JIM HARBAUGH APPRECIATION THREAD
We have arguably the best coach in all of football, not just college! Our program is at an incredible high, the culture is amazing and we have a great record of winning at the highest levels and with great academic success rates. We've done all this with arguably one hand tied behind our coach's back, which is something nobody in the administration ever seems to recognize. When the dust settles here, people need to realize this is absolutely nothing and higher-ups (regents, admin, etc.) need to understand what the fan base and university want is for Harbaugh to be our coach for as long as possible. Nobody that is an alum at this university cares about egos at the higher ups or this ridiculous witch hunt. Rest assured, if he leaves, funding to both the university and athletic department will fall hard and fast.
GIVE THIS MAN HIS CONTRACT AND DO IT NOW. He is a GREAT coach! Not re-signing him to a lengthy extension might very well have been the goal of this ridiculous smear campaign that seems to have been started by our rival. So scream it from the rooftops! Tweet it out, make sure Warde, Ono and the regents all see this! If you appreciate Harbaugh and want him back, let it be known! MAKE THIS POST THE MOST LIKED IN MGoBlog HISTORY. (Mods, I don't want any of the points. That's not what this is about).
Go Blue!
October 27th, 2023 at 9:28 AM ^
"myan-ee"
October 27th, 2023 at 9:59 AM ^
Announcing the contract extension would be the perfect move to show everyone that this really is nothing. Would at least push back on the PR slant that is going against them right now.
"why announce the extension right now" "well obviously michigan thinks this is going to amount to nothing" Mic drop.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
It will indeed. Especially after Portnoy offered Connor Stalions a job at barstool.
Going to be fun watching Portnoy this weekend!
October 27th, 2023 at 10:45 AM ^
Portnoy is the guy you love to have on your side but would absolutely hate if he was on the other. I love his reactions
October 27th, 2023 at 10:51 AM ^
In addition to immediately announcing a lucrative Long Term contract, Warde and Ono should publish a statement to the effect that: "We completely support and stand behind our Football Coach Jim Harbaugh." Meaning: If you are coming after him then you are coming after all of us.
WTF are they waiting for! Get It Done NOW!
October 27th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^
Bun for all, and all for bun.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
I continue to be amazed that no one wants to talk about the obvious: there hasn’t been a contract extension yet because Harbaugh doesn’t want one yet. Does anyone really think that after the past two seasons, the administration wouldn’t have gladly given him pretty much whatever he wanted financially? But a lucrative extension would naturally include an expensive buyout, and an expensive buyout would likely end the possibility of Harbaugh returning to the NFL. He hasn’t signed a deal because he doesn’t want to foreclose his options. I expect it will finally be settled this off season. If he gets an NFL offer, he’s gone. If he doesn’t, maybe he concludes he’ll never get one and finally signs a deal to stay.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
It was reported 2-3 weeks ago that the extension signing and announcement was imminent.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:54 AM ^
i mean that's what it said in the PRESS but what about this guy's OPINION
October 27th, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^
Hasn’t “imminent” already passed? But say those reports were really true, and Harbaugh was ready to give up on the idea of the returning to the NFL, but now Michigan wants to put things on hold because of the BS sign stealing issue…how do you think that’s going to sit with him?
October 27th, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
Ignore the downvoters, etc..
Hasn't "imminent already passed?
You'd have to think so.
how do you think that's going to sit with him?
In addition to the "this is nothing to worry about" regarding the sign stealing, the potential and case for Coach Harbaugh leaving isn't foolish or illogical at all. Contract hasn't been signed for how long? But yeah it's going to happen any day now. As selfish as I think Coach Harbaugh would be to abandon his players, his fellow employees, and the fight for the betterment of college football, I wouldn't blame him one bit. He's the person he is, and the person he is is a person who doesn't abide fools, fights for the causes and people he believes in, and he does what he loves and does best - college football.
You made two great points so don't let any downvoters or oblivious commenters get you down.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:16 PM ^
I don’t worry about down votes. I’m sure Harbaugh loves his players and Michigan football, but I doubt he feels the same about the administration. He’s also made no secret that he has an interest in returning to the NFL, or at least considering that option.
When you add to that the NCAA apparently having an axe to grind with him, the possible reluctance of the administration to stand behind him because of this latest BS, and the way NIL is changing college football and in some ways turning it into NFL light, except with fewer rules and more freedom of movement for players, I doubt he wants to commit himself anywhere right now. When those stories came out recently, his comment was something like “go where you’re wanted.” For all of these reasons, I think he will leave if he receives an NFL offer this off season.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:59 PM ^
I’ll add that Harbaugh went 44-19-1 with the 49ers and went to three NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl in four seasons. He was a fumbled punt away from another Super Bowl. For his efforts, he was sent away by owner Jed York. In order to justify what he knew what he was going to do, despite all that winning, York and his toadies planted stories in the media before and during the final season, which were reported as coming from “anonymous sources,” that disparaged Harbaugh. The turmoil likely affected the team, they went 8-8, and Harbaugh was fired. I imagine his experience makes him especially sensitive to those running things not having his back.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
Wish i could upvote this more.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:00 AM ^
I appreciate coach Harbaugh. I hope he stays and shoves it right up the NCAA's ass, with a red hot poker.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
Exactly! Starting next week with Purdue.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:09 PM ^
Agreed. It's laughable that the NCAA member schools choose not to implement a mechanism to annihilate programs that:
- Get caught on FBI wiretaps coordinating $100K payouts, or
- Demonstrate a complete disregard for their student athletes by offering fake classes (with zero regard for those whose athletic dreams may fall short and for whom an actual degree and skill might one day prove beneficial), or
- Watch video of a student athlete throw a competitor to the turf, then once in a defenseless position lunge into them leading with their full weight and helmet to the back of the other's head (after and outside of any relevance to the play itself) and determine that's worth about a 45 minute suspension from playing football, or
- Let's not forget, one of lovable Kirby's first acts as a Georgia Bulldog: https://deadspin.com/kirbys-law-will-make-it-harder-to-report-on-georgia-a-1770500372 known as "Kirby's Law", designed clearly for one purpose, for Georgia Football to thumb its nose at transparency, the NCAA and effectively all of Georgia's competitors (as they now shoot for their 3-peat), YET...
...the coach / program in the crosshairs of the NCAA is:
- The guy who looks for kids who want to work hard to strive to become the best they can be, 1% better one day at a time,
- The guy who embraces satellite camps, affording thousands of young men the opportunity to meet and engage coaches from around the country that they might not ever have the opportunity to engage,
- Works with a medical team that is willing to put the health and safety of a player like St. Juste ahead of the team's need for a corner,
- Collaborates with UM alumni to create opportunities for student athletes to see, explore and experience parts of the world, its history, in both its beauty and inequity that many of us will never see,
- A leader, staff and athletic department who do this all while having one of the highest graduation rates and academic scores for a football team, with a commitment to developing each young man into the best he can be, regardless of what his future holds.
So, ya, let's jump to the place where a real transgression is free cheeseburgers, tips and a potentially over-zealous analyst that may or may not have actually violated the NCAA's policies on in-person scouting, because there's no way Ohio (or anyone else) would have someone buried in 110,000 people on a Saturday to try to understand and document Michigan's play-calling system to its benefit. In-person scouting of the team's your playing is where young men's and women's futures go to perish. Got it.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:42 PM ^
Facts, logic, portraying the current predicament as exactly the size it is (not mountaining a molehill like some, or molehilling a mountain by others), and pointing out the hypocrisy and true evils in the current college football world
You put just about everything into it. If you could expand a little more on what you wrote, this absolutely needs to be a Diary. Heck, this needs to be a diary anyway.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:01 AM ^
Is SergeantBlue Conner Stallions? Either way appreciate the enthusiasm even if the ALL CAPS title is taking it a bit far.
In the future people will compare Bo to John the Baptist because he came before Harbaugh. We've spent our time in the desert and it is time for us to ascend. Hopefully Harbaugh doesn't get crucified first.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:11 AM ^
"Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution." -Abraham Lincoln
October 27th, 2023 at 9:32 AM ^
FWIW I wasn't trying to be negative other than the all caps joke. Jim Harbaugh saved Michigan football.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:11 AM ^
You probably got down voted because Moses was the one who spent around 80 years of his life in the desert, 40 in exile at Midian and 40 leading the Isrealites out of Egypt, not John the Baptist.
Harbaugh is probably more of a Jeremiah, hated by the masses but doesn't let it bother him because lies are blinding those who hate him.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
New Testament Old Testament Analogy Mash up!
October 27th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
I conflated Jesus' 40 days in the desert struggling with the devil with the flight from Egypt 40 years bit. Either way Spartan and Buckeye tears are like manna from heaven.
(Also, while I'm on the religion analogies, during Bo's last year, and perhaps before, I have a vague recollection of the student section bowing to him with their arms outstretched as though he were a god. If we win the National Championship I think we should bring that back for Jim.)
October 27th, 2023 at 11:51 AM ^
I completely understand. I wasn't using that quote to "come at you". I've always enjoyed your comments and you definitely don't strike me as a negative person. Fortunately for me (unless it's misattributed) no one noted that the quote actually comes from Albert Einstein and not Abraham Lincoln. As the latter said shortly after the Civil War started, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet."
October 27th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
A serious Catholic like Harbaugh would strongly object to your analogy, FYI.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:01 AM ^
Jim Harbaugh for President (after he retires from UM)!
October 27th, 2023 at 9:34 AM ^
Nothing suggests he couldn't do both.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:04 AM ^
He could. After all, he's the one who made Michael Barrett who he is today.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:02 AM ^
Here's hoping Harbaugh is the one doing the crusifyin,' not the other way around
October 27th, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
"Coach Harbaugh of U of M cares more about his team, the state of college football, and student athletes than he does about asinine rules" News at 11
"Jim Harbaugh knowingly infecting others with football love: MDOH and Ann Arbor police announce investigation"
October 27th, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
Yes, I am in the Harbaugh camp. I absolutely love the staff he has put together.
And, down vote me if you want, but I also appreciate Connor Stallion. I just wish he had a bit more sense in his operations...
October 27th, 2023 at 11:57 AM ^
*Connor THEE Stalions
October 27th, 2023 at 2:56 PM ^
guess they didn't see what you did there
October 27th, 2023 at 9:10 AM ^
Harbaugh has never not been anything but a great coach at Michigan.
One thing that doesn't get brought up enough is just how good of a job he has done graduating players. GSR is an NCAA measurement that doesn't penalize for players going pro or transferring as long as they were in academic good standing when they left, Federal graduation rate is measured just by anyone who joins the program and if they graduated in five years.
Michigan's GSRs the last four years are 91,92,96,94 and the FGR was 72,73,79,78. Those GSR numbers beat Notre Dame and Stanford over that time. Carr, RichRod, and Hoke were typically 25 points or so lower on GSR and in the 50s and 60s for FGR.
And for perspective Georgia's GSRs were 64,71,59, 54 with Federal Graduation rates of 44, 48, 38,and 34. https://web3.ncaa.org/aprsearch/gsrsearch
It is an underappreciated Harbaugh stat.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:26 AM ^
Well put. Also a guy who unquestionably supports his players and actually utilizes his platform to try to affect change. He has always been vocally/visibly out in front of issues such as transfers and revenue sharing, etc.
We are incredibly fortunate to have him, its beyond time the AD reflected that attitude as well.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:11 AM ^
This knucklehead minority owner may have had a hand in Harbaugh not joining the Vikings! Thanks, Mr Sourdough Knucklehead!!
It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
Dude is a baller. I'll never forget listening to armed forces radio on the bridge of my ship in 1985, in-port Subic Bay, in the wee hours of the morning. Harbaugh to Kolesar, me jumping up and down and probably yelling a bit. Hours later, at breakfast in the wardroom, the XO comes in and looks at me. "Michigan won, huh?" I forgot his stateroom was immediately below the bridge and I was jumping up and down literally over his head. LOL. Joy. Joy. Coach Harbaugh has brought JOY back to a place that was very dark. Very dark. That can NEVER be taken away as a fan or as a player. They come to Michigan to play again for a GREAT Coach and staff.
I hope he stays. This little blip of negativity is not on him. The fighter in him, in his team, in us fans, now is the time to show up. Pay The Man. Lord knows JOY is priceless.
GO BLUE!!!!
October 27th, 2023 at 9:37 AM ^
Thank you for your service.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:46 AM ^
I was that game as a kid - one of my best in-person memories of mich football of all time. I can still remember everyone standing as the ball went into the air, and the roar as it landed in Kolesar's hands.
October 27th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
And Jim stood tall on a safety blitz that creamed him just as he let the ball go... total dime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlR5gdnWzSI&ab_channel=WolverineHistorian
This is OUR GUY. The Adminstration needs to get some balls. Stand up for the ultimate Michigan Man and tell the trolls from the ncaa to go F**K themselves.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
Yes, a bold, double-bird up your fucking asses to the NCAA is exactly what is required here.
Unfortunately, the people who ascend to and hold these positions of AD, Regent, administrator have been tepidly tip-toeing around conflicts, political fires, and microaggressions for years to get to where they are. Not in their DNA to make a bold and confrontational statement.
October 27th, 2023 at 5:41 PM ^
That was my junior year and what a great game to be at. Jimmy is our guy! Please keep Jimmy!!
October 27th, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
Now its Armed Forces Network and they pretty regularly have the Michigan games on TV. Its one of the few things to look forward to while underway in the fall. Also, during the COVID cruises there was Wifi on the boat in the mess decks, wardrooms, mess, and library.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:15 AM ^
WHO'S GOT IT BETTER THAN US!!!!!!!!!
NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SANTA, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS FOR YOU TO SIGN THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!
October 27th, 2023 at 9:17 AM ^
First off...we are not a "win at any cost" type of institution. So, regardless of the motive, if there is some shady stuff happening around the program and we were benefiting from it...it should be looked into. No need to bury your head in the sand and act like there is no smoke. This program obviously made some mistakes, starting with this staffer.
In regard to JH being our coach for the future... Let's not forget, it was not until recently did he get over the OSU hump and 2017-2020 were not the best years and a lot of people (alumni included) wanted him gone. Not to mention he has flirted with the NFL 2 separate times, costing us future recruits.
With all that being said..
These last 2 seasons, have been nothing short of amazing to watch as a Michigan fan. We rarely have a chance to be at the top because of things like "admissions issues", lack of bagmen or NIL funds", "high academic standards" and this costs us with elite talent nationwide. I give all the props to the coaching staff for what they have done with the kids they have found/recruited.
As much as I want to keep winning and playing at a high level, we do need to make sure we do so with integrity.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:36 AM ^
Spare us.
We are talking about things that were all done within the letter of the rules while programs like OSU/GA etc are out here blatantly paying recruits for visits and literally buying players, etc. The pearl-clutching routine is just completely disingenuous.
Go ahead and compare 2017-2020 to 2008-2014, people who wanted him gone were idiotic and grossly overreacted to a covid season where it is now readily apparent he followed the rules regarding practices/guidelines etc and many programs (glares at Indiana) did not, people overreacting to that are hardly a litmus test of his actual performance.
Man has a near-as-makes-no-difference 0.75 winning percentage here after having to literally rebuild the program, he has led the program with integrity from the drop and will continue to do so.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
Being critical of his record prior to beating OSU in 2021 was / is absolutely warranted.