Life after Jim Harbaugh? It's hard to picture Michigan football without him

It always seemed inevitable this day would arrive. Insiders expected it. Fans braced for it.

But as Jim Harbaugh leaves Ann Arbor to chase a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Chargers, the thought of what Michigan football will look like without him is impossible to conceive. Harbaugh, after all, made the program in his image. The Wolverines, like him, were unconventional, controversial, and in the final assessment of his nine-year tenure, wildly successful.

The true Harbaugh experience was captured in his final season at Michigan, when he led his alma mater to a 15-0 record and its first national championship since 1997. Harbaugh spent the past five months showing the world why he is considered a top coach in the sport. He constructed one of the most formidable rosters in the college ranks by developing undervalued talents into star contributors. These players often outperformed their competition, playing with precision and discipline.

This past season, the Wolverines averaged the fewest penalties per game, produced the highest turnover margin and boasted the nation’s top-ranked defense. They also won games Harbaugh’s way. During an age when the top college teams have featured prolific passing attacks, Michigan played the kind of smashmouth style Harbaugh had come to cherish in the 1980s while serving as Bo Schembechler's tough-as-nails quarterback. In what turned out to be a fitting ending to the Harbaugh era, Michigan stampeded Washington with 303 rushing yards and rolled to a 34-13 victory in the championship game.

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“Glorious,” Harbaugh said afterwards.

But it was also exhausting and unsettling and weird because Harbaugh had made it that way.

The same coach who stormed back into the college game in 2015 by sucking up all the oxygen with his brash statements and unorthodox methods spent this past season under intense scrutiny, ensnared by one predicament after another. He was suspended twice, missing a total of six games after his program became the subject of two separate NCAA probes. One was focused on impermissible recruiting and coaching activities. The other was tied to a cheating scandal that involved off-campus scouting and sign-stealing. The investigations cast a pall over the Wolverines’ accomplishments while Harbaugh’s personal entanglements stole the headlines.

With the spotlight constantly following him, Harbaugh became bigger than the team he coached and the university he represented. Never was that more apparent than these past two weeks, when Harbaugh began executing his exit strategy and promptly killed the celebratory buzz around Ann Arbor. Instead of fans fantasizing about a bountiful future with Harbaugh at the helm of a burgeoning dynasty, they instead began to fret again about his potential departure for the pros.

It was a deflating feeling they had come to know all too well because his NFL flirtations had become a recurring offseason storyline.

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It began when Harbaugh flew to Minnesota for an interview with the Vikings on national signing day in 2022. Then, after he called his little escapade with the NFC North club a “one-time thing,” it bubbled to the surface once more when he had conversations with the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers last January.

Harbaugh’s renewed interest in the NFL, of course, was understandable. He had recently become a redeemed coach — the leader of a program that would finish 40-3 in his final three seasons at Michigan. He also came within 5 yards of winning a Super Bowl once upon a time, losing it in heartbreaking fashion to a Baltimore Ravens team coached by his brother, John. He later confessed to reporters inside Schembechler Hall that he would one day like to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. A source close to him confirmed in August that he was eager to begin that pursuit again.

But whether he could persuade an NFL team to bite was the question.

Harbaugh turned 60 in December and was cast out of the league despite a brilliant run with San Francisco that featured a 44-19-1 record and three NFC championship game appearances. His divorce with the 49ers was ugly and he developed a reputation for bucking authority.

It followed him to Ann Arbor, where he was rumored to have a fractious relationship with athletic director Warde Manuel. The discord between the two billowed after Manuel slashed Harbaugh’s annual compensation in half following his worst season, a 2-4 debacle in 2020. According to another source in Harbaugh’s inner circle, he remained embittered by the pay cut. Even after his salary was restored the following year, he showed signs of discontent. Last winter, he bypassed Manuel to inform school president Santa Ono he was staying for the upcoming season, circumventing the chain of command as he geared up for one final run with the Wolverines.

All the while, Manuel publicly pronounced his desire to keep Harbaugh. This past fall, the school and Harbaugh engaged in talks about a contract extension that would make him the highest-paid coach in the college ranks.

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“You want to be somewhere where they like how you do it, and what you do,” Harbaugh said in October.

Beyond a proposed raise, Michigan tried to show its appreciation for him in numerous ways. The administration offered a full-throated defense of him after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti docked him three games in wake of the sign-stealing controversy. They were even ready to go to court on his behalf to fight the ruling. The public support of Harbaugh continued at this team’s championship celebration, where Manuel told an expectant audience, “I’m working on getting this man a new contract.”

Keeping Harbaugh had become a top priority. It didn’t matter that Harbaugh faced the possibility of heavier sanctions or that he continued to be unfaithful to his alma mater and his beloved Wolverines.

Life after Harbaugh?

It had become hard to imagine.

On the confetti-strewn field that was the site of Harbaugh’s crowning achievement, Manuel admitted as much earlier this month.

“If he decides he wants another opportunity to coach in the pros,” Manuel said, “then I’m going to be happy for him and sad for us.”

For better or worse, Manuel understood Michigan wouldn’t be the same without him. Harbaugh was the program, and he did everything in his power to make himself big enough to obscure the Block M stitched on his cap.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's life after Jim Harbaugh seems impossible to see