Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh takes with quarterback J.J. McCarthy during the first half of the national championship NCAA College Football Playoff game against Washington Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
What does Jim Harbaugh do next? The Michigan coach must decide whether to return to the NFL or stay.
Houston — In Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship game, Michigan defeated Washington 34–13, capping its ascent back to the top of the college football rankings.
We’ll have to wait and see if Jim Harbaugh stays or leaves the Wolverines.
Prior to the championship game, Harbaugh avoided any questions regarding his future, but a decision is about to be made because at least six NFL teams have started or are considering hiring new coaches.
For the past two years, Harbaugh considered jobs in the NFL before deciding to remain at Michigan. This time, he might not, given the school’s potential NCAA sanctions for recruiting infractions and the lingering scandal surrounding sign-stealing that plagued the team the entire season.
There’s also the matter of what the sixty-year-old Harbaugh still needs to do at Michigan. The “Michigan Man” fulfilled his goal of returning to Ann Arbor, where his father played quarterback professionally in the mid-1980s and was an assistant to Bo Schembechler, when he left the San Francisco 49ers in 2014.
After Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke humiliated the once-proud program, Harbaugh took over and has gone 89-25 in nine years, six of which have seen at least ten victories. The 2020 season, which was cut short due to the pandemic, was his only losing campaign.
