All signs point to Harbaugh to be Michigan coach

By Mark Snyder and Daniel Jesse

Detroit Free Press

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Unless negotiations fall apart, all signs indicate that Jim Harbaugh will be the next football coach at Michigan by Monday or Tuesday.

A deal between Harbaugh and Michigan has not been signed, but that isn’t stopping U-M staffers from getting together events to introduce Harbaugh on Tuesday, including a news conference and an appearance at an afternoon basketball game, a person within the university with knowledge of the plans told the Free Press on Sunday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because U-M officials aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the coaching search. The hope is that Harbaugh will fly to Ann Arbor sometime Monday.

That adds to the mounting viewpoint that Harbaugh, an All-America quarterback at U-M in the 1980s and the coach of the San Francisco 49ers the past four seasons, will strike a deal with interim athletic director Jim Hackett and will return to his alma mater to attempt to rebuild the football program.

Late Saturday night, a long-time close friend of Harbaugh’s – a television sportscaster in the Bay Area – tweeted that Harbaugh was expected to be introduced as Michigan’s 20th head football coach Tuesday. The sportscaster, Dave Feldman, works for Comcast Sports Network Bay Area, went to school with Harbaugh at Palo Alto High and hosts the pregame show and other game-day broadcast elements for the 49ers. Friends for decades, Harbaugh allowed Feldman to accompany him on his annual summer missionary pilgrimage to Peru to film a documentary last year.

No person with closer ties to Harbaugh has stated for the record that he would be the replacement for Brady Hoke, who was fired Dec. 2 by Hackett.

Before Feldman’s tweet, multiple reports during Saturday cited a pending job switch. The first came from the Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole, who cited unnamed sources within the 49ers’ coaching staff as saying Harbaugh was headed to Michigan.

Sunday, two prominent football journalists – one who covers the NFL, one who covers colleges – added to the chorus.

On ESPN Radio, John Clayton put it as a certainly that Harbaugh would coach at Michigan, the first prominent NFL insider to do so. Every Sunday for the past month, NFL insiders have proclaimed that Harbaugh would stay in the NFL or wanted to stay in the NFL.

“I would say 100 percent,” Clayton said on ESPN Radio. “Because over the last couple days, he’s actually been calling coaches around the National Football League to see if they would come to college. Guys right now that may be in a position where they’re going to be losing their jobs with their teams. So he’s trying crazy to do this. So it’s pretty well set they’ll work out the deal by Tuesday and he’ll end up being the Michigan coach.”

That was followed about a half-hour later by tweets from Bruce Feldman, the college football insider for Fox Sports. He said Harbaugh and his family would fly to Michigan on Monday and attend Tuesday’s Big Ten opener against Illinois at Crisler Center.

Hackett and U-M spokesmen basically have declined all comment during the search for Hoke’s replacement. The word from the Wolverines has been simple: When we have something to announce, we will announce it.

Before Harbaugh, 51, could become U-M’s coach, though, he won his final game with the 49ers, beating the Arizona Cardinals 20-17 on Sunday to finish the season 8-8.

Harbaugh, who has taken the 49ers to the NFC championship game the past three seasons, still has a year remaining on the five-year, $25-million contract he signed after leaving Stanford, but he has been at odds with team management recently and NFL insiders widely have reported that the 49ers do not want him back and he does not want to return. He could not sign a contract with U-M until he was out of his NFL contract.

In a high-profile coaching search, there always are back-channel communications with an agent or friends or mentors or facilitators. Harbaugh has declined to address speculation about his future in his daily dealings with the media as an NFL head coach. San Francisco general manager Trent Baalke revealed on his radio show this past week that he appreciated that U-M contacted the 49ers.

That suggests there is a deal to be negotiated – a buyout, a release, a firing or a resignation. Harbaugh and the 49ers have said they would meet after the season to discuss his and the team’s future.

According to several reports, U-M officials have been in the Bay Area over the weekend waiting for their turn to talk formally with Harbaugh.

Harbaugh could have several NFL options – with more say than an average coach – with the Oakland Raiders, the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears, although none is on the verge of contention. But multiple NFL jobs turn over yearly, giving him options if he wanted go to Ann Arbor and later return to the pros. If U-M were to hire a different coach who was a long-term fit, though, Harbaugh may never get the chance again to coach at his alma mater.

The NFL Network reported Dec. 17 that U-M was offering Harbaugh a six-year, $48-million contract to make him the highest-paid college coach, more than Alabama’s Nick Saban and on par with anyone in the NFL.

This morning other NFL insiders would not say Harbaugh was all but signed, sealed and delivered to Ann Arbor.

“There is no deal,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on “SportsCenter,” although conceding the U-M opportunity is a likely outcome but nothing has been signed. He also tweeted the same earlier this morning.

On the NFL Network, insider Ian Rapoport put the reports more on the Michigan camp than the Harbaugh camp.

“They hope Jim Harbaugh will be their next coach and they hope to bring him home from California either tonight or possibly Monday after Harbaugh meets with his players and meets with 49ers brass and informs them what he wants to do,” Rapoport said. “I’m told at this point, though no firm deal is in place, nothing is signed but Michigan, officials hope there will be one after tonight’s game.”

Rapoport also noted there were other suitors.

“The Oakland Raiders have not been told they are out, that is worth noting, and the Chicago Bears, if they do clean house, are a wild-card team for Jim Harbaugh,” Rapoport said.

The NFL reporters talk to NFL people and Harbaugh returning to the college ranks with such a strong resume would be extremely rare. That has led to plenty of skepticism.