No one knows what Jim Harbaugh is thinking, maybe not even Harbaugh himself. He wants to stay at Michigan, where he recently said he'd coach for free. No, he's eyeing the NFL, where he could reunite with the Raiders. He wants more money from Michigan. No, he wants more recruiting resources. He's using the Raiders as leverage. No, he's just waiting for them to call.
This is Harbaugh Watch 2022.
Per a report from The Athletic Wednesday night, there's concern 'inside
Michigan football' that Harbaugh will leave for the Raiders if he's offered their head coaching job. He's coached at Michigan nearly twice as long as he's ever coached anywhere else, he's friends with Raiders owner Mark Davis after starting his coaching career with the team in 2002, and the sources at Michigan have always believed that Harbaugh would eventually 'want to coach in the NFL again.'
Even if Michigan comes to Harbaugh with a new deal, per The Athletic, 'the people we talked to there have their doubts' that it he'd accept it over a return to the NFL.
But this is Harbaugh Watch 2022. According to a separate report from The Athletic on Wednesday afternoon, the Harbaugh-Raiders connection is 'total noise.' Harbaugh is merely using the rumors as 'hypothetical leverage' in his contract talks with Michigan, which has reportedly made him a 'competitive offer' to stay. This comes a year after the university sliced Harbaugh's salary in half following a 2-4 season.
According to The Athletic, Harbaugh was 'pissed' about the paycut, which dropped him from the Big Ten’s highest-paid coach to one of its lowest-paid. There are now nine college coaches who make at least double Harbaugh’s $4 million base salary, including Michigan State’s Mel Tucker ($9.5 million). But according to Harbaugh himself, the pay cut was "no big deal."
“Didn’t really mean anything to me,” he said before Michigan’s loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff. “It's just money. Big deal.”
Yes, the Raiders are searching for a new head coach. No, as far as anyone knows, they have not reached out to Harbaugh, who could be fired for cause if he doesn't report any contact with NFL teams to Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel. The Raiders are also searching for a new GM, and Davis has said the new GM will hire the new coach. Per The Athletic, players on the Raiders want interim head coach Rich Bisaccia to be retained after he led the team to its first playoff appearance in five seasons, but Davis 'is looking for a new face of the organization.'
Michigan has its face of the program in Harbaugh, a son of the Big House who returned in 2015 to bring back the past, to slay Ohio State, to reclaim the Big Ten, to compete for national championships. Seven years later, he finally did it. Is that enough for Harbaugh to leave? Or is that more incentive to stay? Upon the conclusion of the program's first 12-win season in three decades, Harbaugh said "it feels like a start," a new "beginning."
For Michigan football? Or for him?