Is it time for Jim Harbaugh to return to the NFL? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Michigan’s disastrous loss to Michigan State, and if it’s time for head coach Jim Harbaugh to consider returning to the NFL.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: Well, so to Harbaugh, I mean, he's not going to get fired. The AD Warde Manuel talked about, you know, making him retire there. It's like a bad situation. And it's like, they're not going to fire him. Does he-- he would almost have to quit.
I know he doesn't have a long term contract. We've gone over that. It doesn't even matter. I wonder whether he wants to just get back to the NFL.
He-- he's wanted to finish this out. He wanted to answer for the program. He wanted to settle scores, beat Ohio State, win a Big Ten, these are the things. But as this go on, he looks miserable.
I'm not going to cry for Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh makes a ton of money. It's all on him. But you can understand the frustrations of trying to run a program where you're-- your loan pass/fail mark is beat Ohio State. Not easy, OK?
There's only a couple of teams in the country that could beat Ohio State. And they get to recruit in a different pool than you do. It's just geographically.
So when that-- you know, I just wonder if he's sitting there saying, look, the NFL, I get reached out to a couple of times a year, do I want to go back to the NFL? They can still do a lot this season, but that was a-- that's the one that rattles Michigan fandom probably more than any other, even getting crushed again by Ohio State.
PAT FORDE: Well, I think you can look at it and say, Ohio State's got better talent than we do. If you're Michigan and Michigan State, you do not go into that game thinking oh we're outmanned. Oh gosh, I hope we can make enough plays to win. You go in saying we should be better, we should win, we should win easily, especially after watching the train wreck of the Spartans the first week. And then you don't win and you really, you were-- you were outplayed.
PETE THAMEL: So here here's a question and I think it's a fascinating one. All right, I have Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers tenure up in front of me. 2011, 13-3, 2012, 11-4, 2013, 12-4, 2014, 8-8. By the way, amid one of the most dysfunctional, undercutting, backstabbing, leaking, messy seasons in the history of the NFL, they went 8-8.
Now, Dan, you obviously follow the NFL closer than I do, but I know this. Today, as we sit here and tape this podcast, Adam Gase is an NFL head coach. Vic Fangio is an NFL head coach. There are some bad NFL coaches. And there are not a lot of NFL coaches walking the earth with a hair under 70% winning percentages, an NFC Championship, two minutes from the Super Bowl, and three playoff seasons in four years. I mean, a 75% playoff entrant clip, I would think only 20%, but that's a-- that is a rare air in the NFL.
DAN WETZEL: They hired Kliff Kingsbury. I mean, you know, like and he's done a good job. No, no, everyone who goes Harbaugh won't have any jobs, because of how he's doing it. Nah, he has options. And I just-- I wonder if it's like--
PETE THAMEL: But does he, Dan? Here's the Thing.
DAN WETZEL: This ain't working.
PETE THAMEL: That said, like the record is-- you cannot argue with the record. The record is a top 10 percentile. Is he too weird now for people to take a risk on him? Having this six year body of work, and I can't stress enough how bad it got at the end of San Francisco.
NFL owners talk to each other, right? So at the end of San Francisco, it was as dysfunctional, as undercutting. Jim Harbaugh doesn't work well with others and he doesn't take orders well with others. All I'm saying is I brought up Harbaugh's record, because I don't think you can argue that he should have an NFL job.
But what I'm saying is this, has his-- I mean, the NFL every week you're playing a team of equitable or more talent, right? Like there's not like this huge difference. Has his collegiate performance combined with the disastrous end personally in San Francisco and just generally him being a weird guy, does that eliminate him? Like all it takes is one. Could it be-- could Arthur Blank become infatuated with him?
DAN WETZEL: I just don't think so.
PAT FORDE: If being a little weird guy eliminates you in the NFL, we're down to about eight coaches.
DAN WETZEL: Yeah, he'll get a job.
PAT FORDE: There's a lot of weird.
PETE THAMEL: Well, I mean, I don't mean weird as much as like hard to-- hard to work with.
DAN WETZEL: They'll take those three years, especially if you got a young QB. I-- I think he gets a job, but I don't know.