College Football

Klatt: Answering all the big questions on Jim Harbaugh's decision to leave for NFL

Updated Jan. 26, 2024 8:37 a.m. ET

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Joel Klatt

College Football Analyst

Jim Harbaugh is leaving the college game again, departing Michigan for the Chargers. 

Many of us have speculated that this is where Harbaugh would eventually end up ever since Michigan won the national title earlier in January. It's a good fit for him, joining a team that's ready to win with a quarterback that's ready to take the next step. 

Harbaugh leaves the college game as arguably the best coach in the sport. This leaves a massive vacancy in the college football world. The defending national champion needs a new coach, making Michigan the third of this past season's four College Football Playoff teams to have to find a new coach, which is pretty wild. 

So, let's take a look at the biggest questions to come from Harbaugh's decision, from why he made the move to what's next for Michigan and what Harbaugh's lasting legacy in Ann Arbor will be. 

Why is Harbaugh leaving for the Chargers after winning a national title?

As I've said since Michigan's win over Washington, this move makes a lot of sense. Harbaugh has done everything he wanted to do at Michigan. He's going to be remembered as a legend in Ann Arbor for doing that. He came to return the Wolverines to the Promised Land. That's exactly what he did. 

Some might have thought it took Harbaugh longer than it should've for him to get Michigan back on the title stage, but he eventually got there. He has nothing left to prove in the college game. Obviously, he could've stayed at Michigan if he wanted to and he probably would've still been very successful. 

Harbaugh is an incredible competitor though, and there's still one area where he hasn't gotten it done yet: winning a Super Bowl. He got close to doing that as a coach in 2012, taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl before losing to his brother's squad, the Ravens. Chargers fans should be incredibly excited. Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in football, college or pro. He does such a phenomenal job of building a fundamentally sound, tough and competitive-oriented football team. His teams are always a throwback style, physical and tough to beat. That's been true at every position at every level he's coached at.

Jim Harbaugh leaves Michigan to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers are going to be a lot better now that they have Harbaugh. I know it's a tough division with Patrick Mahomes, but I would be really surprised if one of the elite AFC teams in the years to come, if not next season. Harbaugh just understands football. Even the coaches who might not like him watch his teams and think they're really well-coached. 

The other element we have to look at for why Harbaugh left is the NCAA. If I'm Harbaugh, there's no way I want to deal with the NCAA. Just look at what's going on with Michigan right now, it's getting a notice of infraction for recruiting during a dead period and it's still under investigation for the sign-stealing scandal. 

Harbaugh has to be thinking why would he want to continue to go through this, especially after being suspended for six games this past season. He might have had to sit more games if he stayed at Michigan as the investigation continues, so this gave him a chance to not deal with the NCAA anymore. I don't blame him for thinking that way, if that's the case.

Who should Michigan hire to replace Harbaugh?

I want to be crystal clear about this: Michigan should hire Sherrone Moore. 

Moore already had a job interview, serving as Michigan's interim head coach for the final three games of the regular season. He won all three games, picking up wins at Penn State and Maryland before winning at home against Ohio State. He's already 1-0 against Ohio State! All of those wins came after the sign-stealing allegations were revealed, too. 

This is really the biggest no-brainer of all time. Everybody, especially the offensive linemen, loved Moore at Michigan this past season and they played hard for him. It's an easy fit moving forward, and Michigan needs to act quickly.

Who should replace Jim Harbaugh as the head coach at Michigan?

Now, Michigan state law requires this job to be posted for seven days. This is obviously a rule that's meant for jobs other than being the head coach of Michigan's football team. The school has a chance to apply for a waiver to circumvent the seven-day law to name Moore its next head coach, which Michigan should do, if it hasn't already. Just so you know, the language for the application to circumvent this law reads like this, "You can apply for a waiver of the posting requirement if legitimate business needs of the unit outweigh the university's intent to provide notice of employment opportunities."

Well, this is a case study for that. The business of the football team circumvents the university's need to let people know of the employment opportunity of its head coach. Michigan just needs to apply for the waiver and move forward because Moore's the guy for the job. The quicker you name him head coach, especially someone who the players in that locker room already love, the quicker you can move forward without all of the chaos we've seen at other schools in recent weeks. The one thing we know about college football in the modern era is that coaching changes are chaos. You don't want that chaos to enter your locker room. 

Which assistants will follow Harbaugh and which ones will remain at Michigan?

I'm sure a lot of this has already been worked out, so I'm going to take a guess on where the notable assistant coaches go. 

I would be shocked if Jesse Minter isn't the defensive coordinator of the Chargers. Look at the success Mike Macdonald has had running the same defense for the Ravens, that's one of the best defenses in the NFL. Michigan was the best defense in college football this season and was, statistically, one of the greatest defenses we've ever seen in the sport. Minter cut his teeth in the NFL as an assistant for the Ravens and he's always wanted to get back. 

Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh seems like an obvious Michigan assistant who'll leave for the Chargers considering he's Harbaugh's son. But beyond those two, it gets really interesting and a lot of the other assistants might stay at Michigan. 

If Moore gets promoted, the one coach he should try to fight the most to keep is strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. I think Herbert is going to remain in Ann Arbor because he can impact the culture of the program to a much greater degree as a strength and conditioning coach at the college level than he can in the NFL. 

Who will stay at Michigan and who will follow Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers?

Herbert's impact is substantial in Michigan. In fact, most of the coaches and players will point to Herbert for why they're mentally tough and physical at the line of scrimmage. It's harder to instill that culture with veteran players in the NFL who are seeking their next paycheck.

Getting Herbert to stay would be a huge win for Moore moving forward because it would be a great way to keep the culture at Michigan intact.

What is Harbaugh's legacy at Michigan?

The haters are always going to talk about the cheating. Fine, it is what it is and it's hard to argue with it.

But it's hard to argue with Harbaugh's record, too. Michigan was not very good before he got there in 2015. Rich Rodriguez was awful at Michigan. He's a good coach, but he wasn't a fit there. Brady Hoke wasn't very good at Michigan, either. In fact, Hoke's win total went down each year over his four-year tenure with the Wolverines, going from 11 wins in his first season to five by his final season. There was only one double-digit win season in seven years between those two coaches, finishing a season ranked just twice over that span.

Those were just horrid years for the all-time winningest program in the history of the sport. So, Michigan brought in the favorite son, Jim Harbaugh. He immediately made Michigan more relevant, leading it to double-digit win seasons right away. By Harbaugh's second year, Michigan was annually ranked in the top 10 at some point in the season.

Jim Harbaugh's impact on Michigan football

Of course, the COVID year was the exception to that. Harbaugh began to draw the ire of some fans because Michigan couldn't get over the hump to beat Ohio State, big road games and bowl games. But things changed post-COVID, installing his brother's defense and the offense really solidified itself around Moore as the offensive line coach. 

Michigan won three straight Big Ten titles as a result, beating Ohio State three straight times. Harbaugh's and Michigan's resurgence culminated this season, winning the Rose Bowl and eventually the national championship, finishing the year 15-0. 

We'll see how things are moving forward, but Habaugh helped put at least a halt to the SEC's dominance. This has been an era where we all thought the SEC would win every single championship. It did for a really long time. 

Now, all of a sudden, Michigan is a national champion. You cannot argue with what Harbaugh's done. He'll go down as a Michigan Man, a Michigan legend and will be considered the greatest coach in program history. 

I get it, Fielding Yost, Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr had a lot of success at Michigan. But none of them had to resurrect them back to what they were like Harbaugh did. He did that and took Michigan to a place that many didn't believe was possible to get to. 

Harbaugh is going to go down as an absolute legend. 

Read more:

• Jim Harbaugh agrees to become next Chargers head coach
• College football will miss Jim Harbaugh, perhaps more than Michigan will
• What does life after Jim Harbaugh look like for Michigan, and what comes next?
• Jim Harbaugh changed the culture at Michigan — and Sherrone Moore can keep it intact
• Chargers' white smoke post leads social media reaction to Jim Harbaugh news
• Jim Harbaugh: A legendary coaching career, by the numbers 

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast "The Joel Klatt Show." Follow him on X/Twitter at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube.

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