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There’s been an ongoing narrative, especially outside of Ann Arbor, that not only is Jim Harbaugh on the hot seat, that his job may be in more imminent danger than any other coach in all of college football.
Michigan football just renewed Harbaugh’s contract, giving him a four-year contract extension this offseason. While the terms are friendly to the Wolverines, in that, they can part with Harbaugh at a fraction of the cost than previous, an extension generally isn’t given to a lame duck.
2020 certainly has many questioning Michigan football’s trajectory, but Harbaugh still is the 22nd-ranked active head coach in college football in terms of win percentage. He has three 10-win seasons in six years — a number that the maize and blue had achieved in the 12 previous years. We talked on the latest ‘Locked On Wolverines Podcast’ about what Michigan football actually is compared to annual expectations, and Harbaugh has had the Wolverines exactly where the program has been since the latter half of the Bo Schembechler era, statistically.
Anyhow, Rivals’ Mike Farrell, in the regular ‘Fact or Fiction’ feature, asks: does the hottest seat in college football reside in Ann Arbor? In the discussion, he throws cold water on anyone who thinks a bad 2021 will equal the maize and blue searching for a new football coach the next year.
There was some thought that following the departure of Maurice Lindquist to become the head coach at Buffalo after less than six months in Ann Arbor, that Jim Harbaugh is once again on the hottest seat in college football. That’s not true. While Harbaugh took a pay cut to remain the coach at Michigan, he’s clearly not going anywhere soon even with a poor season in 2021.
Many project Michigan to be 6-6 or 7-5 at best next season and the fan base is frustrated. But I think that Clay Helton at USC and Scott Frost at Nebraska are on hotter seats. It’s become clear that Michigan won’t move on from Harbaugh. He would have to move on from them.
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We largely agree. In fact, while many — locally and nationally –were pushing that Harbaugh was on the outs this past offseason, we insisted that Michigan was set to bring him back, and we continue to insist that even if 2021 was to be bad-to-middling, Harbaugh would likely return, knowing what we know.
So, if you’re a proponent for Harbaugh and the program parting ways, buckle up, because barring a complete disaster — and we mean that outside of what the fanbase considers to be a disaster — the status quo will continue to last.
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