uh oh.. Jim Harbaugh exploring potential NFL return

Hes only eyeing a return because he is about to get fired.

0-4 against Ohio State
1-10 vs. top-10 opponents
0-8 as an underdog
1-7 on the road against ranked opponents
Five losses by at least 21 points

all whilst having a top 5 recruiting class every season. And fine he sucks against Ohio State, but hes not even the second best program in his conference. Penn State and Wisconsin have surpassed Michigan and its debatable if as a whole theyre better than Michigan State..

No thanks... he can have his return on the Jets.. or the Redskins... his stubborness on the sidelines is glaring and he has lost many big games from playcalling alone..

 

I’d love it. What Harbaugh did with the 49ers was pretty amazing. For 8 years in a row before Harbaugh they didn’t have a winning season (only one of those years did they even manage 8 wins), then Harbaugh comes in and they immediately go to the conference championships 3 years in a row with one SB appearance. And you can’t easily tie that change in win% to any player either (he even did that with different QB’s).

Then Harbaugh leaves and they revert back to being a bottom feeder in their division. That’s no coincidence, that’s skill on the part of the HC. And there’s no reason to think he lost all that because he didn’t do well at Michigan.

So I’d love this. I mean.. Flores is obviously hard to evaluate given the roster but he hasn’t shown any sign he’s our solution at HC either. I’d rather go with a proven coach (in the NFL). Hope Ross pounces on the opportunity (he’ll certainly try I’m sure).

 

If Ross fires Flores for Harbaugh Ross' reputation will be trashed. Of course, if Harbaugh becomes the HC for decades it won't matter, but if he doesn't work out...

I don't see Ross doing it. Maybe after one or two years.

And as for this tired, repetitive nonsense about Ross not happy with Flores because he has no wins this year... stop it. Please. Just stop it. It's total, utter, absolute nonsense. Flores has at least two years, maybe more. This was expected. That repeated argument is ....

 

I was drafting a similar response before finally trashing it. Haven't had enough coffee yet and you stated it more eloquently that I was doing.

 

One option would be to hire Harbaugh as a front office guy to work with Marino to build the team from the ground up. He might want to take a break from coaching for a few years anyway.

 

Now THAT'S a possibility. Give Flores his opportunity to realize his vision and if it goes south, Harbaugh could return to the sidelines.

But on the other side of the coin, Harbaugh apparently hasn't recruited the best players for Michigan. Would he do any better at the pro level?

 

The Harbaugh at Michigan right now I dont want in any way, shape or form. He is not the same guy that coached San Fran and Stanford.

 

I think that ship sailed when the rest of the league came to the conclusion we are tanking. There is little to no damage to reputation that will come from this move.

I agree with you that Ross doesn't care about the losses this season, but if he wanted Jim and Jim is available it seems like its as good a time as any to make the change. Is it a jerk move? Maybe but so is charging money for tickets to see the crap show they are putting on the field.

 

I think that this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I wouldn't hesitate despite seeing growth and promise from our coaching staff.

Harbaugh really did a solid job of getting the 49ers moving in the right direction, but for whatever reason, he has struggled to get things going in Michigan. I suspect that his biggest problem is that he has never been able to land a top tier QB. I think that problem solves itself in Miami. He has the first pick in the draft. He can draft Tua or whoever he wants.

I also think that hiring Harbaugh comes with strings attached. Perhaps he wants Grier out. As other people on this site have mentioned in the past, Grier has been spotty at best at talent evaluation. We have a slew of draft picks, but I am not convinced that he will take the right people. In all honesty, I think he isn't the best talent evaluator on his team (McKenzie).

I think that this would be a highly attractive job for Harbaugh. Just think about it. He could come in with a boatload of draft picks, and essentially the only player that he is married to is Howard (and realistically, he could move on from him after his first season in Miami.). I think to top flight coaches, this matters more than you might think. When considering teams to interview with, they look at the talent a team has, but also players that they are married to. He is not walking into a half-built project that he has to either scrap or tear down. He has the ability to build a team completely from his own vision.

Harbaugh also brings respectability to our team that we are in dire need of. For the life of me, I have never see so many players turn down this team. Tyrod Taylor, Bridgewater, and Clowney all said, "Thanks but no thanks." In fact, Clowney used all the weight he could as a player to ensure that would not be a Miami Dolphin. I just don't think that happens with Jim Harbaugh.

I think Jim Harbaugh turbocharges our rebuild, and we are competitive again sooner rather than later.

 

LMAO, that implies Ross has some sort of reputation to begin with. He's laughed at in NFL circles for being absolutely clueless. He's absolutely in love with Harbaugh though and will fire Flores in a heartbeat for him.

 

No thanks

 

That ship has sailed..

 

I thought similar about JJ's time at Dallas when we got him in as HC. That went well, didn't it?

It’s a ‘No Thank You’ from the east side of the pond.

 

By the way the job he did in the 49ers, that offensive system, is outdated and wont work

good, keep sucking at michigan. Dont come here

 

Also, I wondered if he jumped from the 49ers, as he knew they had nothing coming through in terms of players he had a say in drafting, so he bolted to Michigan before the hammer came down. It took them a long time to recover after he went.
Don't want him thanks, quite happy with the direction that Flores is steering this old boat - players & systems are improving week on week.

 

I dont think Flores is going to be a very good HC, in fact I basically see him failing miserably.

So I'm not opposed to getting him the heck out of here right now.

 

I dont like his style of coaching to begin with. Very limited track record, often looks confused on the sidelines for some reason.

Let me rephrase what I said some.

I dont believe based off what I see Flores is anything special as a coach. Maybe if he has top notch coordinators he will succeed actually, but I just dont see him being a key to our success.

More or less I see his ceiling as "average" to "good" and if someone I felt was better was available, Flores wouldnt be my reason to not hire them.

 

No.

For all the people who have a tendency to think highly of Jim Harbaugh because of his tenure with the 49ers, take a minute to consider how much of that success may have actually been attributable to him and how much he actually proved through that venture.

First, Jim Harbaugh is an ex-QB. He works primarily on the offensive side of the ball. While his brother has done a great job with the Baltimore Ravens and happens to have a team that featured Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata and lots of other outstanding defense talent, it shouldn't color our view of the other Harbaugh. We'd be foolish to assume that because we admire his brother, we'd automatically love Jim or that they would be equal figures. After all, Jim had the better playing career. It could easily be that John will have the better coaching career.

The bulk of that 49er offense was their stout running game. While they did draft Carlos Hyde in the time Jim Harbaugh was HC, Harbaugh also inherited an offensive roster that featured Frank Gore, Joe Staley, Alex Boone, and Mike Iupati in their prime. It's not hard to imagine they'd be able to run the ball a bit.

Additionally, that roster also featured two great TEs in Vernon Davis and Delanie walker along with a veteran QB in Alex Smith and a solid WR in Michael Crabtree. And Ted Ginn Jr was there too for whatever it's worth. But those were all guys who Harbaugh inherited when he parked his car. He didn't assemble that roster or scout the landscape of Free Agency.

And let's not forget the most obvious fact here. That 49er team was most certainly led by its defense. Whatever they had on offense, they wouldn't have been a special team without that defense. And that was a great unit--one that was both well-stocked and well-coordinated.

But let's be honest. Several of the defensive anchors were already on the team prior to Harbaugh's arrival: Justin Smith (DE), Ahmad Brooks (OLB), Navarro Bowman (LB), Patrick Willis (LB), etc. And that coaching staff featured none other than Vic Fangio as it's coordinator.

So this is less a case of a great HC proving himself and more a story of a guy who almost did what Jon Gruden did in Tampa when he took over a powerful team and won it all.

So while the team did have a couple years of immediate success under Jim Harbaugh going 13-3 and the 12-4, it's easy to see how it might not be directly tied to him being such a great coach. That's particularly true when you consider how quickly that whole thing fell apart and how the team had issues with Harbaugh and problems with players like their young star Aldon Smith (and later Colin Kaepernick).

When several of the defensive players got hurt and went on IR in year 3, the team finished 8-8. After that, Harbaugh exited and the team regressed again to 5-11 under Jim Tomsula. So within the span of 4 years, they had ascended and subsequently crashed.

And at no point did you really think Jim Harbaugh was an amazing offensive mind. He was merely the coach who was present when a great roster briefly flourished.

We could give him credit for bringing in Vic Fangio. We could give him credit for getting wins out of a Colin Kaepernick-led offense. But in truth I think he was more a product of right place, right time. And the fact it all fell apart so fast leads me to believe he's not great. There's not really anything in that 49er story that makes me think Jim Harbaugh is going to come to the NFL and help a struggling team rebuild themselves.

...then you factor in that his time at Michigan has been massively disappointing.

So, no.

 

In a New York minute... would mean the end of that dolt Flores and more importantly, the end of that Buffoon Grier.

 

I'm curious about your assumption of Flores. Six games in and he's already a " Dolt" in your book. What exactly did you expect this year anyway? If you agreed going into this season that it's going to be a long season why put all the blame of 0-6 on Flores.? I'm not saying you're wrong as he may turn out to be useless, but what exactly made you come to this conclusion after 6 games with a terrible roster?

 

Hard Pass. Does not seem to be the same guy.

 

Jim must know he has the Dolphin job anytime he wants it, but I'd think he rather not leave Michigan as a failed coach.

 

He may not have a choice. Either because he gets fired or just because for some reason he straight up sucks *** right now.

 

Well then, going to Ross and saying he'll coach in Miami for $10 million/year is a pretty decent plan B (for Jim at least, not sure about how good it would be for the Dolphins).

A last minute firing of everyone in February 2020 and then scrambling to get ready for free agency and the draft sounds like a Miami thing, right?

 

I will need a very good explanation for what has happened at Michigan before I would be happy with the hire.

theoretically a high level NFL coach in a not so strong college conference should dominate. Add in name recognition giving recruiting a boost

What I know about college football you can carve on the back of an aspirin with an axe. However is record in Michigan fails to natch up with expectations.

 

Coaching college and the NFL are entirely different regardless of name recognition.

Great college coaches fail all the time in the NFL. The only reason we dont see the opposite is the transition doesnt happen as often from NFL into college, especially if the coach has had NFL success.

 

Not many examples of coaches that had success like Harbaugh in the NFL and then failed in college (usually coaches that transition back did so after not having much success in the NFL or they did have success and also did well in college), but one example that comes somewhat close is Bill Callahan who took the Raiders to the SB in 2002, then was fired the very next year! (don’t be surprised with Al Davis as the owner).. then went to coach Nebraska for 4 years and ended up with a dismal 27-22 record. And he’s now (interim) HC in the NFL again for the Redskins and won his first game against the Dolphins lol.

Just thought that was an interesting coincidence.

 

the guy was 5 yards from winning a Super Bowl. If he's available you hire him ASAP.

 

Look this is all fantasy land stuff. Ross is not going to fire Anyone after this season. Yes the team stinks but everyone knew it would going into this year. In fact I seriously doubt anyone will get fired after next season. Flores and his staff, Grier and his guys will get 3 seasons to show they are on the right track. If they don't get this team back to relevance in the 3rd year I think that's when Ross will pull the plug.

Frankly I don't think anyone can really say whether Flores can coach or not at this point. What can you honestly Judge him by? What's the yard stick for a situation like this?

And I still say no to Jim Harbaugh.

 

Jeff Fisher was a yard away, he's available if that's your barometer

 

Does make you laugh really, doesn't it. Flores has a gutted roster that was blown out week one, the scheme & the players have shown improvement each week and he still gets called a dolt. He's doing his job - he's got the players playing hard and more disciplined than they have been for years. I think he's doing a good job myself

 

You can honestly judge him by how clueless he looks on the sidelines whenever something happens in a game.

It's really unfortunate we will have a mentally disabled coach for three years. I tried to defend the hire at first but in hindsight it was a horrible decision hiring an unqualified and clueless candidate whos coaching style isnt going to sit with any half-talented player.

 

Except he got the SF gig because of his success coaching Stanford. He isn't a college novice. And the coaching part isn't that different - it's the recruiting that is a big change. His teams have some talent, but he has been unable to find or develop QBs, and for an offensive guy, his offenses have been absolute trash. Schemes, coaching, player improvement, all of it.

Even generally middle of the pack teams like Michigan State can break through a power like OSU from time to time, but Harbaugh has been an abject failure going up against good teams.

Either the game has passed him by, he isn't willing to put in the work or he got way to comfy and bought into his own legacy before he did anything. None of that is anything I want a part of in the NFL now, exponentially moreso if he tries to demand roster control.

 

Fair enough, but a 2/3 success rate with teams really isnt bad regardless of how you put it.

 

So the question is why is he so bad at Michigan and what would get him past that in the NFL. I'll let some other team figure it out.