CBS Sports: Jim Harbaugh leaves Michigan football ‘as a legend’

Rival fans have worked so hard to spin the past 24 hours for Michigan football. Their take: Having lost Jim Harbaugh, the Wolverines might as well open a linen factory. On the heels of a controversial, yet program-best year, it makes sense Harbaugh would depart Ann Arbor for another crack at the NFL.

Harbaugh coached for four years with the San Francisco 49ers before rejoining his alma mater as the head coach. He returns with the Los Angeles Chargers as the active NFL head coach with the best win percentage.

Though the spin has been he’s dodging potential NCAA sanctions, it’s simply untrue. The NFL has chased Harbaugh since he arrived in Ann Arbor, save for 2020. After winning a national championship, Harbaugh felt he had nothing left to prove at the college level.

Some analysts are level-headed, such as CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, who was present for the Rose Bowl and national championship game this year. The way he looks at Harbaugh’s tenure is that he departs as nothing short of ‘a legend.’

Long before the Los Angeles Chargers had offered him millions of dollars and possible levels of power limited only by the imagination to return to the NFL, Jim Harbaugh’s legacy was already etched in the brick and stone of Michigan Stadium.

Harbaugh is a legend, and not just for becoming the first coach in history to miss half his team’s regular-season games and still win a national championship. He’s a legend for lasting the nine years it took to accomplish the mission. He’s a legend for leading one of the most traditional programs in existence back to the top.

There’s a lot more to Dodd’s eulogy on Harbaugh and Michigan and it’s a good read. But the thesis of his article is certainly the way most Wolverines fans will look at his nine-year tenure.

While the first six years had promise but ended mostly in…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cbs-sports-jim-harbaugh-leaves-231333629.html

Author : Wolverines Wire

Publish date : 2024-01-25 23:13:33

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