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The Jim Harbaugh Era At Michigan Is Ending

The Jim Harbaugh Era At Michigan Is Ending

Jim Harbaugh’s time in Ann Arbor is coming to an end. After getting off to a hot start and defeating No. 21 Minnesota to open the season, the Wolverines have promptly dropped three games in a row.

At this point, the writing is on the wall.

ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum appeared on WJOX  this week and suggested that it was time for all parties involved to cut their losses.

“At this point, what good does that relationship have? It’s not mutually beneficial,” he said.

“Jim Harbaugh’s program has absolutely tanked. He looks miserable. His comments after the game are indecipherable.

“I think Michigan is probably hoping he’ll get another job in the NFL, but you can’t sit around and wait until mid-December or January when the NFL season is over for Jim Harbaugh to make that call. You have to make that call now or at some point in the next three weeks.”

This past week, South Carolina fired head coach Will Muschamp after his third straight loss. In Finebaum’s estimation, Michigan needs to follow suit.

“This is a coach that was once respected,” he said. “And now, sadly, Jim Harbaugh has become a punchline in college football.

“It’s almost impossible to watch this guy. He makes $8 million a year and was the talk of the sport a couple of years ago. And now, no one knows what the future looks like. It looks pretty grim if Michigan decides to fire him. A lot of people up there are saying they want to keep him. For what reason? I have no idea.”

To Finebaum’s point, even Harbaugh kind of seemed done with it all following his team’s most recent defeat – a 49-11 home loss to No. 13 ranked Wisconsin.

“Not a good place as a football team right now, and that falls on me,” Harbaugh said.

“Got to get after really going back to basics in everything that we do and look at everything that we’re doing. Everybody’s got to do better. I’m at the front of the line in the accountability.”

Harbaugh pledged to continue trying to improve his squad, though.

“It can only be those three things: what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, who’s doing it,” he said. “We’ve got to look at all those things right now. Right now, I’d say all three need to be addressed.”

To his credit, Harbaugh took full ownership of his team’s failings.

“The thing that stands out the most is the coaching … making sure that [the players] have an understanding of what to do and, therefore, they can go for it,” he said.

“Because there seems to be hesitation, there seems to be some confusion, some lack of communication on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, and getting things adjusted to, getting things fixed, just identifying how to improve in those areas are some of the first things that we’re going to address.”

Regardless of what happens this weekend against Rutgers, the writing is on the wall. Harbaugh’s time in Ann Arbor is coming to an end. At this point it’s not a matter of if, it’s simply a question of when.

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Anthony Amador

A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.

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