Wolverines bet future of program that Harbaugh is right Michigan man
A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan.
The consequences of that decision could last for decades.
There's no doubt that interim athletic director Jim Hackett and the Wolverines have made just about the best hire possible for a struggling football program. Jim Harbaugh comes to Ann Arbor with the perfect resume:
He was a star at Michigan under Bo Schembechler, is a proven coach at the college level and left the NFL with one of the highest winning percentages in league history.
It's a no-brainer. Harbaugh was the coach that the fanbase demanded and appears to have been the only candidate Hackett ever seriously pursued.
The timing was perfect, too, because the 49ers wanted to get rid of him -- even though he took them to three NFC title games and a Super Bowl. Hackett took advantage, moving quickly enough to keep any other NFL team from getting a serious chance at luring him back to the pro game.
It's also an incredible risk.
Michigan knew that they only had one chance to convince Harbaugh to give up his dream of winning a Super Bowl, and it took the quickest route possible -- they buried him in cash.
At a reported $8 million per season for the next six years, Harbaugh replaces Nick Saban as the highest paid coach in college football. Saban has won four national championships, while Harbaugh has only coached in two bowl games.
But the impact of Harbaugh's paycheck is bigger than that.
He'll make more money than New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his three Super Bowl rings. Harbaugh will also make more money than San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and his five NBA titles. And San Francisco Giants coach Bruce Bochy and his three World Series victories? He's only making half of Harbaugh's salary.
In fact, the only coach or manager in North American sports ahead of Harbaugh is Doc Rivers, who gets $10 million a season to serve as both the coach and president of the Los Angeles Clippers. The only people beyond that come from the money-drenched world of European soccer, where Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho both earn salaries well into ten digits.
So, yes, Michigan got the coach it needed to hire, but at a cost that means the move must work. If he's not a success, the athletic department isn't going to be able to convince president Mark Schlissel -- a man who already has serious concerns about big-time college sports -- to throw large amounts of money at another coach.
Harbaugh being successful also has its risks. Although he's won everywhere he's coached, he's never held a job for more than four years before moving on to the next challenge, and that can't be the outcome this time.
If Harbaugh buys his way out of the biggest contract in college sports after four seasons, it turns Ann Arbor into just another stepping-stone job -- somewhere a coach goes on his way to bigger and better things.
When Bo Schembechler originally said that only a Michigan man would coach Michigan, he didn't mean what the expression has come to represent -- someone who grew up bleeding maize-and-blue. After all, Schembechler himself was hired away from Miami of Ohio. And far from having Michigan roots, he had been the protege of Woody Hayes.
Bo wanted a coach who won games, kept the program clean, and just as important, had unquestioned love and loyalty to the Wolverines.
That's what the Wolverines need right now, and they've bet the future of the football program that Jim Harbaugh is the right kind of Michigan man.
