GO FOR REPEAT, OR HEAD BACK TO THE NFL?
Putting off contract talks may indicate Harbaugh is moving on
Michigan’s climb back to the summit of college football ended with its 34-13 win over Washington in the College Football Playoff championship game on Monday night.
Next, the Wolverines and their fans wait and see if Jim Harbaugh stays or goes.
Harbaugh, as he did during the lead-up to the championship, deflected all questions about his future an hour after the game and again Tuesday. But decision time is drawing near as NFL franchises begin or consider searching for new coaches.
“I just want to enjoy this. I hope you give me that. Can a guy have that?” Harbaugh said after the game. “Does it always have to be, ‘What’s next, what’s the future?’”
Harbaugh looked into NFL jobs the last two years before deciding to stay at Michigan. It’s possible he won’t this time, especially with the school facing possible NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations and the sign-stealing scandal that hung over the team all season.
There is also the question of what’s left to accomplish at Michigan for the 60-year-old Harbaugh. The “Michigan Man” did what he set out to do when he left the San Francisco 49ers in 2014 to return to Ann Arbor, where his father was an assistant under Bo Schembechler and where he was a star quarterback in the mid-1980s.
Running back Blake Corum pointed out Harbaugh has been a winner at each of his coaching stops.
“So who wouldn’t want him?” Corum said. “When things come up like that, hey, you’ve got to do what’s best for you. You have a great coach like that, everybody wants a piece of you.”
Harbaugh took over a proud program humbled under Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke and has gone 89-25 over nine years, six with at least 10 wins. His only losing record came during the pan