Michigan's Jim Harbaugh has a title, seat at the 'big person's table.' So is this goodbye?
HOUSTON — Michigan’s 34-13 win against Washington served as a tidy encapsulation of the Jim Harbaugh era: flawed, a little sloppy, dotted with self-inflicted errors but ultimately one of the shining moments in program history.
"It couldn't have gone better. It went exactly how we wanted it to go to win every game," Harbaugh said.
The at-long-last crowning of the Wolverines is the culmination of all the promise and potential that accompanied his return eight years ago. Through it all — the struggles to get over the hump against Ohio State, the disastrous COVID season, the recruiting violations, the sign-stealing scandal — Harbaugh never lost sight of the program he wanted to build: one that stayed the course, eschewed beauty points and embraced his throwback style.
"Nothing fancy here," he said. "There was nothing surprising. It was just good old-fashioned teamwork, good old-fashioned hard work by these players and these coaches, and none of us are up here taking a deep, long bow because we know this was just good old-fashioned teamwork."
And a team and program that never, ever forgets a slight.
"All year they were doubting us, they were hating on us, they were saying all this stuff on social media. Saying that we’re cheaters," said senior defensive lineman Braiden McGregor. "You heard it from all the opposing teams we were playing at. I mean, you heard it everywhere.
"I mean, you can’t say (expletive) now. For real. It’s 15-0. Nobody won against us! I mean, you can’t say, 'Oh, it’s because they cheated.’ We won the natty."
Maybe no national champion in the playoff era so firmly embodied the ethos of its head coach quite like the Wolverines, who shrugged off and embraced criticism in equal measure during this incredibly tumultuous season.
Beating Alabama in the Rose Bowl and Washington on Monday should end up as this team's legacy, overshadowing the negative attention drawn by Harbaugh's two suspensions and the midseason scandal.
"It fueled us, everything that we’ve been through, everything that they tried to do to us," sophomore defensive lineman Mason Graham said. "Everyone not in Schembechler Hall. All the doubters, all the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Our backs been against the wall, but this team’s different. Everyone saw it today, too."
And that makes the Wolverines lucky: Michigan had to win in this moment, against this backdrop, given not only the chance to prove the doubters wrong but because of the possibility that the window is closing on Harbaugh's tenure.
To come up short in this moment would've been an utter failure and a blown opportunity without precedent in the playoff era, since no champion in the past decade seems set to embark on a more uncertain future.
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In addition to graduating a huge chunk of seniors crucial to this year's team, the Wolverines may also lose rising senior quarterback J.J. McCarthy, a potential first-round pick in April's draft. McCarthy struggled to find his footing against the Huskies, completing 10-of-18 attempts for 140 yards, and that final impression could drive him to return next season as a Heisman Trophy favorite.
But all eyes are on Harbaugh and his immediate future. He hired a new agent, Don Yee, who specializes in NFL contracts. He's again interviewed for NFL openings. Harbaugh's name has come up in connection with the Los Angeles Chargers, among other teams.
To ignore the itch and come back to Michigan will come with the increasingly likely chance that Harbaugh faces more penalties for NCAA violations that have occurred under his watch. After missing six games due to suspension during the regular season, he could be sidelined again next year.
Is that what he wants? Has winning a national championship satisfied what he wanted to achieve at Michigan, freeing him up to join his brother in the NFL?
"That'll check the biggest box," Harbaugh said of the title. "For me, personally, just to be part of the family. With my dad, who won a national championship with Western Kentucky in 2002, and John Harbaugh, who won the Super Bowl 2012 season, 2013 Super Bowl.
"I get to sit at the big person's table now. That feels really good. Just to be the only coach in your only family that hasn't won a national title or Super Bowl, the championship, that feels great, personally."
Should he leave, Harbaugh will pass on a program that views itself as bigger than one coach or player — the sort of deep self-confidence that might have flowered during Harbaugh's absence.
"I feel like everyone saw that throughout the season, too," Graham said.
Regardless of any offseason changes, Michigan "just keeps rolling," said McGregor. "We’re a boa constrictor, that’s how we’ve been. This is built in us."
Should Harbaugh leave, the easiest decision might be to promote offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, who served as Harbaugh's gameday replacement during the regular season. But this is Michigan, and the Wolverines' opening would immediately become one of the biggest to hit the FBS in years.
So the school would have options, with the high likelihood of drawing away an established, top-of-the-line sitting FBS head coach should an internal promotion not be the chosen path.
All eyes are on Harbaugh. But that's how it's been since the day he was back on campus: Through every headline, step back and leap forward, he's been one of the most carefully dissected figures in all of college football.
Now he's in the spotlight for maybe the last time as a college coach. Is this it for Harbaugh? And if so, where does Michigan go from here?
"I just want to enjoy this," he said. "I hope you give me that. Can a guy have that? Does it always have to be what's next, what's the future?
"Like I said the other day, yeah, I hope to have a future. I hope there's a tomorrow, a day after tomorrow, a next week, a next month, a next year."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jim Harbaugh has his Michigan championship. So is this goodbye?
