If Harbaugh turns down the offer is he still loved by the fan base? Is his choice savior or villain?
So, we all know we think he would be a savior or at least the most loved alum at the time if he takes the job. What if he turns it down? Would he become the most hated alum? After all, it's not like he's turning down a middling offer. It makes him the highest paid coach in all of football. Even if the offer he would accept from the NFL is higher, i have to believe this offer aided tremendously in getting him to that stratosphere. I think most people would have thought he was a $6-7 million guy to the NFL without this type of offer from Michigan.
December 18th, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
December 18th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
If we put the best offer we possibly could on the table, made an all-out effort to get him to Ann Arbor, and in the end he still declines, I don't see any reason you can really fault Michigan or Harbaugh in that scenario. It will sting, but if in such a scenario the Plan B is a solid Plan B, I would probably get over it and look forward to the future all the same. Harbaugh's legacy as a player in Ann Arbor makes it impossible for me to villify him if he chooses another path than the one presented to him.
December 18th, 2014 at 1:03 PM ^
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December 18th, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
December 18th, 2014 at 2:11 PM ^
You don’t need leverage when you offer something more valuable and unique compared to your competition, and you are the best option available.
You don't see Apple/Tesla/Ferrari discounting thier products. The price is what it is. You know what you're getting, you know what you have to pay for it.
Leverage is for the weak.
Harbaugh is strong like Ukraine.
December 18th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
Well if he doesn't come to MICH hopefully he'll be ready in 4 years after we fire the next coach*
*unless that coach happens to be a Bob Stoops or Dan Mullen
December 18th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
Honestly, not crazy about the guy ever since his comments about Michigan. This is chance to redeem himself. If he doesn't come, still not crazy about him.
December 18th, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^
I can't fault him if he wants to stay in the NFL, but I'd be extremely disappointed. He has a much better chance to succeed at Michigan than with the Raiders, Jets, pretty much any other team I've seen.
December 18th, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^
You people should forget about Miles, period!
Harbaugh shud coach UM unless he is a totally prideful fool chasing after the fool's gold, the NFL's Super Bowl, when he can mold the college players easier than the NFL players.
December 18th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
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December 18th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^
Well, if we learn that he's strung along his alma mater simply in order to leverage a better NFL deal, there would be reason to feel at least some resentment toward him. Business is business. But, dude, it's your school, man.
December 18th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
This is why I almost hope he does NOT accept this offer, and why I wish the offer was never made. It blows up the mission of the athletic department, makes it clearly Football-centric, while isolating Football almost entirely from "the University of Michigan".
Huge justifications have to be made when you pay the head football coach $8M annual, and the next highest paid coach is $X dollars. You have an $8 Million Dollar Man walking around on campus as a University employee! Prove to me there won't be resentment among the professional ranks from that. I'm serious! That amount of money for a college coach is crazy.
IMO, this is a very short-sighted move by Jim Hackett, but totally in line with corporate-think. It well appeases the lizard brains of BOLD MOVES!...WE HAVE TO MAKE UP FOR 2006!...IT'S TIME TO THROW OUR WEIGHT AROUND!...even if we define that weight in something far less than the integrity of the University and its student-athletes.
This move is money defining a program; and since Steven Ross has become involved with his $200M donations, that's what the Block M has stood for, with very little else to show for it.
The beauty of sports is its simplicity: a brutal display of character. Work persevering, resulting in victory. You can't buy it; you can only embellish it. But you have to have it first. And in the case of college athletics, it has to be defined through the prism of the Student-Athletes competing - and defining their character by a clear motivation to excel at being BOTH.
As you can probably tell, I'm a little ambivolent.
December 18th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^
December 18th, 2014 at 2:13 PM ^
Michigan/Hackett are doing the right thing by making an offer that should be irresistible.
However, if Harbaugh doesn't come, it isn't the money. It's other things.
My gut tells me that this offer also signals other candidates that we really mean business this time around. I think it's a comparatively good thing this got out. It's going to pique the interest of other HCs and tell them that we take this shit very seriously indeed.
As for the rumors swirling around about ipads and all that, who cares.
December 18th, 2014 at 2:19 PM ^
Don't know that I love him now. I just think he is the best choice for the program.
December 18th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
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December 18th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
December 18th, 2014 at 2:40 PM ^
That being said, I will be frustrated, because it almost definitely means that whoever we end up with will likely keep the losing to OSU right on going. It's extremely frustrating to see OSU go through one down year (by their standards), and then have a top-2 coach in America fall right into their lap. That tattoo scandal was arguably the best thing that could've ever happened to them. It's frustrating to see them keep taking huge strides forward while we struggle just to make bowl games.
If we miss out on Harbaugh, the only comfort I can hold onto is the belief that everyone has down years at some point. OSU will too someday. And when they do, I will revel in their misery.
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December 18th, 2014 at 2:46 PM ^
JH isn't going to let the whole Mich fan base down. Hackett made sure the offer was Top Grade. JH is coming!
I need a drink to chill now.
December 18th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
Look, I think he'd make a great coach at/for Michigan, but he's not a savior. Frankly, I doubt very seriously if we'd have been that much better this year had he been our coach.
How do you coach a QB to not throw behind receivers or to make them see the whole field? How do you coach receivers not to drop the ball?
He's a helluva coach, but not a miracle worker. Should he, indeed, come back to Ann Arbor, I hope people can be a little fair and patient. Reasonable expectations.
If he decides not to come, then wish him well and move on. Hardly a villain. There are enough real ones out in the real world...
December 18th, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^
I don't know what Jim Harbaugh really wants to do. Others might. I don't.
Does he?:
A. Stay in the NFL and win a Super Bowl ring or two or three?
- OR
B. Lead the Michigan Wolverines to BIG10 titles and the Final 4 on a regular basis while planting a fucking orchard of a UM coaching tree?
I do know this: At 50 years old, what a lucky bastard he is to be living a life where these two opportunities are real and lie right before him for the choosing. All he has to do is say "YES" to one or the other.
He's done well for himself. Very well.
December 18th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
HOW did he turn it down? WHY did he turn it down? What did he say about the offer?
December 18th, 2014 at 5:04 PM ^
I would accept that he had good and sufficient reason to do so. I would wish him well and hope that in his professional and personal life he would continue to prosper.
December 18th, 2014 at 5:10 PM ^
December 18th, 2014 at 6:00 PM ^
My gut tells me the U received a "yes" wink, or this would have never leaked and we would have already hired Miles or Stoops. There is no reason to wait on Jim and draw this out through December if he didn't give some sort of approval nod. If you have $8M to play with, you can literally hire anyone you want (after a Jim rejection).
So, if Jim drags this on and turns the U down in two weeks, he's a scumbag. It would be complete chicken shit to air us out like this with no intention to come.
December 18th, 2014 at 6:15 PM ^
While on a rational level, I like many understand that he has legitimate reasons to stay in the NFL, I think how the fanbase ultimately feels about him will all be about Michigan's on-field success.
The immediate anger and anxiety would dissipate directly with the quality of coach hired in his stead. If during the first week of January I saw Bob Stoops in a block M visor, for example, I'd feel pretty good.
December 18th, 2014 at 6:26 PM ^
Why the fuck would we consider one of our former greats a villain? Maybe if he decided to coach OSU or something, but regardless of whether he comes here or stays in the NFL he is still one of ours.