100 days until Michigan football: Jim Harbaugh creeping up on coaching milestone
There’s much anticipation heading into the Michigan Wolverines football season, and TheWolverine.com is counting down the days until the Sept. 2 opener against East Carolina. We’ll discuss current Michigan events, the upcoming season and/or take a look at a significant number that correlates with how many days remain until kickoff, whether it be a player’s jersey number, a year, a date, a score, etc.
Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh has delivered on the promise of turning around the program’s fortunes in the last few seasons. The Wolverines are coming off a 25-3 stretch that includes a pair of wins over Ohio State, two Big Ten titles and trips to the College Football Playoff in both 2021-22.
That run has brought the program back from the brink of uncertainty coming of the COVID-impacted 2020 season. Harbaugh earned the right to fix what had ailed Michigan, and as a result has reached the heights that have eluded them.
Should it remain sustainable, Harbaugh has a chance to etch himself into the Wolverine record books as a head coach.
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Harbaugh is 74-25 as Michigan football’s head coach, which puts him alone in fourth place in program history behind Bo Schembechler (194), Fielding H. Yost (165) and Lloyd Carr (122). Harbaugh passed Fritz Crisler (71) last season with a 34-3 win over Nebraska on Nov. 12 in Ann Arbor.
The question becomes how far up the list Harbaugh can climb from here. The next milestone is 100 wins, which would make him only the fourth coach in Michigan history to achieve that mark. The Wolverines could play as many as 15 games this fall and if they win all of them he would need only 11 more in 2024 to hit that mark.
The most likely scenario, assuming he sticks around, is that he hits 100 wins late in the 2024 campaign or early in 2025. No man knows the future, and the NFL rumors have persisted over the last few offseasons, but he has positioned himself to reach heights few have while helming the program.
Michigan football coaching wins chart
| Name | Wins | Years Coached |
| Bo Schembechler | 194 | 1969-89 |
| Fielding H. Yost | 165 | 1901-23, 1925-26 |
| Lloyd Carr | 122 | 1995-2007 |
| Jim Harbaugh | 74 (and counting) | 2015-present |
| Fritz Crisler | 71 | 1938-47 |
Harbaugh is 120 wins behind his mentor in Schembechler and would likely need to coach at least a decade more in Ann Arbor to come close to it. He is 91 wins behind Yost, so depending on how things break, his mark of 165 might be more attainable.
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Carr’s 122 wins and a national title still likely have him in the books as Michigan’s best coach of the last 30 years or so. Harbaugh’s teams have won at a 10-games per season pace, which would position him to take the third spot from Carr sometime during the 2027 season.
Harbaugh will pass Bennie Oosterbaan this year for the fourth-most games coached in program history at 100, a mark he will match in the season opener against East Carolina and pass the following week against UNLV.
Something Harbaugh might have on his peers his is previous success in other places, going 29-6 at San Diego, 29-21 at Stanford and 44-19-1 with the San Francisco 49ers. His 132 collegiate wins alone are more than Carr, and puts him even closer to surpassing Yost and Schembechler when factored in.
Regardless, Michigan football is in steady and elite hands with its current regime, and has a chance to keep adding to an already strong legacy.
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