It took a little while for Jim Harbaugh to win big with the Michigan football team, but his entire nine year tenure with the Wolverines was impressive. The past three seasons were the best for Harbaugh and Michigan as they have won three in a row against Ohio State, won three straight Big Ten titles, made three straight College Football Playoffs and they just won the national championship. Harbaugh reached the peak with the Wolverines, and then he decided to leave.
Shortly after the Michigan football team won the national title, Jim Harbaugh took the head coaching job with the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh had entertained NFL jobs before, and everyone knows that he is hungry to win a Super Bowl. However, that's likely not the only reason why he wanted to go back to the pros.
If you paid attention to Harbaugh at Michigan, you know that he doesn't like the NCAA, and the NCAA doesn't seem to like him either. Harbaugh has called out the NCAA, and Harbaugh has been punished by the NCAA.
During the back half of this past season, Michigan was under investigation for alleged illegal sign-stealing, and when the Wolverines were to trying to sign Harbaugh to a contract extension, he wanted to be protected in case things in the investigation took an unexpected turn.
“I think where the stumbling block came was trying to find the best way to handle any additional information from the second case we didn't know at the time of [contract] signing,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said, according to an article from CBS Sports.
Jim Harbaugh's attorney, Tom Mars, thought that he would be punished, and he made that clear to him.
“I will tell you this,” Tom Mars said. “I told [Harbaugh agent] Don Yee and Jim as clearly as I could, more than once, more than twice, that in my opinion if he stayed at Michigan . . . the COI is going to punish Jim under the vicarious coaches' responsibility legislation, and he's dealing with a COI that's clearly manifested bias against him. He's going to sit out four games, maybe six, and whatever we do the COI is going to find him guilty.”
Did this impact Jim Harbaugh's decision to leave Michigan?
Jim Harbaugh and Tom Mars were both aware of the possible punishments that could be come if Harbaugh decided to stay with the Michigan football team. Mars doesn't know if that impacted his decision to leave, but he thinks that Harbaugh made the right call to go to the NFL.
“So to your question did this affect Jim's decision to go to the NFL? I don't know,” Mars said. “But I know I told him under the circumstances I could not imagine any reason why he would not take the opportunity to go to the NFL if it presented itself.”
Now, the Harbaugh era at Michigan is over, and Sherrone Moore is the new head coach of the Wolverines. We will see if Michigan ends up receiving punishment from the sign-stealing investigation.
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