Don’t ask Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh if he’s looking to return to the NFL.
Harbaugh, speaking to the press three days after his team lost a heartbreaker to Michigan State, was asked about the possibility that his name could surface for NFL head-coaching jobs. Harbaugh didn’t care for the question.
“I won’t comment on it. It’s disrespectful to the game. I look at it as disrespectful,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh would certainly be a strong candidate for any NFL head-coaching opening, given the success he had with the 49ers. The Dolphins already have a head-coaching vacancy, and owner Stephen Ross is known to be enamored with Harbaugh.
But it seems very unlikely that Harbaugh would leave Michigan any time soon. He’s done a good job of starting to turn the program around at his alma mater, and he surely wants to see that through, not jump for the next NFL vacancy. It’s also unlikely that Ross, a Michigan graduate and booster, would even want Harbaugh to leave Michigan.
So while it’s natural that Harbaugh will be asked about his interest in NFL jobs, just as other top college coaches are, it’s extremely unlikely that he’s going to leave. He didn’t take the Michigan job to coach one season.