In Your Opinion: If Harbaugh leaves...what's his legacy?

Average coach who bailed after one lucky year.

A weird guy who did weird stuff and had one very good, but not great, year.

He failed to get us back to where we were regularly beating OSU, winning the division, winning the conference and making the playoffs.  That was the goal and it was not met.

The unknown part is if the staff and team he built will stay together. If so, he may get a bit of reflected glory from what others accomplish.  If Warde goes outside, we reboot and everyone hits the portal then his standing will take a further hit. 

An incomplete disappointment, relative to expectations.

Look, Harbaugh is his own man and has to do what's best for him, his career, and his life. But he endured a lot of heartbreak and disappointment over his first six seasons, just couldn't get over the hump, and he stuck with it. Had to swallow his pride and endure a humiliating pay cut last season. Now he finally gets over the hump, gives everyone the whole rah-rah "I'd do this job for free, this is just the beginning" business, Michigan is finally on the upward trajectory and enters the offseason with true, real momentum as a program, and NOW he wants to bail? For the Vikings? 

If it was for the Raiders, fine. At the time, it looked like the Raiders may have been the one job where they would've given him everything he wanted, a real godfather "make him an offer he can't refuse" kind of situation. Couple that with his history with the organization and I'd get it. You can be perfectly happy in your current job but if another job comes along that gives you literally everything you want in a dream job, then yeah, go for it. Can't argue with that. 

But this deal with the Vikings makes me just think he's not looking for the perfect NFL job. He's just looking for any NFL job and is ready to bail as soon as he gets the offer. Which, fine man, go live your life, but it sure makes a lot of what you said a short month or two ago incredibly disingenuous and two-faced.

Honestly, even if the deal with the Vikings or the Dolphins falls through, if I'm Warde I would respectfully ask him to pack his bags, hand over the keys, and say his good-byes to his players. If you don't want to be here that's okay, but you can't coach this team under that circumstance even if the NFL doesn't want you, because that sure as hell isn't fair to the players, the staff, or the program at large. And this will follow him and Michigan as long as he's here. Day, Tucker, Franklin, and everyone under the sun will use this narrative against Michigan on the recruiting trail every season that he's here. And it WILL cost Michigan recruits. 

In short, he raised the bar and got Michigan back to being a competitive, respectable program, and I thank him for that. But if he has one foot out the door, Michigan needs to ask him to put the other foot out too, and make way for someone who wants to jump in with both feet. And given the results he's attained (3-4 against MSU, 1-5 against OSU, one conference title in seven years) I think we can find someone who can at least replicate that, if not do better. Harbaugh stabilized the program and has it on solid ground, but there is someone out there who can take what he's done and build on it. Just up to Warde to go find him. 

This situation is honestly par for course for his entire career. He's come very close to reaching the mountain top at every place he has coached since Stanford. 

At Stanford, he got them within striking distance of a national championship birth within four years. They finished 12-1 and #4 in the country, which would have been a likely playoff birth in today's CFB. He left Stanford for the NFL soon after. 

At San Francisco, He got them to a Superbowl and lost to his brother. Two seasons later (and one NFC championship later) he left to go to Michigan.

At Michigan, he finally made the playoffs after 7 years, beating OSU and winning a BIG 10 championship and now he bolts back to the NFL. 

If I were a Vikings fan, i'd be thinking, it's pretty likely that Jim will almost take us to the promise land only to fall short and leave us hanging. 

It is a very odd history. Maybe he thinks his success isn't sustainable and he needs to jump ship when things are running smoothly rather than when they are sinking. Maybe he has a fear of failure and wants to leave every job with his reputation in tact. It's just odd that someone who speaks about summiting the mountain has consistently made it to the last mile mark and turns around. I wouldn't be surprised if Jim is the most accomplished football coach to never win a National Championship or Superbowl. 

Hard not to look poorly at his legacy considering the way he’s leaving. If he didn’t want to be here, which he clearly does not, he should have stepped down. The way he has carried himself since the season ended is embarrassing and risks long term harm to future teams whether he stays or goes. If this was any other job, fine I get it, coaches are slimy. But this is your friggin alma mater and this is how you’re acting? Yikes man, says a lot about the character of the guy. 

He took the six free wins Michigan is awarded every year, just because other coaches didn't doesn't mean they aren't free, and built on that a bit. Had one bordering on great season in which he still lost a game he shouldn't have. Refused to accept that throwing the ball is a viable, sometimes even necessary, way to win football games. I think this held us back on the field and in recruiting.

Overall I'd say B-.

I think his legacy was/is essentially taking us back to the 90’s/early 2000 expectations. The failure to truly develop a qb limits the legacy from being great. Guy is flat out a great coach. Alex Boone (OSU) played for him and was on a Minneapolis radio show and he raved about Jim when he was with the 49ers. His players love him. He’s had 0 scandals here. Not the outcome we wanted but in most instances he has put the team first. 

Pretty simple;  

1-5 vs OSU 

1 Big Ten Championship

1 Big Ten East Division Championship

1 Trip to CFP

3-4 vs. MSU

1-4 in Bowl Games

2021 Season was a top 5 season in Michigan history.  He did bring Michigan back from the depths of hell.  Truly believe he was just about to get this thing humming.  I think he has created an environment where a new coach can come in and take over with almost no hiccups. 

Bring on Fickell or Gattis.  Hoping we can get Larry Foote.

Kinda looks like he failed and bailed.

Kinda dont know if I can blame the guy.

I give him a B+. He went 3-4 against MSU. 3 of those losses were flukes including this year but losses nonetheless. OSU: 1-6 with a fluke (bad call against) thrown in as well.

His enthusiasm went from sky high the first two years to low in 2019 and 2020 then went up in 2021. Yes, he's left the program in better shape then what is was in 2014.

He leaves with mixed emotions for me. Lots of ups and downs. If he stays, he must commit that he'll stay until he retires, say 6-7 years down the line at Michigan. That's the big IF and just throwing that out there.

As far as legacy goes time will decide...

Me however I am pissed, I hope that the Minnesota Vikings fail miserably and never win another game.

I will probably get over it, and I understand that it is irrational but I would be bitter.  I get to be I am an anonymous internet poster.

I'm sorry, but to hell with Jim. Regardless of if he leaves or not, I'm over him.

Up until the 2021 season he had won nothing. Nothing of significance. Yep he didn't lose to a MAC school, or have an embarasing loss to App St. but didn't win anything of significance.

Statistically Jake Rudock was his best QB. 

How many All Americans did JH and staff recruit that weren't legacy recruits?

I'll appreciate the 2021 season much like I'll always appreciate the 2012 season. To me, they're not a whole lot different. That 2012 team was probably not as good, and had a hell of a lot more "luck" (turnovers) but they won a lot of football games. Definitely 2021 beating OSU, I was stoked to the point I almost shed a single man tear. But losing to MSU, living in MI and having so many MSU family/friends it puts a tarnish, no matter how small, on the season. Losing to MSU and getting smashed by Georgia like they were, puts that season in the good to great category for me.

Fact is JH had one good to great season, two good seasons, and a bunch of other season that were so average that I struggle to even remember them and of course 2020 when the program stopped due to "Covid" (I don't deny the impact of Covid-19 but let's be real a lot of good teams kept playing and a lot of bad teams quit).

Michigan hasn't had a lot of coaches so it's hard to compare them IMO but in the last 25 years I'd say it's this - Lloyd >>>> Jim >> Brady > Rich. Which I think everyone would agree on. 

The problem is on that line, Jim is a lot closer to Brady than he is Lloyd. I don't think any of us would have thought that would be the case. 

If it weren't for Brady putting his QB back into the game when he clearly had a concussion, I for one, would put Brady above JH spitefully. I liked Brady Hoke but that was so inexcusable it forever changed the optics of his history and how he ran the UofM football program. I know a LOT of people would argue this with me, but Brady loved being Michigan's head coach, I'm not sure JH ever did. JH did a lot of things better than Brady for the program, and I'm probably just extremely bitter right now, but it's how I feel right now. In 5 years I will probably feel different.

I just hope to god that they hire the right replacement. I don't want another win vs OSU in the next 10 years, I want a rivalry again. 

Better than RichRod and Hoke, worse than Carr, arguably worse than Moeller

so pretty middle of the road for modern UM coaches 

The job was tougher than he expected. While he was a solid coach who mostly met expectation, he was below expectations on quarterbacks and in rivalry and road games and at times seemed too set in old ways. Ohio State proved to be a challenge beyond his skill set, with the exception of 2021. He'll be remembered as one of the better coaches in recent memory (not too tough with Rich Rod and Hoke preceding him), but he won't go down as one of the Michigan greats. He ran the program with integrity and cared about his players, and that definitely counts for something. 

He will leave with a very mixed legacy. There are enough points on both sides to debate it for years to come. Put it up there with MJ vs Lebron and should Barry Bonds be in the hall of fame as things we can argue forever.

Right now though it's hard to see it as anything but a guy who underachieved for six years, had one good year and then bailed. 

Got our first big ten title since 2004.
This assessment is lacking but since I got to go to Indianapolis and party that’s all I can think about and I love to party. 

I will remember him for winning the games he should have won but certainly being extremely underwhelming in the most important games.  

If you would have told me 7 years ago he would end up being 5-14 against MSU, OSU, and in bowl games, I would have asked if you were pulling the stats from the RichRod/Hoke era which was only 2 wins more than this. Should have been at least 2 wins better against each of those opponents.

I think the exit is more frustrating to me with all of the talk of this being just the beginning.  I also suspected if the exit to the NFL was going to occur, it would have been a far more sexier destination than Minnesota so I feel now exit to NFL would have occurred sooner had there been success sooner.

I will always love Michigan football so excited for the next era to begin!

Fuck em

Overrated and overhyped. Right when we thought things would start to get better he bails. Don’t hate the guy but don’t care for him either

1-5, 3-4, 1-5 total 5-14  .263 winning percentage and thanks to John Harbaugh, we won a Big Ten Title during his stretch, with the facilities, money spent, and what he was paid that over 7 years the .263 winning percentage says it all. Plus if his name was not Harbaugh anybody else would have been canned after the 2018 Ohio State game when his team gave up 62 points. Now Warde has to make a big decision and hit it right.

He had 1 season out of 7 that was good. Bowl losses, losses to OSU, losses to msu and underwhelming qb play. Wasted a great receiving core of black DPJ and Collins. Also keeping a DC that didn’t utilize players like Gary correctly. I’m ready to move on. He wants the nfl go ahead and take it. He promised more I expected more.  

I would tend to view him as a person who quit when facing the prospect of success but before achieving it. On the other hand, I can hardly blame him if he leaves. As soon as things went less than perfectly, the fans never showed him the appreciation he (in my opinion) deserved. Anyone who slammed him for the 2020 season (and there have been many of them on this site) helped push him out the door. The 2020 season was COVID, a season that should never have been played, not a reflection on his capabilities or his intensity.

Have been a supporter throughout his tenure at M and sad to see him go. His teams were a couple unlucky bounces away from greatness (if the punt and the 4th down had each gone the other way...). If only those had gone the other way early on in his M career, everything would've been so much easier! But he embodied "those who stay" and leaves his successor a championship program. Thanks coach!

Mark Richt-type coach who left as soon as it looked like he finally broke through. His first 5ish years were under-achieving with Don Brown's defense mostly carrying the weight for the team. With Gattis, the offense finally starts to come alive and it looks like we've got something good going on both sides of the ball and Harbaugh bails.

I think he'll be remembered as a fairly good coach who underachieved

Not good.  When the going got tough, he ran away.  "The me, The me, The me", is not what Bo said.

The OSU victory is tainted, he is destroying the enjoyment of watching it.  

You got a big pay cut because you couldn't get the job done, but the motivation that the pay cut made showed you what you could really do if you applied yourself instead of just being quirky. Now you made your point, you going to run away like a two-year old throwing a tantrum.

Just leave, don't ever come back, don't ever come back for a special day or anything else. Disassociate yourself with the University totally.  All your records should be stricken from the books, your jersey number with your name on it should never be sold with any association to Michigan, and hopefully you fail miserably in Minnesota or whatever NFL job you take, you are unemployed, you can't even get hired as an analyst or at a high school to coach.  You can just sit on your pile of millions and ponder what could have been, pretending that you actually have friends and a legacy that is good.

One good year

1-5* and 3-4, and more so the inexplicable wet ones vs. Cow.

Wow, tough crowd; Who wouldn't want to stay?

This thread feels like being hugged by Hitler.

Not great, but not bad either. Ended it on a very high note, overall record was good but record vs. MSU, PSU, OSU kinda bad. 

Failed to live up to expectations (whether those expectations were realistic is moot at this point) but left the program in a far better position than it was when he arrived. Though it does seem like we'll lose a few recruits if he's truly gone, which is pretty shitty. Especially if Will Johnson leaves. 

It's secure. He took a program that was in complete disarray, had 1 ten+ win season in its past 8, and had seen multiple embarrassing losses and moments under its previous 3 coaches and previous AD - and immediately took us to the level we'd been in from 2000-2006, with consistent top 15 finishes and contending for the Big Ten title in November. Yes he's 0-2 against Tucker, but before that he ran Dantonio off the sideline, blowing him out in 3 of 4 years, a coach who's sneer and swagger made Hoke and Rod both look incompetent. And then he followed up his worst, most miserable season (where he may have been the only guy to follow the practice rules) with our best season since at least 2003, arguably since 1997. 1-6 against an excellent Ohio State stings less because of the last, satisfying, deliriously and surprisingly dominant win, that really has me questioning whether Ryan Day is not just a poor man's Gene Chizik.

I'll admit I expected more - I expected to be what Clemson was, let alone what Ohio State was - but considering how snakebit 2016 was, and how much love coaches like Brian Kelly and James Franklin got for very similar results, I think it's fair to say Harbaugh did an excellent job, and has left the program in a place to compete in 2022 and beyond, both in players and staff and culture.

Accomplishing what we expected him to accomplish in just one out of seven seasons. Two of the most embarrassing losses to Ohio State. Never developing and elite QB or wide receiver. Probably the most disappointing hire in Michigan history considering expectations when he was hired. We'll see how the next coach pans out, but hopefully he can also be remembered as the bridge to bringing Michigan back to national relevancy.

Remarkebly good to sometimes disappointing football,  brought some great players to Michigan

One poorly marked play changed the entire narrative and direction of Michigan and Big Ten football for 5 years.

I'll never understand his poor performance against Michigan State, he should have been 6-1 that to me was inexcusable.

 I was fine with him leaving after last year and I thought his contract extension was the worst contract extension in the history of contract extensions.  Even this years team could have easily gone 8-4 with a trip to the Outback Bowl. 

Whatever fire and excitement Jim Harbaugh had for coaching at Michigan was extinguished 3 or 4 years ago.  He did the job the last few years but he just wasn't the same guy he was when he arrived we could all see that.   Good luck to him.

If he returns, <sigh>, the circus continues. 

I've defended Harbaugh and he owes us nothing but if he goes I will view him with extreme indifference.

He was good but not great. He left in a needlessly passive-aggresssive and weird way. So his legacy will be mixed. 

A big part of his legacy needs to include how he seemed to completely give up after 2016. It was like a weekend at Bernie's, he was being held up as a functioning corpse. Guy completely lost his fire, morphed personalities from alpha to beta, and it was bizarre. 

It took being emasculated for years and finally by the fanbase and university to wake him up. I will add that his best season came when his brother John gifted him Weiss and Macdonald. Weiss brought the Baltimore run game and Macdonald the Ravens defense. Both the strengths of Michigan's season. 

John Harbaugh saved his brothers career. 

He'll be the 9th winningest coach with the 11th all time win %.  Plus a top 5 program QB.  That'll be his legacy.