Jim Harbaugh is back at Michigan, and he says back for good.
After interviewing for the Minnesota Vikings head coaching vacancy this week and failing to land the job -- the Vikings chose Rams OC Kevin O'Connell instead -- Harbaugh said he called Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel "and asked him if he wanted me to be the head coach."
"And he said, ‘Yes, 100 percent,'" Harbaugh told the Free Press. "And I said, 'OK then. That’s what I want to do.' And I told him, ‘Warde, this will not be a reoccurring theme every year. This was a one time thing.'"
So, if Harbaugh's so content to stay at Michigan, why did he interview with the Vikings in the first place? Goes back to his tenure with the 49ers, when he led the team to three NFC Championship games and a near-win in Super Bowl XLVII against the Ravens and his brother John.
"There was a tugging at me that I was once that close to a Super Bowl and I didn’t get it," Harbaugh 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."
But Harbaugh didn't sense the same enthusiasm on the part of the Vikings, who reportedly never offered him the job. It wasn't the right fit. So it's back to his alma mater, back to his hometown, back to the place where it's always felt natural. Harbaugh reportedly told Manuel that he will coach at Michigan as long as the university will have him.
"Actually, I told Warde, ‘From here on out, I’m working at the pleasure of the University of Michigan, because that’s, in my heart, where I want to be,'" said Harbaugh.
On top of wanting to chase the Super Bowl, there was a sense that Harbaugh was ready to leave Michigan because he realized the Wolverines were playing a game they couldn't win. The gap between the elite programs in college football and the also-rans is growing wider by the year, as Michigan learned for itself in the College Football Playoff.
But even amid a recruiting landscape dictated by NIL dollars, Harbaugh said "we really believe we can win a national championship."
“Sure, the Super Bowl is the greatest prize in our sport,” he said. “But winning a national championship. That’s pretty darn great. Let’s do that.
“There was a pull to the NFL because I got that close to the Super Bowl, 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."