CBS Sports Places Jim Harbaugh On Coaching Hot Seat
It probably won't come as much of a shock to anyone that CBS Sports added Jim Harbaugh's name to the list of coaches with the hottest seat entering the 2021 season.
As Harbaugh prepares for his seventh season as head coach in Ann Arbor, it's clear that the marriage between Harbaugh and Michigan is on shaky ground. Though he's put together a solid winning percentage of 69%, Harbaugh is still 0-5 against Ohio State, 3-3 against in-state rival Michigan State and just 2-10 against AP top-10 teams.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Without a win against Ohio State or even a trip to Indy to compete for the Big Ten Championship through six seasons, many are starting to wonder just how much longer Harbaugh can survive in Ann Arbor absent of a breakthrough season.
Dennis Dodd, national college football writer for CBS Sports, recently placed Harbaugh at No. 6 overall on the coaching hot seat heading into the 2021 season. Here's what Dodd had to say about Harbaugh's placement on the list.
"We don't have to tell you. Michigan sent the message loud and clear: Win now. The 2-4 mark in 2020 tied for the worst of Harbaugh's career. Before the season, he was the only Power Five coach with less than two years on his contract, making it difficult to recruit. The result? An incentive-laded deal through 2025, the only factor that keeps Harbaugh from a 5. After six years of being slapped around by Ohio State, the burden is on Harbaugh, who still hasn't so much as won a division as an FBS coach. The extension was signed in time to land a class that included five top 100 players. Now the task is developing a difference-making QB and beating OSU, neither of which Harbaugh has been able to accomplish yet. If he does, it would be one of the greatest rallies of Captain Comeback's career."
Only one other coach from the Big Ten Conference made Dodd's list for the top-10 hottest coaching seats in College Football - Nebraska's Scott Frost.
Entering his fourth season as head coach of the Cornhuskers, Frost has fallen woefully short of expectations for the folks in Lincoln. As a result, Dodd placed frost in the No. 1 spot for the hottest coaching seat in all of college football.
"We never thought it would come to this. Entering his fourth season, the native son/champion/Husker is 12-20. There's disarray in a program that once bled consistency. Its best player, Wan'Dale Robinson, transferred. Nebraska under Frost has one top-20 recruiting class. Is the average recruit aware of the once-glorious brand? Then there's the embarrassing Oklahoma fiasco where Frost attempted to back out of the game months before kickoff. So much was expected, which makes this rating difficult. Frost has the makings of a solid coach. We saw it at UCF. Something isn't clicking. In three seasons, Nebraska has seen Northwestern, Indiana and Minnesota (arguably) pass it by. There is inconsistency at QB. Worst of all, Bill Moos, the AD who hired Frost, is gone. That's never good for a losing coach. It's bowl game or bust."
