Technically speaking, we can't call it a "return," because Jim Harbaugh never left.
But everybody knows better, and that includes Michigan's head coach, then and now, after Harbaugh's pursuit of an NFL job this winter ended Wednesday night without a contract to join the Minnesota Vikings. And after a monthlong saga that kept Michigan's football program in limbo, sidetracked in many respects, right when it should've been full speed ahead.
Which is why Harbaugh, after flying home to Ann Arbor on Thursday morning, would be smart to treat this like a return — a fresh reset, if you will — and not simply act as though it's business as usual, even if that's closer to the truth than most want to believe about college football.
Whatever Harbaugh's intentions were this offseason, as he continued doing one job while seemingly coveting others in the pro ranks, he'll need to state them clearly now. Something more than the text he sent to The Detroit News on Wednesday night, confirming the news he'd be back as the Wolverines' coach, "With an enthusiasm unknown to mankind!"
Given his track record, and the season Michigan just enjoyed — with a rejuvenated Harbaugh leading the Wolverines to a 12-2 record, a Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff — there's no reason to expect anything different, of course. That's the way Harbaugh has always operated, quite frankly.
But all the same, this latest dalliance with the NFL — and not just the optics of it all, culminating with a lengthy job interview in the Twin Cities on National Signing Day — has left some constituents in Ann Arbor feeling a bit unenthused, and understandably so. That includes some of his coaches and players, not to mention university administrators and alumni and many of those former players that should be the lifeblood of a tradition-rich program like Michigan.
So it'll be up to Harbaugh to mend some of those fences in the coming weeks and months, both in words and deeds.
Presumably, that starts with signing a new contract extension, one that was ready and waiting well before Harbaugh boarded that flight to Minnesota on Tuesday. It's one that will replace last year's cut-rate deal with an annual compensation package that should put him on par with Ohio State's Ryan Day (for now), perhaps with incentives in place that would reach Mel Tucker territory if the Wolverines perform as they did in 2021.
Only this new contract for Harbaugh also needs to have some more disincentives for the sort of thing that just occurred, with a sizable buyout that better protects Warde Manuel's interests as athletic director. If Harbaugh is serious in saying this was a last look elsewhere — and the Vikings may have just closed the NFL door, anyway — that shouldn't be an issue, either.
Harbaugh also needs to meet with his team, to explain himself and his actions, having essentially put his name in the transfer portal last month only to decide later that he's staying put. The players deserve some answers, and I'm sure most will accept them if delivered earnestly. But that rallying cry of "Who's got it better than us?" needs another affirmation from the man in charge if it's going to have the same resonance in Michigan's locker room.
Coaching staff dynamics are always tricky, and that'll be no different here. Especially since a few of Harbaugh's staff were lined up to leave with him, while others were in line for a possible promotion had Manuel opted for an in-house succession plan, as many suspect. Sorting through some of those issues won't be easy once the staff returns to work next week, though pay raises often help in that regard. However he finds solutions, though, continuity seems like a priority, particularly on the offensive side of the ball that should be Michigan's strength in 2022.
But there's also a key hire to be made now, as Harbaugh looks to replace defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald, who returned to Baltimore to accept John Harbaugh's offer to be the Ravens' defensive coordinator after an impressive one-year stint at Michigan. There are good candidates available, and maybe some more stability to sell now on Harbaugh's part, albeit with a defensive roster that's losing three potential first-round draft picks.
Still, what this all comes back to is trust, and rebuilding it where necessary.
Harbaugh has accomplished much of what he was brought back to do in Ann Arbor, the top-secret delivery at the end of then-athletic director Jim Hackett's "Project Unicorn." The previous two Michigan head coaches were a combined 46-42 in seven seasons, with a losing record in conference play in five of them. Harbaugh owns a 61-24 mark with just the one sub-.500 finish in the middle of a pandemic. He has won 10 or more games four times, raised Michigan's national profile and has the program in much better shape than he found it.
But the losing records against the Wolverines' chief rivals are all that matter to some — Harbaugh is 1-5 vs. Ohio State and 3-4 vs. Michigan State, including consecutive losses to Tucker and the Spartans. And while UM fans basked in that celebratory scene that washed over the Big House in late November, when Harbaugh finally beat the Buckeyes — and in that maize-and-blue party in Indianapolis the following weekend, as Michigan won its first Big Ten title in 17 years — this last month felt like a wet blanket.
It also called into question one of Harbaugh's answers after that emphatic win over Ohio State.
"The way it feels now," he said then, "it feels like the beginning."
Well, now it's up to Harbaugh to prove he meant it.
