When Jim Harbaugh arrived in Ann Arbor on Dec. 30, 2014, his plan was to bring Michigan football back from the brink. Coming off a 5-7 season, the Wolverines were backsliding again after going 11-2 in the first year of the Brady Hoke era. The maize and blue had an Ohio State problem.
And Harbaugh wasn’t going to leave Ann Arbor until he had gotten Michigan over the hump to become Big Ten champions and more.
Fast forward nine years later, and the Wolverines are national champions. Despite saying in 2021 after interviewing for the Minnesota Vikings job that he would stay at Michigan for as long as the program would have him, Harbaugh flirted with the NFL in 2022 and again after 2023. On Wednesday, he finally left, taking the Los Angeles Chargers job after going 89-25 with his alma mater.
The news overtook X (formerly Twitter) as media, former players, some signees and others weighed in. Here are some of the most notable reactions to Harbaugh’s departure.