Jim Harbaugh won’t talk about his future, but he knows Sherrone Moore is ready

HOUSTON — There’s been plenty of speculation that Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh will be NFL-bound whether or not the Wolverines beat Washington in the National Championship Game Monday night. He continues to ruffle feathers with his revenue-sharing for players chatter, has been under the NCAA microscope for a year now (some think because of that talk), and yet has U-M on the cusp of its first title since 1997. 

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As always this time of year, Harbaugh didn’t want to discuss his future beyond coaching in the game Monday night. His focus is on the game, and the game only, and he insisted he didn’t know how the result would make him feel about a potential NFL dalliance.

“I have no idea about that. I couldn’t be more happy to be here [though],” he said from National Championship Game Media Day. “This is a tremendous city. They do everything big in Texas, and this is cool. This is right where we want to be. This is where we worked, to get there.”

Pressed further and asked if he’s told the administration he’d be back next year, Harbaugh didn’t budge.

“There’s a calendar. I’ll gladly talk about the future next week,” he said. “And I hope to have one, how about that? A future … I hope to have one, yes.”

As we reported weeks ago, Harbaugh hired Don Yee, an agent with significant NFL ties, to represent him. He’s been working on a deal with Michigan, but Harbaugh has yet to sign. The numbers reported are inflated — we don’t believe there’s a 10-year deal on the table, for example — but he’d be the highest paid coach in the Big Ten should he return. 

If he doesn’t, several sources tell us Michigan assistant and offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore would very likely be next in line. He kept it rolling as the man in charge in wins over Penn State, Maryland, and Ohio State to finish the season and Harbaugh has long said he’s ready to be a head coach. 

“Tremendous,” Harbaugh said when asked what to expect of Moore as a head coach. “We’ve already seen it, right? You’ve already got a glimpse of the shining star that he is. He’s just phenomenal, so smart, works so hard at it. He knows what it’s like to be a player … he was a player. And he’s really, really composed. Something goes wrong, three, two, one, let it go. He’s tremendous at that.

“He was never better than he was in that two-minute drive in the Rose Bowl and in overtime. Knew he had to call the game, the drive of his life, and he did. We saw the same thing when he’s coaching against Ohio State in the Big House. The same thing when he went to Penn State. How about that? You’ve got to go to Penn State, you find out the day before the game, In addition to your offensive line coaching duties, your offensive coordinating play duties and your play-calling duties, you’re also going to make the head coach decisions as well.

“So, Sherrone Moore — shining star. No doubt about it. It doesn’t even matter what anybody says. It’s what you do. What you do speaks so loudly can’t even hear what you’re saying.”

He saw it in him as a young coach at Central Michigan, Harbaugh continued. 

“I got a recommendation, ‘he’s a really good coach at Central Michigan,’” Harbaugh recalled. “’He’s coaching the tight ends. His name is Sherrone Moore. You should at least bring him in and talk to him.’  I called him on the phone. I said, ‘Sherrone, this is Coach Harbaugh. Can you come over to Ann Arbor? I want to talk to you about the tight ends job here at Michigan.’ ‘Yes, Coach, I’ll be over there tomorrow.’

“The first time we sit down, we meet each other. And then I asked him, just show me your technique of a zone block and a gap block for a tight end. He jumped up and just started demonstrating and went through this teaching progression that was, boom, one, two, three, four, and memorable, learnable. But first time I met him I was blown away. He knocked my socks off.”

If Harbaugh does return next year, the hope is Moore will stay as his right-hand man and continue to learn from his mentor. He’s proven himself in many ways, but head coach experience is huge, too. Regardless, we’ll have to wait until next week at the earliest to see what unfolds, and it seems clear Harbaugh will have options — and probably Moore, as well.