Explaining what unfolded between Michigan, Jim Harbaugh since national championship

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh‘s time with the Wolverines has come to an end, named the new head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers on Wednesday after leading the program to a national championship in his ninth season at the helm.

Harbaugh’s return to the NFL eventually seemed inevitable following the national championship game, but The Wolverine‘s Chris Balas broke down the timeline between then and now that led to his exit with On3’s Andy Staples and Jesse Simonton.

“Today was really when we found out that they were basically acquiescing to all of his demands and saying look we want to keep him here,” Balas said. “I know that president Santa Ono, he told me on the field that game fellas against Washington, he’s like I’m going to do everything I can to keep him here and he kind of took the lead on this.”

Michigan’s president and athletic director both expressed the desire to have Harbaugh return to Ann Arbor for the 2024 season, with multiple reports suggesting that the Wolverines were willing to make Harbaugh the highest-paid head coach in college football with a new contract.

“Warde Manuel yes, he came out and said at the event following the championship, the celebration, that I’m gonna do whatever I can and work on a contract for this guy. But it was at a snail’s pace and had been for three and a half years and in fact Jim Harbaugh brought this up in the fall and said you know what yeah, I’ve been saying it for three and a half years, I do want a new deal and we reported that,” Balas said. “That okay, the contract’s finally in the works here and then had the NCAA stuff come up and obviously that threw a monkey into the wrench there fellas.”

Michigan’s sign-stealing investigation definitely added an unexpected element to Michigan’s entire season as a whole, including Harbaugh’s contract negations. But regardless, it seems clear that nothing could have stood in the way of Jim Harbaugh’s desire to return to the NFL and pursue winning a Super Bowl.

“But at the end of the day they had all agreed that Jim Harbaugh’s our guy, he should be the highest paid coach in college football and they did everything that they could to keep him,” Balas said. “Some people are going to argue that that’s not true, I don’t agree with that. I think okay, when you’ve got the self clause, when you’ve got okay you’re gonna make him the highest paid coach in football, it just keeps going up and up and up.”

“At the end of the day, it was just that Jim Harbaugh wanted the NFL and we’d heard that so many times guys and that’s basically what drove him back there.”