Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh mentioned he’ll return to the Wolverines subsequent season, placing an finish to a Sunday morning report that he was being vetted by NFL teams. The coach of the back-to-back Big Ten champions and College Football Playoff members advised reporters Sunday evening he could be “back enthusiastically coaching the Wolverines in 2023.” 

NFL.com reported Sunday morning that a number of NFL groups have been working behind the scenes to see if Harbaugh was a match for the professional recreation. This comes one yr after Harbaugh and the NFL flirted with each other following Harbaugh’s first convention title in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Minnesota Vikings have been the first group Harbaugh in its search to interchange former coach Mike Zimmer prior to now.

Harbaugh has led the Wolverines to 2 straight Big Ten championships, a 74-24 file throughout his eight years together with his alma mater and has his group on the cusp of a second consecutive College Football Playoff look. It’s not a shock that there may very well be different groups courting him sooner relatively than later and it seems some NFL groups could have already began Harbaugh as a possible candidate to fill their teaching vacancies. 

Harbaugh’s success within the NFL definitely would have made him enticing regardless of his absence. He was 44-19-1 with the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-14, made three playoff appearances and misplaced Super Bowl XLVII to the Baltimore Ravens after the 2012 season. That success got here after he constructed Stanford right into a then-Pac-10 energy. The Cardinal went 29-21 from 2007-10 orchestrated one of many largest upsets in faculty soccer historical past when he topped No. 2 USC in 2007, completed the 2010 season with a 12-1 file, gained the Orange Bowl and completed ranked No. 4 within the closing AP Top 25. 

Harbaugh agreed to a five year, $36.7 million extension with the Wolverines final February after the NFL hiring course of concluded. That contract went from $7.05 million in 2022 and goes up steadily to $7.63 million in 2026.

It’s comprehensible why NFL groups could be interested in Harbaugh. He re-built a number of packages within the faculty recreation, sustained success at each ranges and has the power to establish and develop quarterbacks like JJ McCarthy with the Wolverines and Colin Kaepernick on the professional degree.