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Michigan legend Desmond Howard shares thoughts on Jim Harbaugh’s extension
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On Friday, we learned that Michigan decided to retain Jim Harbaugh as head coach with a five-year contract.
The move was a tad surprising but also not at the same time. We’ve gotten plenty of reaction surrounding the decision from those inside and outside of the program.
On Saturday, we heard from former Wolverine and current ESPN college football analyst Desmond Howard. He gave his two cents on the school’s decision to bring back Harbaugh.
Desmond Howard reacts to Michigan extending Jim Harbaugh:https://t.co/GFri0iwXPF pic.twitter.com/Gmx3Z9GoEk
— 247Sports (@247Sports) January 9, 2021
Howard didn’t exactly give a striking opinion on the decision one way or the other. He kind of just explained what his thought process was surrounding the idea of brining Harbaugh back.
“I said near the end of the season that if they want to retain coach Harbaugh, the move would be to fire the defensive coordinator, Don Brown,” Howard said on SportsCenter. “Because the defense has gotten progressively worse, and I said on GameDay that he’s consistently trying to play a scheme that he does not have the personnel for.”
Brown’s performance has been almost as much of a talking point as Harbaugh’s performance. The defensive coordinator recently moved on from Ann Arbor as he he elected to join Arizona’s coaching staff as defensive coordinator.
“So once I saw that peg fall…I knew there was a strong chance that Jim Harbaugh would be retained at Michigan,” Howard went on to say. “And they gave him a chance to weight the decisions and see if there was any NFL interest.”
The new contract for Harbaugh focuses a lot on incentives for the coach, who did not live up to the lofty expectations brought on the former Wolverine quarterback. Though Harbaugh’s contract question may be answered, he still has to answer to a Michigan fanbase looking for more out of their football program.