harbaugh

Aw crap he's going to Disneyland. [Bryan Fuller]

After nine years, three straight Big Ten titles, three straight wins over Ohio State, three straight trips to the Playoff, one National Championship, and many, many failed attempts, someone with a Harbaugh-to-NFL rumor seems to finally be correct.

…as seemingly confirmed by the Chargers.

Whether they initiate a cursory search process first or not, the job is going to Sherrone Moore. Michigan's incumbent OC/OL coach served as interim head man four times last year, winning at Penn State, and winning the most narratively significant Michigan-Ohio State game ever played. More importantly, insiders say Sherrone Moore has the confidence of the players and staff. Also the other names talked about during periods of high Harbaugh departure inevitability were Kalen DeBoer, recently installed in Saban's chair, and Jedd Fisch, who is taking DeBoer's.

While the bulk of the coaching staff should stay put, if/when they name Moore he will need new coordinators for all three phases. During the post-2020 program rebuild Harbaugh brought in a lot of staff with deeper ties to Michigan than himself. If/when Moore is named, he is likely to hold onto critical architects of that turnaround like Steve Clinkscale, Mike Hart, Ron Bellamy, Mike Elston, Grant Newsome, Kirk Campbell, Denard Robinson, and most importantly S&C coach Ben Herbert. Defensive wunderkind Jesse Minter and the somehow still vastly underemployed Jay Harbaugh are expected to join Jay's dad in LA. If I was Sherrone I would ask them to use what they were going to pay Jim to try to hold onto those guys.

Michigan had some hope of holding onto Harbaugh, but one cannot win the Lombardi Trophy at Michigan. College coaches who can make the leap to the pros are rare--Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz all failed--and among them Harbaugh is the rarest: a successful college coach who's *already* taken an NFL team to the Super Bowl. It stings to lose him now, when Michigan's as strong as it's been in our lifetimes, but I've never met a Stanford fan who lamented Bill Walsh, a Canes fan mad at Jimmy Johnson, or a happy USC fan whether they had Pete Carroll or not.

This will not be the last time we talk about Jim Harbaugh, who turned around a program experiencing its worst decade since the 1950s, and leaves, like Fritz Crisler, after taking one of the greatest teams ever assembled to the pinnacle of college football. Crisler's top lieutenant promptly won another championship, but in the years afterward Michigan's administration fell behind in a rapidly changing landscape. Perhaps the benefit of knowing history is the power to learn from it.

Welcome, fans of the reigning National Champions, to the Age of Moore.

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[Barron]

UPDATE: official. Statements from Santa Ono and Warde Manuel after the jump.

Drink your milk, kids, and this could be you. [Patrick Barron]

Harbaugh has been voted the year’s best coach in the country by the Associated Press.

Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, who took the Bearcats to the playoffs and an undefeated regular season, finished second. Harbaugh received a plurality (22) first place votes of the 53 cast, with Fickell (16), Baylor's Dave Aranda (5) MSU's Mel Tucker (4), and Utah State's Blake Anderson (3) the others receiving more than one vote.

The Football Writers Association of America also named Harbaugh a finalist for their Coach of the Year award, which will be announced on December 20. The FWAA often, but not always, chooses the same winner as the AP. Harbaugh was also Pro Football Focus's choice for the award.

CoY awards usually go to coaches of small schools having historic seasons or coaches of blue blood programs bouncing back from historic lows. Performance relative to expectations is a (de facto) primary component. The last ten AP CoYs were Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina), Ed Orgeron (LSU), Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Scott Frost (UCF), Mike MacIntyre (Colorado), Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Garry Patterson (TCU), Gus Malzahn (Auburn), Brian Kelly again, and Les Miles (LSU). Harbaugh is the first Michigan head coach to win the AP’s designation, which they’ve been giving out since 1998 (Bill Snyder). The FWAA winners of those years were the same except they chose Bill Clark (UAB) over Kelly in 2018, Kirk Ferentz (Iowa) over Swinney in 2015, and Mike Gundy (Ok St) over Miles in 2011.

Clearly, Harbaugh falls in the latter category. After his 2-4 season in 2020, Harbaugh agreed to a restructured to make him easier to buy out. That also occurred well into January, IE after the NFL coaching carousel stopped spinning. Harbaugh jettisoned several longtime and grizzled assistants—including at OL coach and defensive coordinator—replacing them with guys in their 30s in the mold of his recently Broyles-winning OC Josh Gattis. Needless to say most of the fanbase, including this space, were not optimistic that the gambles would work out.

Harbaugh and his young staff are now Big Ten champions, ranked #2 in the country with a 42-27 win over Ohio State and a berth in the college football playoffs. They’re currently ranked 4th in SP+, with the #16 defense and #7 defense to Bill Connelly, plus the #1 special teams unit to Brian Fremeau’s FEI.

The new contract does have a clause that pays Harbaugh a $75,000 bonus for winning this award, but since he decided to donate all of his bonuses this year to those who took a paycut in the athletic department during last year’s COVID cutbacks, that’s just more good news for them. Harbaugh finished one vote behind MSU head coach Mel Tucker for Big Ten coach of the year.

1 hour and 35 minutes

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1. UCF Recap

starts at 1:00

We liked 65% to 85% of that game, depending on whether we were bothered by Kenpom time. Being bothered by Dickinson's minutes at the beginning isn't original anymore. Being bothered at block/charge calls on the other hand.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after The Jump]

“Rashan will be — you watch. You tell me afterwards how Rashan does, ok. That’s all I’ll say on that.”

Heavy on praise, light on depth chart details.