Time for Michigan to Move on From Harbaugh

This sure looks like the point of no return.

Michigan fans have been growing increasingly restless at the failure of Jim Harbaugh to lead them to the promised land.

But now, in Harbaugh’s sixth season, after devastating losses to Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin, the Maize and Blue are 1-3, their worst start since 1967, In this pandemically abbreviated season, they only have four regular-season games remaining, Covid-19 permitting. After that, there’s a plus-one against a Big Ten West also-ran. And a bowl game.

But really, unless Michigan does the unthinkable and runs the table—including Harbaugh’s first win in six tries vs. Ohio State—would this season be anything more than another one in the D column. D for Disappointment or Disaster, pick your description.

If anybody believes Michigan will win out, I have a bridge I want to sell them.

It’s time for everyone, including Harbaugh, to admit it: This isn’t working out.

Will Michigan follow the lead of South Carolina, which fired Will Muschamp on Sunday? I haven’t seen or heard anything to suggest that. That’s more a move with an eye toward placating boosters and getting a jump on hiring the next guy. The Gamecocks felt the need to do that. Not sure Michigan does.

I am not a fire-the-coach rabble-rouser. Nor am I one who likes to see Harbaugh fail. Actually, I like the fact that he’s quirky and old-school in a contradictory, but fresh sort of way.

I have been partial to Harbaugh since Bruce Madej, Michigan’s Hall-of-Fame-caliber retired sports-information director, put him on the telephone to me during Notre Dame week when Harbaugh was Michigan’s quarterback.

I still liked him when, while 49ers coach, Harbaugh drove the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. When we chatted at the Brickyard, he pretended to remember that phone call.

But here’s the thing. For all the success he had with Stanford (highlighted by a 12-1 season) and the 49ers (44-19-1, including a Super Bowl appearance), he not only hasn’t won enough at Michigan. He hasn’t coached well enough. He hasn’t recruited well enough. And, he hasn’t led well enough.

He has never given himself the right quarterback. The trusted defensive wise man he hired, Don Brown, has not delivered a stout defense. And the overall recruiting has not been close to what Ohio State does. Which is no way to beat Ohio State.

Michigan is part of a small group of national powers that have a leg up on the world when they have the right coach. And it’s pretty clear after six years that Harbaugh is not the right coach.

This surprises me greatly. I thought he was the perfect guy to make the Wolverines relevant again. I was wrong.

Michigan, one of the best brands in college football, has fallen on hard times. It has been under-achieving since the MgoBlue crowd ran off Lloyd Carr in 2007 for not beating Ohio State after Jim Tressel arrived in Columbus.

Then came Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke. Phew. Remember them? Neither of those worked out.

When Harbaugh was hired in 2015, he looked like the perfect guy. A Michigan man and proven winner, he would restore the Maize and Blue to their rightful place, perennially in the hunt for the Big Ten championship and maybe even the national championship.

That’s not working out. And after six seasons, there is no sign that it will work out.

Ohio State is light years ahead of Michigan as the Big Ten’s version of Alabama or Clemson. Penn State and Wisconsin have had more success than the Wolverines, who may show up on recruiting rankings but don’t show up on key Saturdays.

The 49-11 blowout loss on Saturday night to Wisconsin, which was missing some important players and hadn’t played in three weeks due to Covid-19 problems, is just the latest measuring stick of Michigan’s woes.

After an impressive showing in their opener against now-sputtering Minnesota that turned out to be fool’s gold, the Wolverines were sucker-punched by “Little Brother’’ Michigan State, which has its own major problems. Despite being a rebuilding project, the Spartans embarrassed Michigan 27-24. MSU never trailed. Ouch.

Indiana is very good this year. But trailing the Hoosiers 24-7 and losing 38-21 to the Hoosiers for the first time since 1987?

That is not acceptable.

Harbaugh’s buyout at the end of this year reportedly would cost at least $6 million, no small sum with the tremendous pressure on college-football budgets due to the Coronavirus. (That, however, is less than it would cost to boot most coaches of Harbaugh’s stature.) And frustrated boosters have been known to write big checks when they want a coach gone.

I have to think there are a few of those people muttering in southeastern Michigan.

I don’t know what’s realistic on that front. I can’t imagine Harbaugh is enjoying this, either. Maybe he wants to keep giving it another shot. Competitors always do. Although at this point, it’s not easy to see how he rights the ship.

The best-case scenario, of course, would be that some NFL team comes calling for Harbaugh, who had a good run with the 49ers for a time.

A Bears fan I know already is interested in the possibility of Harbaugh coming to Chicago, the first NFL team he played for. That assumes, of course, that the Bears are going to make a change, which is not an assumption I am close to making.

But if Michigan can extricate itself from Harbaugh, the key will be to find a coach who can actually restore the Wolverines to the glory they crave.

I imagine there will be a lot of talk about Urban Meyer. That could work, although I don’t see it as the sure thing that others do. He’s older, and he left Florida and Ohio State under semi-strange circumstances.

Here’s another choice that would loom large: Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell. Cincinnati, which sent Mark Dantonio to Michigan State and Brian Kelly to Notre Dame, has kind of stolen the Cradle of Coaches mantle from Miami of Ohio.

An Ohio State man at Michigan? Some may dismiss that out of hand. And while it’s true that Fickell played and coached in Columbus, there is a precedent for a former Buckeye assistant finding happiness and fulfillment in Ann Arbor.

His name was Bo Schembechler.