One NFL team already is in the market for a new head coach, and by season’s end, several others might be, as well.
Jim Harbaugh does not want his name anywhere near those conversations.
Harbaugh, who took over as head coach at Michigan this year after four seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, on Tuesday shut down a question regarding a potential return to the NFL coaching ranks.
“I won’t comment on it,” he told reporters, via ProFootballTalk. “It’s disrespectful to the game. I look at it as disrespectful.”
It’s highly unlikely Harbaugh would leave Ann Arbor so soon after arriving, especially given the turnaround he’s already been able to engineer (Saturday’s heartbreak notwithstanding). But if he was seeking another pro gig, he’d certainly have suitors.
The Miami Dolphins, for one, have yet to name a permanent replacement for fired head coach Joe Philbin. Peter King of The MMQB also wrote Monday that the Indianapolis Colts should pursue Harbaugh if relations go south with current coach Chuck Pagano.
“I think if I were (Colts owner) Jim Irsay, and I had become convinced I wasn’t going to sign Chuck Pagano long-term, I’d set up a very private meeting … with Jim Harbaugh after the season,” King wrote. “At the very least I’d use an intermediary to find out what Harbaugh’s price was, if he had one. Not that I’d expect Harbaugh, who played QB for the Colts in the ’90s, to take the job.”
Michigan, which finished 5-7 last season, already has matched that win total in seven games under Harbaugh.
Thumbnail photo via Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports Images
