What happens to Michigan now?
The Wolverines now join Alabama in having to replace a coaching legend.
Last week Jim Harbaugh left Michigan to become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
That’ll pair Harbaugh with his most talented quarterback since he had Andrew Luck at Stanford. Since those days he’s made do with the likes of Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick, Jake Rudock, Wilton Speight, Shea Patterson, and JJ McCarthy. The latter was one of the better ones I think, but the Chargers’ Justin Herbert is on another level from any of those guys. It’ll be interesting to see how Harbaugh aims to maximize him and who he hires as offensive coordinator.
We know he’ll be looking to take on this new challenge with a staff heavily plucked from back home at Michigan. Here’s the list of coaches Michigan is confirmed to be losing in this exchange thus far:
Jim Harbaugh
Jay Harbaugh (special teams coordinator)
Jesse Minter (defensive coordinator)
Ben Herbert (strength and conditioning)
Michigan fans are pretty alarmed. Minter and Herbert represent two massive pillars in what made the Harbaugh Wolverines what they were. There’s a few people asking, “why did we promote Sherrone Moore for continuity if the other essential components of the coaching staff are still leaving?”
There’s an easy answer to that question. They didn’t really have a choice. A tougher question is how this will all shake out for college football’s all-time winningest program.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to America's War Game to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.