What Jim Harbaugh’s NFL pursuit meant for Michigan Football

Michigan football fans should be prepared in case Jim Harbaugh looks to the NFL once again in the future.

Now that Jim Harbaugh finalized his staff a few days ago, it is time for Michigan football to finally look ahead to what’s next, which is spring ball. Finally, no more distractions and wildness that always seem to occur every off-season for Michigan football.

In case you missed it, here’s the football staff with their new roles and titles:

The entire off-season has been a trainwreck from the very beginning, as Michigan has lost almost all of its momentum after finally getting over the Ohio State hump and having a great season. Now, they have to start from scratch, losing their offensive and defensive coordinators.

My issue with the entire Jim Harbaugh saga was not his intrigue with the NFL. He was always going to entertain the idea of possibly going back. No, my issue (and hopefully your main issue too) with Jim was his lack of communication and just general disregard for everything Michigan football had built.

It’s been known for quite some time that Jim Harbaugh has been interested in possibly going back to the NFL. He said all of this in his interview with long-time Detroit Free Press writer Mitch Albom. He mentioned a “tugging” or a draw to go to another Super Bowl after coming so close nine years ago against his brother John as a reason that he entertained the NFL.

All of this is fine and fair, but at what expense did Jim Harbaugh do all of this?

Will Johnson, Michigan football’s most-prized 2022 recruiting class member was completely in the dark for over a month about what Jim Harbaugh was doing. That’s completely unacceptable.

Various college coaches every single year get interest from NFL teams. That isn’t uncommon at all and has now become more of the norm in the NFL to hire the sexiest name from college football.

Jim Harbaugh dropped the ball for the entire month though. There are better ways to handle a situation than to keep everyone in the dark for an entire month. Communication doesn’t have to be like every single minute of every single day, but everyone deserved better from Jim Harbaugh regarding communication.

This doesn’t include that Harbaugh completely wasted National Signing Day and made his decision to come back on that day.

It also doesn’t include the fact that Michigan literally just made a playoff appearance, having their best season in almost 25 years. He could’ve built some momentum with more magical seasons and was going to throw all of that out the window for a shot-in-the-dark with the Vikings, whereas he could have continuity at Michigan.

I understand that Jim Harbaugh does things the Jim Harbaugh way which can be weird and quirky, but he was acting pretty much like Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley. Those guys promised loyalty to their programs and then just up and left. Without even really saying goodbye.

Jim Harbaugh always knew he was interested in going back to the NFL. As soon as Michigan’s football season ended with a loss to Georgia, Jim Harbaugh knew his name would be a hot commodity after going 12-2 during the season.

As soon as that loss happened, Jim Harbaugh should’ve been on the phones with all of his staff members and all of his recruits explaining to them that there was a very real possibility that NFL teams would call him, showing interest, and request interviews.

At least telling the recruits and staff members this would have given them some time to decide what they wanted to do for their futures instead of having to learn everything through word of mouth and seeing it online.

If Harbaugh left, he would’ve taken a few staff members with him to the Vikings, probably like George Helow, Matt Weiss, and Jay Harbaugh, and would have left every other staff member in limbo.

What about their families who they moved to Michigan and who expected them to be settled at least for a few more years? What about the recruits who signed with Michigan thinking that they would have Jim as head coach?

Yes, we can assume that Mike Hart would’ve been Jim’s successor, but nothing was set in stone. Michigan had a possible interest in Matt Rhule, Matt Campbell, Luke Fickell, and Bill O’Brien, so to say that Mike Hart would’ve definitely been Michigan’s next head coach is a little premature.

We can’t forget that he’s never been a head coach before. Other guys on that list have way more head coaching experience than him.

If Mike Hart wasn’t Jim’s successor and Michigan football hired one of the other listed coaches, would those coaches keep the other staff members or would he let some of them go and hire his own staff? That would affect Michigan’s recruiting class because some of the guys signed with Michigan to play for specific position coaches.

All of this doesn’t even mention the biggest elephant in the room which is, does Jim Harbaugh really consider Michigan to be his #1? What if more NFL teams come calling just like the Minnesota Vikings next year or the year after? Will Jim stick around for those seasons?

Is Michigan football really where Harbaugh wants to be?

Jim Harbaugh said that Michigan is really where he wants to be, but he hasn’t shown it. I know that the coaching staff and recruits are ready to move on, and so are most fans, but that question has to always at least be in the back of people’s minds. Is Jim really as loyal as he says he is?

Certain people seem to think that Jim only came back to Michigan because he wasn’t given a big enough contract and wasn’t given enough team control. His ego got in the way, thinking that he was just going to waltz into his Vikings interview, sign his contract, and leave Michigan.

That’s not how it ended up playing out though, with contract negotiations stalling somewhere during talks, forcing Harbaugh to come back to Michigan as his “second choice” or “fallback option”.

Again, if Jim says he is thinking about the NFL, fine. At least he’s honest. What he can’t do though is promise he’s here to stay and then leave out the door the next day. He has to be honest with his coaching staff and recruits and at least give them some updates on what’s going on.

Before the coaching staff signed their new contracts with updated titles, some fences obviously had to be mended. Harbaugh and Mike Hart both have had beef in the past, so hopefully, that whole saga didn’t open up old wounds. Josh Gattis left because he was pissed that he wasn’t a candidate for head coach when Harbaugh was doing his NFL saga stuff.

All in all, Michigan fans should obviously be relieved and excited that Harbaugh is back and welcome him back with open arms, but they also have to realize that the NFL is always just around the corner, and it only takes one offer for Harbaugh to bolt. To be honest, this could happen with any college coach though.

Sports is a business, just like any other thing in this world, and people will always do what’s best for them, selfishly or unselfishly, even if it makes a lot of other people upset.

Just expect the best but prepare for the worst.

Michigan fans, what were your honest thoughts and opinions of this whole NFL drama with Jim Harbaugh? Sound off in the comments below!