Michigan Football, 2021 Season

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Harbaugh's contract details:

Around half of his annual base salary for a 5 year extension that ends in 2025

Buyout starts at $4 million in 2021 and reduces $1m/y with $3 million in 2022, $2 million in 2023, $1 million in 2024 and there is no buyout in 2025.

There's about $4m in incentive bonuses annually.

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Michigan-releases-Harbaughs-new-salary-buyout-incentives-contract-158845281/

There's no other way to paint this other than a sell-out to fans and every level of season ticket holders. He has failed to win the CFB championships that he was hired to win and paid among the top 3 highest paid CFB HC when he signed in 2015, looked for a job in the NFL after the disaster that was the COVID 2020 season and nobody wanted him, and was still offered millions to return to M.

Disgraceful.

I hope students boycott buying tickets, loyal fans stop paying seat licenses and buying season ticket packages and we get to witness embarrassing sports press reports of an increasingly empty Big House. Kind of a fuck you to Harbaugh and the idiot AD behind retaining and continuing to pay an employee that has failed to achieve what he was hired to do.

[Mike]

Meritocracy!

[lineygoblue]

Mediocrity

[iam416]

So -- for M fans -- did Covid save HARBAUGH!!!!? IMO, they were probably going to lose to Maryland, were going to get blasted by Ohio State and blasted by Iowa. That's 2-7 (maybe 3-6 if they survived College Park) and two embarassments to close the season. Further, people are, I think, inclined to just chalk up 2020 as "covid, whatchya gonna do?" Finally, given the Covid season, dollars are at a premium and eating ginormous buyouts is far less pallatable.

So, if M had played their final 3 games OR if M had looked THIS bad w/o Coivd being around, does JH still have a job? Is Warde Manuel really that feckless? I mean, I just can't get over HOW BAD they were this year. 2017 wasn't good, but, you know, transistion year and such -- and they weren't terrible -- just mediocre. They were terrible in 2020. I still can't really wrap my head around it. RichGOD 2008 bad.

So, did Covid save HARBAUGH!!!!! or do you think that M really is, institutionally-speaking, that passive and chickenshit?

[THE_WIZARD_]

The latter. Covid helped though.

Now STFU.

[Jeff Buchanan]

COVID was likely a factor in Manuel's approach to Harbaugh. Donors/factions that took that view probably influenced Manuel. So, yes, it had a lot to do with how this played out - at least as we know it as outsiders.

There was something seriously wrong with the football team after Minnesota. I don't know what it was and locker-room discord that we can't know about was probably at play. I have a personal trainer who is 26 or something that played CB at the FCS level. He had NFL aspirations so I suspect he was pretty good. We talk about M football all the time. WRT the Harbaugh situation he said CFB players are like little old ladies in a bridge club when it comes to gossip. Talk of a HC or coordinator being unhappy, disgruntled or leaving spreads like wildfire and can have a significant negative impact on how dedicated to training, taking coaching and playing hard for the team a player will be. External factors like family or personal problems tend to isolate a player from the team and drive wedges. Coaching changes, personal or family problems with key players or coaches combined with COVID must have had a tremendous impact on locker room stuff, he said, and could explain why M looked like shit v. MSU.

I can "wrap my head around" how terrible they were but, IMO, every CFB team that seriously tried to play football in 2020 was dealing with the same things in varying degrees. That's the distinction for me. A good coach is not going to allow a team to be overwhelmed by that stuff like it appeared M was overwhelmed and then collapsed. Jim should have been fired for that, on the spot after MSU and for sure after PSU. If I was a battalion commander and JH a company commander who let shit like that happen, I would have sacked him forthwith. No questions.

Yes, Warde Manuel is "feckless." He failed to deal with the Harbaugh fiasco v MSU and PSU, explains the course of contract events that transpired with Harbuagh and his fecklessness lays the groundwork for Michigan football to claim it's bottom dwelling place in the BT in 2021 - assuming that season gets played without COVID implications. M will be the punching bag for BT teams that play with spirit and intensity something that Jim Harbaugh does not imbue anymore for reasons I think we have had adequate discussions about right here.

[iam416]

I think the question is probably better framed as "why was Minnesota the outlier?" Maybe Milton surprised them. Maybe they were missing players on defense. Maybe they were caught flat-footed as to how to stop M.

But, the reality is that Milton was terrible (and McC was run off). McNamara was fine against....Rutgers. But, christ, man.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I'm pleading with you...STFU

[WingsFan]

Now Michigan fans can say can't get a good coach because we aren't spending the money, like we saw back in the LLLLLoyd era.



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[iam416]

They're basically give him $1.5M if he beats Ohio State. Presumably, if he beats Ohio State he wins the B10 East outright and, of course, wins the B10.

[WingsFan]

Michigan has not sign one DT since Benedict Arnold went to the toilet.


OC: Gattis
WR: Gattis
RB: ? Time to bring Mike Hart back
TE: ?
OL: Warriner

ST: Apparently McDaniels is being not renewed. JayBaugh is moving to special teams only. (Turned down an offer to go with Jedd Fisch out in Arizona so would he take a demotion at Michigan to stay in Ann Arbor with his father?)


DC/LB: (Yawn) Dad and Brothers pick MacDonald
DL: ?
S: ?
CB: ?

[lineygoblue]

So, did Covid save HARBAUGH!!!!! or do you think that M really is, institutionally-speaking, that passive and chickenshit?

Lets dispose of the latter first. Michigan would have played all remaining games if not for Covid. I'm 100% sure of this. Cowardice had nothing to do with it. They would have showed up in College Park, Columbus and Iowa City, and taken their pounding, and acted like nothing was wrong. Its the standard reaction on State Street and Schembechler Hall in today's Michigan Football world.

Institutionally speaking, I think Michigan football is finally being de-emphasized at the university, and that's just fine with most of the school's leadership. There are many on the academic side that have resented how big the program was, and the influence the program has had on campus and the decisions that have been made with the football program in mind. I think many, if not most of the academic leadership on campus feel that its long past due for the football program to take a lesser seat, and not be in a position to influence major decisions regarding the university. There was a time, when if Bo Schembechler spoke, the entire university ground all activities to a halt, until he was finished speaking. I'm not even exaggerating. Today, the program has become so weak, that some people on campus probably don't know the HC's name.

So, from my view, the weakening of the football program is just fine with most of the university's leadership. Harbaugh knows this, and even though he couldn't find an NFL team willing to give him the kind of money/security he needs, he knows he can sign the silly extension, and try again next year. He will not serve the entire length of this extension, and I don't think either side anticipates that will happen. The extension gives both sides an easier path to divorce, and makes it possible after each season. Its not exactly a "vote of confidence".

So Michigan will struggle competitively in 2021 once again. They'll be over-achieving if they finish 3rd in the BTE. The "rivalry" with OSU is over. Michigan has surrendered. Ohioans will go on believing that "the game" somehow exists, but in the real world, it will not. Its just another soft spot on OSU's schedule, as they pursue higher goals. For Michigan fans its just another opportunity to sell their season tickets to OSU fans and make a little cash.

[iam416]

To be clear, I'm not saying M was using Covid to avoid games. I'm saying legitimate Covid cases spared M 2 certain beatings and probably 1 more loss AND also created a sense that this season is so weird that it doesn't really count. And those two factors contributed to HARBAUGH!!!! staying around. If they had gone 2-7 or if this season wasn't viewed as beyond weird, then there's no way they keep him.

Or rather, I'm asking that question -- is there a way they keep -- and you seem to think they would.

[lineygoblue]

I'm saying legitimate Covid cases spared M 2 certain beatings and probably 1 more loss AND also created a sense that this season is so weird that it doesn't really count. And those two factors contributed to HARBAUGH!!!! staying around.

I think that had the season played out fully, with the anticipated beatings at the end, it would have been hard for Manuel to keep Harbaugh around. That would have meant that Michigan would have ended the season with four (4) consecutive losses, (PSU, Maryland, OSU, Iowa) and I'm not sure Manuel would have been able to justify keeping Harbaugh around. Even though the university's attitude toward the football program is quite lackadaisical, there would have been big money people squawking for his termination that even Schlissel and Manuel could not ignore. With the Covid cancellations, it provided some insulation for Manuel to offer the incentive-laden "extension", as a way to either get Harbaugh to fire himself by nudging him toward the NFL, or make it easier to part with him later on.

So, as I see it, its a good deal for Harbaugh, because he still gets a paycheck, and there is incentive to perform better. If that falls apart, there's always another chance at the NFL after 2021. And the idea that he 'loses' money under this extension is really a non-factor. He gets a ton of money from Nike for just wearing their stuff, and having the team wear it. He gets money from summer camps, and he's also paid well for television and radio appearances. He won't be shopping at the Salvation Army any time soon.