Michigan AD Warde Manuel fires back at notion of clash with Jim Harbaugh
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel fired back at the notion of an internal clash with Jim Harbaugh leading to the Wolverines coaching leaving Ann Arbor for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Reminiscing about Harbaugh’s tenure with the Wolverines, Manuel cited times when he was Harbaugh’s loudest supporter at Michigan, and why he wouldn’t have changed his tune, especially after a season where the coach delivered Michigan a national championship.
“It was lonely, because there were there weren’t a lot of people, other than me, that thought I should keep Jim at the time. And those voices were loud,” Manuel told Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider, regarding Harbaugh’s past with the Wolverines. “They were aggressively shouting and saying, in different ways. By shouting, I mean social media, posts, emails, all kind of things, where people were wanting him gone. And ultimately, I made a decision that Jim was a great coach. I had known Jim since I was a freshman here at the University of Michigan. I have a great appreciation for him and what he brings to the table as coach and as a person, and the all the values and things that he has helped develop here with our student-athletes. That one season didn’t stop Jim Harbaugh from being a great coach.
“But apparently, in other people’s minds, it did. So, we evaluated the program, we sat down, I talked to him. We talked about how and what is needed to drive more success than we had in that particular year, and how can we beat Ohio State? And ultimately, from that conversation, I decided that Jim was the right person to move this program forward. We had the right plan. He executed it and it worked the way it worked. But the same people who, back then, were calling for me to be fired because I kept him, are the same people who think I wanted him to go (to the NFL)? That’s absurd. Absolutely, positively absurd. And so, that is a narrative that is ridiculous.”
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Evidently, Manuel believes Harbagh’s yearning to win a Super Bowl, and finish his story in the NFL after accomplishing so much at the collegiate level, was the deciding factor for the now-former Wolverines leader.
“People don’t understand. They don’t know who I am and how I think about it. But they should know, with the fact that, in the face of everybody telling me to fire him, I kept him. But yet, because he’s looking and because he goes out to entertain going into the pros — Jim was a pro player far longer than he was a Michigan player, student-athlete,” Manuel added. “He was in the he went all the way to the Super Bowl, and he lost to his brother. But Jim is ultra-competitive, unbelievably competitive as a person.
“And so his desire, ultimately, is that he wanted to go back to the pros to try to win at that level. At that point in time, when he had looked the past three years, he had won Big Ten Championships, he had beat Ohio State. So he now then decides, ‘Well, I want to take a look.’ And I was supportive of it, because I knew that was important to him.”
Alas, the Wolverines did all they could to retain Harbaugh’s services, if Manuel is to be taken at his word, and why wouldn’t they? He was coming off a legendary campaign. However, it was simply time for both parties to move in a different direction, and Michigan will now look to Sherrone Moore to continue their success.
Jim Harbaugh simply believed his time at Michigan was up, and the Wolverines are headed in a different direction under Warde Manuel’s leadership, as well. It’ll be fascinating to see how it works out for both parties in 2024 and beyond.
On3’s Riley Gates contributed to this article.