Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh is (almost) a great coach

Disproving criticisms directed at Jim Harbaugh

I know this is a little bit of an odd slide, but looking at Jim Harbaugh’s image, I thought it was a necessary one. There is a lot of Harbaugh slander out there, and I wanted to make some things known that should be obvious.

The first and most important thing here is recognizing that his off-field antics are not detrimental to this football team as much as the media portrays them. I know it’s not apples to apples, but if James Franklin does that and finishes top 15, does he get the same criticism? He has a brand to maintain and he’s done that better than anybody else in college sports.

Michigan plays a villain in college football and he has maintained that to perfection.

Something else that I think should be considered is the fact that he isn’t overpaid at all. Yes, I have called him overpaid in the past and in relation to other coaches and on-field results, he definitely is “overpaid”. But year in and year out, Michigan is in the top three highest-earning programs in the game.

If Michigan is paying him to win football games then sure, he’s overpaid. But at the end of the day, they’re paying him to bring in money and he’s doing that as effectively as anybody.

But it’s this brand he continues to build that causes Michigan to struggle in the postseason. Their bowl record isn’t as big of a blemish as people would like it to be. Since Michigan has such a large brand, it’s constantly put up against competition that have simply had a better season than the Wolverines, most recently exemplified in their loss to Alabama this past season.