Jim Harbaugh’s days of entertaining NFL head coaching jobs appear to be over.
The 58-year-old head coach said his recent interview with the Minnesota Vikings was the “last time” he will pursue a job in the NFL and that his focus is now on winning a college football national championship with the Wolverines.
“There was a pull to the NFL because I got that close to the Super Bowl,” Harbaugh told Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. “But this was the time [to try and return]. And this is the last time. Now let’s go chase college football’s greatest prize.”
Harbaugh, who coached the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-14, reached the Super Bowl in his second season as head coach only to lose to his brother, Jim, and the Baltimore Ravens.
“There was a tugging at me that I was once that close to a Super Bowl and I didn’t get it,” he said. “Some NFL jobs came open. I was contacted by the Vikings. For better or for worse, it was something I wanted to explore.
“I went in thinking, ‘I’m gonna have 100 percent conviction on this, and if they have 100 percent conviction on this, then it’s something I’m gonna do.”
Harbaugh came and went without an offer from the Vikings and called Warde Manuel, Michigan’s athletic director, that night and asked if the university wanted him back as head coach.
“He said, ‘Yes, 100 percent.’ And I said, OK, then. That’s what I want to do,’” Harbaugh said. “And I told him, ‘Warde, this will not be a reoccurring theme every year. This was a one-time thing.”
Harbaugh is coming off perhaps his most successful season as a college head coach with Michigan, too. He beat Ohio State for the first time during his seven-year tenure and won his first Big Ten championship, en route to appearing in his fIrst College Football Playoff game.
“In a nutshell, I love Michigan,” he said. “I love every player. I love every family.”
He added: “We really believe we can win a national championship. I’m excited about today, about tomorrow, about the next day…”
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