After the disastrous 13-game experiment that was the Urban Meyer tenure in Jacksonville, the franchise — which is just 3-29 over the last two seasons — returns to the drawing board to try to find a coach who can steer the ship right with Trevor Lawrence and Co.
The Jaguars have cast a wide net during this coaching search with a long list of names it intends to interview. One unifying theme among those coaches that differentiates them from Meyer is the fact that they all hail from the NFL ranks. Given the way this season played out, it seems highly unlikely that the team will hire a college coach, especially one without professional experience.
But what if there were a college coach available with NFL head coaching experience? Better yet, what if that experience was largely successful and resulted in a Super Bowl appearance? According to a report from The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, that candidate may exist.
Feldman wrote that according to sources both in the NFL and in college, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh could be open to leaving his alma mater to make a return to the NFL, where he coached the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-14. Harbaugh entered the year potentially on the hot seat in Ann Arbor, and UM restructured his contract heading into 2021, resulting in a pay cut.
The Wolverines responded with a season no one saw coming. A strong defense led by a Heisman finalist (and potential Jaguars draft target) in Aidan Hutchinson and a fierce run game led the team to a 12-win season. Michigan won the Big Ten, beat Ohio State for the first time since 2011, and made it to the College Football Playoff for the first time, where it was blown out by Georgia in the Orange Bowl semifinal.
Harbaugh may be looking to leverage that success into a return to the NFL, and Feldman reports that the Las Vegas Raiders would be his ideal destination. But if he’s going to be an NFL candidate this offseason, does he merit a look from the Jags?
He’s a polarizing coach, no matter how you look at it. He’s an eccentric personality and by some accounts can be difficult to work with. After all, even Michigan considered a break with Harbaugh last offseason before deciding to keep him around, a decision that ultimately paid off.
But looking past that, you find a coach who, at the end of the day, has succeeded in all of his stops. He won at a non-scholarship FCS program in San Diego, he managed the academic standards at one of the toughest Power Five jobs in Stanford to build a winning program, and even at Michigan, he’s never won fewer than eight games, discounting a 2-4 finish in the bizarre 2020 season.
Even in the NFL, that success followed. He went 44-19-1 with the 49ers, taking the team to the NFC Championship in his first three seasons and Super Bowl XLVII in his second. But things quickly fell apart, and he mutually parted ways with the 49ers after an 8-8 finish in 2014. That brings us to the elephant in the room and one reason why Harbaugh being a serious candidate may not be in the cards: his relationship with Jacksonville general manager Trent Baalke.
A fractured dynamic between the two has been rumored to be one of the primary factors in Harbaugh’s downfall in San Francisco, and it seems unlikely the coach would opt for a reunion in Jacksonville. As long as Baalke’s around, Harbaugh would probably not leave a top-tier college football job to try to turn around the Jaguars.
Owner Shad Khan reportedly intends to keep Baalke despite his ties to the Meyer era (and the fact that he is largely blamed for the collapse of the 49ers following Harbaugh’s tenure). That frustrated many fans, who have responded with a protest in the form of the #KhlownOut movement. If the fans succeed in pressuring Khan to oust Baalke, the conversation around Harbaugh could be entirely different.
We want to hear from the fans. Assuming he would be interested, should the Jaguars pursue Harbaugh as a candidate? Or would you prefer the team look in another direction, such as at a veteran like Doug Pederson or Jim Caldwell, or a young coordinator like Byron Leftwich or Kellen Moore? Let us know in the poll below.
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