Why Is A Contract Extension For Jim Harbaugh Even On The Table?

Where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and there's a lot of contract extension smoke emanating from Ann Arbor right now. Various outlets are now reporting that Jim Harbaugh will receive an extension during the early part of next week, keeping the beleaguered head coach in Ann Arbor for at least one more year.

The contract will obviously extend past 2021 on paper, but folks close to the situation are saying that next year is essentially it. It's expected that Harbaugh's buyout will be significantly lower than the current $10 million mark and will essentially be in place allowing him one more season to raise the bar. If Harbaugh can win big and do things he hasn't done yet, he'll stay. If he can't, he'll be bought out and the two parties will go their separate ways.

A college football coach simply can't operate on an expiring contract because uncertainty is cancer when it comes to recruiting, which is the future lifeblood of a program, so something does need to happen. Of course the two options are to extend Harbaugh or fire him and bring in a new face of the program, but my question is, why is an extension really an option at this point?

The results just don't seem to warrant it

There are two camps here, which we've outlined, but the big picture just seems so clear, to me at least.

Harbaugh has won a lot of games at Michigan, and is in the top ten among college football's winningest coaches since arriving in Ann Arbor, but he hasn't done any of the things he was actually brought to U-M to do. He hasn't beaten Ohio State, he hasn't taken over the rivalry against Michigan State, he hasn't won or even played for a Big Ten title and therefore hasn't been in the playoff discussion. He hasn't won as an underdog, has lost four straight bowl games and is having his worst year in year six. Michigan is not elite and doesn't seem close. In fact, in Harbaugh's sixth year, they're further away from elite than they've ever been under him.

Going 0fer against the Buckeyes, 3-3 against Michigan State and having the same trophy case as when he arrived are fireable offenses this far into Harbaugh's tenure. In fact, if he wasn't a former All-American at Michigan, a Bo disciple and a former teammate of the athletic director, he probably would've been fired already. Rich Rodriguez didn't get that long of a leash and neither did Brady Hoke. Harbaugh seems to be bigger than the program at this point and that's a problem.

It doesn't really seem to be a popular option among the fanbase

Former publisher of Wolverine Digest and former host of Inside the Huddle, Michael Spath, has been covering the Michigan football program for almost 20 years. He knows a lot of people, is very plugged in and has a pretty avid following on social media and in general. He ran a poll on Twitter yesterday that showed what the Michigan fanbase appears to be feeling right now, which is that the majority is ready for the Harbaugh era to be over.

Of two plausible scenarios with Michigan football - Jim Harbaugh stays and gets a 3+ year contract extension or U-M and Harbaugh part ways and replaces him with Matt Campbell - what appeals to you more?
— Michael Spath (@MichaelSpathITH) December 5, 2020

Spath's poll received around 4,000 votes, which isn't a huge chunk of the U-M faithful, but it is a pretty solid sample size. The results show that about two-thirds of U-M fans are ready for Harbaugh to be gone and, specifically, that they'd love to see Iowa State's Matt Campbell at the helm. What's more significant than the actual number, is the drastic change in perception over the course of the season. More than 60% of the fanbase wanted Harbaugh to be extended at the beginning of the year when Spath asked a similar question. There's been a pretty substantial shift.

And just in case you don't care about 4,000 random fans or Spath, former Wolverines like Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard, Brian Griese, Taylor Lewan and others also seem to be over Harbaugh, so there's that.

Other programs seem to want it

It's not quite Brady-Hoke-airplane-banner-in-East Lansing bad yet, but we're getting there.

Opposing fan bases haven't literally spelled it out like that, but none of them are worried about Harbaugh and most actually want him in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future. Media personalities from Michigan's two biggest rivals see it this way.

"I'm really torn on a Harbaugh extension," said Brendan Gulick of Buckeyes Now. "On one hand, I understand the Michigan fans that are tired of losing a rivalry game, having a miserable season this year and not competing well against Top 25 teams in the country each year he's been in charge. That's incredibly frustrating for a program with such a proud tradition and I can understand their frustration...I'm a Browns fan.

"On the other hand, I think Michigan fans are nuts for screaming for his job the way they have. They're way over their skis on this one. Harbaugh isn't suddenly a bad football coach. He might be a little odd, but he lives and breathes football and he's achieved some very impressive things in his career. I don't believe that he's suddenly lost the ability to coach football. But I do believe he has a strange personality and he seems to have worn out his welcome at each of the places he's coached, despite some success.

"If the Wolverines are going to keep him around, they need to extend him soon. It's not a good message to recruits to have your head coach come off a struggling season with rumors swirling and have him be working at the end of his contract. No coach at any Power 5 school in the country, outside of Harbaugh, has two years or less left on his deal. That's a problem Michigan needs to address in my opinion.

"I think Ohio State fans would love to see him stick around, but Buckeye fans said the same thing about Lloyd Carr towards the end and Rich Rodriguez. If the tides change, I'm not sure fans would be so happy to see him there."

McLain Moberg of Spartan Nation said this.

"Jim Harbaugh's reputation speaks for itself," Moberg said. "He's a phenomenal coach, but it hasn't worked out at Michigan, and for a lot of fans that's a shame, considering what he means to the school. Yet, at some point, both parties have to admit his inability to be truly successful. You don't have to grow up in the state of Michigan to know the Wolverines don't measure themselves by winning nine or ten games a year, they want to win championships, and rightfully so. There's a single burning question that comes to mind. Is U-M any closer to competing for Big Ten titles than they were under Hoke? I don't think so, and they certainly aren't within reach of the College Football Playoff. It's time to move on.

"When Rich Rod and Hoke ran the program, it was laughable, and MSU loved it because they were winning. Then Harbaugh was hired during Mark Dantonio's peak, yet Dantonio didn't get the love he deserved nationally, whereas Harbaugh, who just entered the chat, and hadn't coached a game, was treated as invincible, and as someone who would undoubtedly reclaim Michigan's seat at the big boy table. That's when MSU realized the narrative surrounding U-M wouldn't change. So, are Spartan fans laughing? They're indifferent. It's a solemn tone, followed by, 'We tried telling you.'"

Ohio State and Michigan State aren't alone either. The very passionate fanbase in Happy Valley wouldn't mind seeing Harbaugh stick around either.

"More than a few Penn State fans would embrace a contract extension for Harbaugh, since the series has evened out a bit recently," Mark Wogenrich of All Penn State said. "Even though Michigan has delivered two of the biggest Penn State losses of the James Franklin era, the Lions have won three of the last four games. Harbaugh's quirky nature amuses Penn State fans in a non-threatening way. If he wanted to coach Ohio State, too, Penn State fans wouldn't mind."

And our own Christopher Breiler summed it all up very well...

"I'm worried about the precedent it would set for future coaches," he said. "When a guy gets an extension for 0-5, possibly 0-6 against Ohio State, and the other shortcomings, is that the new standard or a special exception for Harbaugh? Either of those realities is concerning."

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