Harbaugh's Contract Situation
Pete Thamel recently wrote an article on Coach Harbaugh's contract.
"Harbaugh is the only Power Five coach with less than two years remaining on his contract. Few even have less than three. With a winning percentage and a reputation that should have earned him an extension long ago, Harbaugh instead is inexplicably headed toward the end of his contract."
What say you, does he/should he receive an extension, and why has he not received one already?
Link to article: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/in-contract-limbo-does-jim-harbaugh-need-to-justify-his-salary-235436731.html
October 14th, 2020 at 4:00 PM ^
Held my nose and read it until I got to the "even if they flop this season as many around the Big Ten are predicting" part. It sounds like wishful thinking on the part of the article's author, as do many of the other Harbaugh "issues" into which he tries to breathe life. I'm sure Coach Harbaugh will take a temporary pay cut, as will most coaches this year as a result of diminishing athletic department funds, but I still believe he'll stay as long as he wants. Even Herbstreit thinks he deserves a long leash, because, as he said (and I'm paraphrasing), 'Unhappy Michigan fans might want to reign in their desires to move on from him. I can't think of anyone better to run the Michigan program.'
October 14th, 2020 at 4:15 PM ^
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think Harbaugh is a great ambassador to Michigan football and has run a great program for the players which has benefitted them a lot. He has actually produced quite a few players who have gotten to the NFL and done well there. He also managed to rebuild the enthusiasm for the program that was in the dumpster at the end of the Hoke/RR period.
On the other hand, having never beaten OSU, been 1-4 in bowl games with some bad losses, 0 Big Ten titles, and a poor record against top 10 teams is not very acceptable given his huge salary. Some of the games where Michigan lost, it just looked like the team wasn't well prepared. He has yet to produce an elite QB here, which almost all of us thought he would in 5 years.
Overall, though I'd say Michigan should give him an extension unless we have a better alternative to JH, which I doubt there is out there.