Is Jim Harbaugh's Off-Field Value More Important Than Wins & Losses?
In the last week, as civil unrest and the peaceful protesting of George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer continue to grip the United States, Jim Harbaugh made positive press (and was even lauded by rival Ohio State and Michigan State fans) when he marched alongside Wolverine players and other protestors through the streets of Ann Arbor.
Harbaugh's willingness to stand up and be heard was applauded by former President Barack Obama and countless others for all the right reasons. On the flip side, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has been crushed for "missing the mark" in his comments about Floyd's death, and in recent days, the Iowa football program has come under intense scrutiny for allowing a racist culture to foster, a number of former players have argued.
Say what you will about Harbaugh, and plenty do, but from the moment he officially returned to Ann Arbor, he has been a strong advocate for his players, his program, college football and his community overall.
In five years, Harbaugh has:
• Offered his players once-in-a-lifetime experiences, taking the team overseas to Italy (2017), France (2018) and South Africa (2019) during the spring semester, exposing his players to culture and educational opportunities that epitomize what the college/student experience is supposed to be about.
• Introduced satellite camps, bringing college coaches (free of charge to participants) to high school camps across the country for both instruction but also to be seen and heard by coaches that could extend scholarship offers. Not every HS student can take "unofficial" recruiting visits due to cost.
• Advocated for immediate eligibility for first-time transfers regardless for reason that left, to eliminate the gray area of the appeals process.
• Introduced the idea of expanding the playoffs to 16 teams, creating even greater interest in college football's postseason and a meritocratic approach that would keep more teams in the hunt in November.
• Penned a letter to college football once again advocating for immediate eligibility but also pushing for student-athletes to have control over when they can "go pro", eliminating a rule that says a player must wait three years out of high school. The letter also suggests that any player that goes undrafted should be able to return to college and have his education paid for.
• Most recently, Harbaugh told Rich Eisen in a national radio interview that he was outraged by Floyd's death but instead of just leaving that there, he marched in a #BlackLivesMatter protest while he encouraged his coaches and players and family to voice their feelings and thoughts on the state of the country.
Assistant Chris Bryant (a black former player now on the staff), tweeting: "Coach Jim thank you for supporting as always. Thank you for listening to our black players, standing behind them, and supporting them during this time."
Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, who is black, writing a long thank you to the Harbaugh family for supporting the black community.
So here's the thing, as an ambassador for the program and the community, Harbaugh is pretty much as good as it gets. He's a champion off the field in a way that should set a new standard for college coaches across all sports, but especially in football and basketball where student-athletes (not just black, though their challenges are often greater) are often treated as athletes only, the student part for show.
On the field, Michigan has won 72.3% of its games since 2015, the ninth-best mark among the 15 most-talented teams in college football (2015-19), and has been, arguably, the 12th-best program in college football since Harbaugh arrived. U-M's 20-year average (per the final AP poll) is 17.9 and 40-year average is 14.8, so Harbaugh's performance is ahead of the curve.
What he doesn't have has been dissected ad nauseam (including by me): a victory against Ohio State in five tries; a Big Ten title-game appearance; a Big Ten championship; a college football playoff beth; or a national title.
Those things matter. Harbaugh is not one of the highest-paid coaches in college football just to be a really good guy off the field. He earned his big pay (currently $7.5 million) because his credentials, in today's market, earned him that compensation, but that value was based off on-field performance.
In a poll I created on Twitter, however, a majority of Michigan fans appear to place greater importance on Harbaugh the advocate/mentor/teacher than they do on Harbaugh the recruiter/talent developer/game-day coach, with 29.1% of more than 1,000 votes saying what he does off the field is more important than what he does on field, and another 44.8% saying they are equally important.
Just 20.6% thinks his off-field accomplishments are less important than on-field and 5.5% don't care about what Harbaugh does off the field.
I wonder how much of the response is based off two significant factors: 1) the climate of our country when the question is being asked and 2) the Ohio State shadow.
Obviously asking this question in June, amidst the civil rights protesting in America and Harbaugh's acclaim among national leaders and even with rival fans, allows respondents to focus on bigger issues than wins and losses, understanding now more than ever how important it is to cultivate men that will positively impact their communities in future years.
If we asked this question in mid-October, at a point Michigan is 6-2 or something like that, would we get the same response? Probably not.
The other part is the Goliath that is Ohio State. The Buckeyes have won 17 of the last 19 in the series, including eight in a row. OSU signed the nation's No. 5 recruiting class in 2020 and is poised to sign one of the greatest classes ever recorded by sites Rivals.com and 247Sports.com (2000-present).
Michigan has the nation's No. 5 class for 2021 (and No. 11 for 2020) but the talent gap is widening. Thus, with Ohio State looking even more invincible, perhaps fans are resigned to football seasons without a win in THE Game, without visits to Indianapolis, Big Ten championships and college football semifinals appearances. If that is the case, it is easier to refocus priorities to where U-M can still be "Leaders & Best."
So what's the final answer? That depends entirely upon your perspective, but I will leave two responses, on opposite sides of this argument:
