On Monday, news broke that Michigan was in the process of putting together a contract extension for head coach Jim Harbaugh that would make him the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten.
Asked about it later in the day, Harbaugh said this:
"You want to be somewhere where you're wanted, and where they like what you do and how you do it. Your bosses tell you that and it gets reflected in a contract. The bottom for line for any of, right? We want to be somewhere where they like how you do it and what you do."
The cat-and-mouse between Harbaugh and Michigan is unlike any coach-school dynamic in college football right now. Harbaugh was close to being fired by his alma mater after a 2020 season in which he went 2-4. Michigan did not play Ohio State that season, and if they had, many believe Harbaugh (at that point 0-5 against the Buckeyes) would've been fired.
But they didn't, and since the beginning of the 2021 season Michigan is 33-3. The Wolverines have won the last two Big Ten championships, and the 2023 team, ranked No. 2 in the country, appears better than its two predecessors.
"That's been kind of a three-and-a-half year thing, what that is," Harbaugh said. "It eventually gets put into a contract. Definitely open to that. I think I've shown that through the years."
Harbaugh's definition of "showing that" is... interesting. He was a finalist for the Minnesota Vikings job in the winter of 2022, swore off NFL job hunts afterward, and then pursued NFL jobs again this past winter.
As of now, there is no extension for Harbaugh to sign, so both sides are just talking.
"Like anybody, man, I'm concentrating on having a good practice today. Got a team meeting coming up," he said. "It's just coach-the-team time when you're in the middle of the season."
Michigan's season will likely go at least into early January, at which point the NFL coaching market will be open. Michigan will likely have an extension for Harbaugh to sign by then. Will he put pen to paper?
Stay tuned.