Michigan Wolverines

Jim Harbaugh would be a fool to leave Michigan for the dysfunctional L.A. Rams

Published Dec. 14, 2016 8:35 a.m. ET

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Dieter Kurtenbach

The Los Angeles Rams are in the market for a new head coach — you might have heard about how bad their last guy was. And considering the team's level of desperation to be relevant in their new market, despite just showing up 11 months ago, the name at the top of their list should absolutely be Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

The former NFL quarterback has been wildly successful everywhere he's coached — he turned around the University of San Diego, Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers and Michigan. Considering some of the conditions he's inherited, that's an impressive superfecta. Does anyone really doubt that he'd be able to turn the Rams into a winner?

Does Harbaugh prefer to coach in the NFL? Yes. It's the top of the profession and no one — not even Jim Harbaugh — likes recruiting.

But Harbaugh also enjoys coaching at his alma mater, where he's revered, has incredible job security, and is the highest-paid coach in college football.

Even if he wants back into the league, he has too good of a thing going at Michigan to drop it and take the first high-paying NFL job that's offered.

That job might be the Rams'.

It didn't take long for the reports to come out that the Rams are interested in Harbaugh, but if Harbaugh is interested in the Rams, he should reconsider.

Harbaugh only needs to remember how dysfunctional his last NFL job to know what he's getting himself into if he bolts for L.A.

Remember, Harbaugh took over a downright pitiful franchise in San Francisco in 2011 — the 49ers had not had a winning season since 2002.

Sound familiar?

In his first year, Harbaugh turned the 49ers into a 13-3 squad and started a three-year run of NFC Championship Game appearances. The team then buoyed that increased local interest into a $1.3 billion stadium outside of San Jose.

The Rams must surely look at that track record and think, "this is the guy for us." The situations couldn't be more similar, except that the Rams' stadium is already being built.

Unfortunately for the Rams, the parallels between them and the 49ers extend to the front office. There's a reason for the futility.

Harbaugh was fired by the 49ers because he didn't get along with team owner Jed York — or the team's general manager, Trent Baalke.

Harbaugh was keen to undermine young CEO York at every opportunity, once even reportedly going so far as to declare when York sat in on a team meeting that it was for "men only." With Baalke, Harbaugh tried to seize some personnel power not long after the GM's disastrous 2012 draft.

It all came to a head in 2014, and York felt he had to choose between Baalke or Harbaugh. He chose the former, the franchise fell into freefall and the 49ers are yet to show even a moderate sign of recovery from that decision.

What about the Rams ownership — and the handling of former coach Jeff Fisher and current general manager Les Snead and COO Kevin Demoff — would give Harbaugh any indication that he'd not be walking into a similarly dysfunctional situation?

Harbaugh would be a fool to accept any job that doesn't give him whatever personnel control he wants. He doesn't have to be the team's GM — he probably doesn't want to be the team's GM — but he needs to be the one who calls the shots on the team's roster, much like Pete Carroll in Seattle. The GM should work for Harbaugh.

There's no guarantee the Rams could provide an environment where that'd be possible.

Remember, the Rams organization kept around Fisher for four-plus years, despite not having a winning record in any of those four years. They only fired him after he set the Rams' goodwill in L.A. aflame. Snead has been equally unsuccessful, but it looks like he's going to survive this season. And let's not even start on Demoff, who, despite having an incredible task on hand with the franchise's relocation, has a reputation for seeping into the football side of the business.

The front office doesn't appear capable of fielding a successful team, and ownership has been just fine with that to this point. Would Harbaugh put up with that kind of environment?

Also, the Rams don't have a first-round pick next year — they had to trade it to Tennessee to land Jared Goff, who hasn't looked like a franchise savior. And the rest of the cupboard of future picks is relatively bare. If Harbaugh goes to L.A., he'd inherit a rock-solid defense, but what happens if he decides that he doesn't like Goff? He was prone to falling out of love with players in San Francisco. The rookie quarterback out of Cal is the franchise — would Harbaugh be able to unseat him if he so desired?

Harbaugh thrives in chaos, but the Rams have enough of that already. If the Michigan coach wants to go to the NFL, he won't have any shortage of suitors willing to pay big bucks. Why not see if the Jets job comes open? Or the Lions? Or the Bears? They might be losing their head coaches for a reason, but those franchises aren't nearly as dysfunctional as the Rams.

The Rams can't do better than Harbaugh, but Harbaugh can certainly do better than the Rams.

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