Michigan football coaching job pluses, minuses and candidates after Jim Harbaugh

Michigan needs a new head coach. Jim Harbaugh will be the Los Angeles Chargers’ next head coach, a league source told The Athletic, opening the top job in Ann Arbor for the first time since 2014.

Harbaugh brought Michigan back to glory, ending his run with a national championship, three consecutive Big Ten championships and three consecutive wins against Ohio State. Having accomplished everything possible, he heads back to the NFL in search of that elusive Super Bowl.

This might be a very quick search, considering who is on staff and what happened this past season, but it’s enough time to squeeze in a job profile.

So how good is the Michigan job? What names could get in the mix? Here are the factors to keep in mind.

Michigan is a national championship program

For many years, Michigan did not appear to be a program that could compete at the top of the sport. It had history, boatloads of money and very good players, but it didn’t appear to have the talent edge to compete with the best of the SEC in the same way Ohio State could. Harbaugh kept hitting ceilings in his tenure, first Ohio State and bowl games and then in the CFP semifinals.

That has now completely changed. Harbaugh burst through each ceiling and showed there are no limits on this program anymore. The Wolverines won it all and have produced some of the largest draft classes in the country. They can develop and win better than anyone in a given season. There are no more what-ifs or limits here.

It will be a bit of a rebuild, but there are strong pieces in place

The Wolverines had several star players come back for the 2023 season to accomplish what they did. Now they’re gone. Players on their way to the pros include quarterback J.J. McCarthy, running back Blake Corum, wide receiver Roman Wilson, guard Zak Zinter, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, defensive back Mike Sanristil and cornerback Josh Wallace, among others.

That is a lot for any team to replace. Harbaugh said before the season he thought this Michigan team could set a record for NFL Draft picks, and that seems possible.

But players coming back include running back Donovan Edwards, tight end Colston Loveland, defensive lineman Mason Graham and cornerback Will Johnson, all current or potential stars, though it’s always possible that more players could leave through the portal after a coaching change. On the flip side, Michigan could find more players through the portal now or in the future, especially at quarterback, once its coaching situation is finally settled.

It’s one of the best-resourced programs in the country, but can it compete in NIL recruiting?

There has never been a shortage of resources. The Wolverines ranked 11th nationally in football expenses in 2021-22, according to Sportico’s database. All the facilities are in place.

But what made Michigan’s national championship run surprising was that it built that team without residing at the tippy-top of the recruiting rankings. From 2020 to 2023, the Wolverines’ recruiting classes finished 10th, 13th, 9th and 17th in the 247Sports Composite rankings. They were 14th nationally in 247Sports’ team talent rankings this past season. Winning a national championship without a top-five recruiting class or a transcendent quarterback hadn’t happened in recent history. The Wolverines became one of the best developmental programs in the country and turned really good players into NFL players.

Is that development sustainable without Harbaugh? Or does Michigan need to recruit on the level of Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State? The Buckeyes, clearly motivated by Michigan’s three consecutive wins and national title, have loaded up over the past week, adding several top recruits and transfers. Head coach Ryan Day said in the past that Ohio State needed to step up in NIL. It appears they have. Michigan hasn’t been at that level. Maybe that needs to change with a new coach. Or maybe it doesn’t.

So what names could get in the mix?

This search obviously starts with and could end with offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. It’s not often a school has an assistant on staff with two top-10 wins under his belt. Moore beat Penn State on the road and Ohio State in Ann Arbor while Harbaugh sat home due to a Big Ten suspension over sign stealing and advance scouting. The fact he has an Ohio State win as Michigan head coach is a resume point nobody else can match. He is loved by his players, he can continue the culture and momentum, and he has coached some games. He was Harbaugh’s and Michigan’s choice the second time Harbaugh was suspended, and he’d be an easy choice here, unless anything from the Connor Stalions scandal comes back to directly implicate Moore. To this point, we haven’t seen it.

If for whatever reason Moore doesn’t get the job, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and running backs coach Mike Hart could also be internal options.

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold has been in the mix for many jobs, including Washington, thanks to the miraculous work he’s done in Lawrence, and he knows the Midwest as a Wisconsin native. The guy just wins. The 59-year-old inherited a winless Kansas program and won nine games in his third season, beating Oklahoma and finishing ranked No. 23 this season. He won two MAC division championships at Buffalo and developed several NFL players before that. He went 109-6 at Wisconsin-Whitewater with six Division III national championships before that. The biggest question would be whether he can recruit at the top of the sport. He did just sign edge rusher Deshawn Warner, a top-70 recruit, to Kansas.

Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman has won 27 games over the last three years, with a Big 12 championship in 2022 and consecutive top-20 finishes. The 56-year-old previously won four FCS national championships at North Dakota State. Similar to Leipold, Klieman just wins a lot. But also like Leipold, can he recruit at a top-10 level?

Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken and defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald could be options. Both are also potential future NFL head coaches, so they may not want to jump back to college football, but Monken directed Georgia’s offense en route to consecutive national championships in 2021 and 2022, and he did a good job as head coach at Southern Miss a decade ago. Macdonald was Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021 (when they lost to Monken and Georgia in the CFP), before returning to the Ravens to run that defense. Both also obviously have the connection of working for John Harbaugh in Baltimore.

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell felt like a natural fit for many Big Ten jobs, but he has stayed around in Ames. The 44-year-old Ohio native brought Iowa State its greatest success in a century, winning a Fiesta Bowl and finishing first in the Big 12 in 2020, but he’s 18-20 since and his name isn’t as hot in coaching circles as it was a few years ago. We also haven’t seen him coach and recruit at a high-expectations Power 5 job.

LSU head coach Brian Kelly’s name popped up as a possibility a few weeks ago. Perhaps coincidentally, LSU has since seen an overhaul and expansion of the Tigers staff. Kelly hired Missouri defensive coordinator Blake Baker to be the highest-paid assistant coach in college football ($2.5 million) after Baker had turned down several bigger jobs. Kelly also hired defensive line coach Bo Davis away from Texas with an increased salary. Kelly spent two decades in Michigan and always seemed like an unusual culture fit at LSU in replacing Ed Orgeron, but the moves LSU has made in recent weeks make such a move by Kelly seem quite unlikely.

Would Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell be interested? The lifelong Buckeye has an $8 million buyout to leave Wisconsin. Long removed from his 6-7 interim head coaching stint at Ohio State in 2011, Fickell went 57-18 at Cincinnati, winning at least 11 games three times and reaching the College Football Playoff in 2021. If this was a year prior, it would make all the sense in the world. But being new to Wisconsin, plus his underwhelming 7-6 debut season this past fall, could make this unlikely from both sides.

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson has also won at multiple levels of the sport. Clawson is 63-61 at Wake Forest since 2014, with six winning seasons in the last eight years, including an 11-3 record in 2021. He has previously coached and won at Bowling Green, Richmond and Fordham. At Wake Forest, Clawson has been successful at one of the toughest jobs in the Power 5, recruiting and developing players like Sam Hartman and Kenneth Walker III before they transferred elsewhere for their final seasons.

(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)