Harbaugh Haters Have a Point (Maybe)

I'll eat shit a little bit as a so called "Harbaugh defender" because it's become obvious even to my biased eyes that Harbaugh's teams play really tight in big games and big moments. And it's not hard to draw a line between this pattern of behavior and Harbaugh's jitteriness for lack of a better term. He's intense in a way that seems to work at the NFL level but not so much with 18-to-22 year-olds. Unfortunately, this aspect of his coaching probably isn't going away.

The "Fire Harbaugh" crowd sees this and wants to roll the dice on a new head coach, even if the odds are uncomfortably high that his hypothetical replacement will trend closer to Brady Hoke/Rich Rod than Dabo Sweeney or even Lloyd Carr 2.0. Take the blinders off and look around the country. Elite program after elite program has floundered trying to find that perfect coach. Hell, look at what's happening at Penn State! A not-so-small faction of the Nittany Lion fanbase wants to exile James Franklin, who by any reasonable standard is one of the best coaches in the country. It's easy to fall in love with the potential of the unknown.

The million dollar question in the debate over Harbaugh's future is whether Michigan's ceiling is capped if he remains the head coach. Even a lot of Harbaugh supporters seem to be arguing for his higher floor than defending the possibility that he still gives Michigan a high ceiling. Personally, I am with the Harbaugh haters who want/expect/demand a head coach that gives Michigan a high ceiling. I don't want to settle for an endless parade of 8-4 or 9-3 seasons for the foreseeable future. But I disagree that Harbaugh doesn't give Michigan a high ceiling.

Yes, the jitteriness and general chaos Harbaugh exudes is not exactly conducive to peek performances in big games but I don't think it's insurmountable. The biggest issues in Harbaugh's tenure have been failures at quarterback and a total misunderstanding of what type of assistant coach he needs to hire. And who could blame him? He had achieved wild success everywhere he went by hiring the type of coaches he has consistently courted at Michigan. It took until this season to finally hire the right type of coaches: young, energetic assistants who bring with them college specific schemes and are willing to bust their balls on the recruiting trail.

If Harbaugh has finally found his star quarterback (either a continuously improving Cade McNamara or a down-the-road J.J. McCarthy) and if he has indeed hired the right assistants this time (pending a learning curve from Mike MacDonald, who got absolutely owned on Saturday), then what's the actual argument in favor of canning Harbaugh? Anyone can say "fire Harbaugh" but name a program that isn't a mess in the entire country outside of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Oregon and Notre Dame. Even Penn State is on shaky ground apparently. And Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Clemson have built-in advantages that Michigan simply can't match year in and year out. And the guy many Wolverine fans think could be our savior (Matt Campbell) doesn't even seem to be on the radar of places like USC and LSU. That should probably tell us something.