Michigan football insider: 'Jim Harbaugh genuinely wants to stay'

There has been a lot of talk about the future of Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh. Heck, there was plenty of talk about it leading up to the national championship game, and after the Wolverines beat Washington for the national championship.

It's sort of interesting that while Harbaugh was the only head coach asked about being with his current team next season, it's Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer who has accepted another job, agreeing to become Alabama's next head coach.

At the same time, things have been pretty quiet on the Jim Harbaugh to NFL front. The Chicago Bears are keeping their head coach. Harbaugh has been connected to the Raiders and Chargers, but there hasn't been much chatter -- at least not yet.

There has been chatter that Harbaugh wants to stay as the Michigan football head coach. Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated reported it earlier this week, reporting that Harbaugh essentially wanted guarantees that Michigan would have his back in any NCAA investigation. He also wanted language that protected him from being fired for cause due to those investigations (based on the current evidence).

A bunch of Michigan football players have declared for the NFL draft, but many of those decisions were expected. We are still waiting to hear what J.J. McCarthy, Donovan Edwards, Rod Moore, Trente Moore, and others will do.

Jim Harbaugh coming back couldn't hurt in trying to persuade those players to return, however, they have until January 15th to declare for the draft. There have been rumors that Harbaugh and McCarthy could annouce their return on Saturday during a title celebration in Ann Arbor, but that's just a rumor.

What's not a rumor, at least according to another Michigan football insider, John U Bacon, is that Jim Harbaugh wants to be back with the Wolverines.

"After talking with people who know more than I do, I believe Jim Harbaugh genuinely wants to stay at Michigan. He just "wants to know he's wanted," several told me, and it's not about the number. (He gave back $1.5M to department employees to compensate for Covid cutbacks.)" Bacon wrote on X. "As one said, "If you want to know what Jim thinks, just listen," citing the times Harbaugh has said he'll stay at Michigan "as long as they'll have me."
It seems the rest is up to Michigan."

It feels like the ball is in Michigan's court and as I have been saying for months, screw the NCAA and make Jim Harbaugh the highest-paid head coach in college football.

Please, Warde Manuel, get it done.