — not the pay cut he signed a year ago to stay.

Once again, there is rumored NFL interest. But there always seems to be. We interviewed Desmond Howard this week and he predicted that Harbaugh would be coaching Michigan football in 2022 and it seems to be trending in that direction.

Michigan has put a new offer on the table to Harbaugh, who reportedly wants more money for assistants and better support for the program. I’m not sure if all that is true but the assistant coaches need to get paid or the Wolverines will lose staff. That’s the bottom line.

If Harbaugh is going to stay at Michigan for the long term, it makes sense that he would want to have as many tools to help him win as possible.

Now, what can Warde Manuel really do about NIL and the transfer portal? That’s anyone’s guess, although Michigan could make its Block M logo available for NiL deals — that seems simple.

Positive buzz

While Twitter has been a wild place of Harbaugh rumors for the past few days, there does seem to be a trend of positivity about the Harbaugh situation from some key Michigan accounts.

Clayton Safie of The Wolverine tweeted this out:

He also retweeted a picture of Jim Harbaugh at the Michigan hockey game and that’s someone that doesn’t look ready to walk out the door to the NFL.

And Blue Print Jay tweeted this out:

https://twitter.com/BluePrintJay/status/1480021588846301186

And while these are nothing but rumors, Gregg Henson who has reported some things about Harbaugh and Michigan in the past, said he’s hearing a deal is done.

Take it all for what it’s worth, but there is a lot more buzz about him staying than going at this point and that’s a good thing.

Harbaugh loves Michigan. He literally said last week he was honored to be the head coach and that he would do it for free. So I don’t think the money Las Vegas or another team throws at him will matter in the end.

If Michigan steps up, I believe he will be the head coach. And Chris Balas dropped some positive hints on The Wolverine.com message board (subscription required) last night that should make Wolverine fans feel more reassured.

Ian Rapoport did say that Harbaugh would be a candidate for the Raiders job but it doesn’t sound like a slam dunk for Las Vegas, which could be in the playoffs with a win Sunday night.

A move to the NFL just doesn’t seem to make sense right now. Michigan football is poised for its best run in decades and with J.J. McCarthy at quarterback, plus a number of other pieces on both sides of the ball, this really does feel like the beginning.

Hopefully, an announcement comes sooner rather than later and maybe, we can be done with this song and dance for at least a few years.

My prediction is still that Harbaugh remains the head coach at Michigan well into the future. But just to be safe, I’ll be rooting for the Raiders to make the playoffs by beating the Chargers.