And so it begins.

On Tuesday, Footballscoop.com reported that Jim Harbaugh’s representatives “have their eye on getting their client back in the NFL.”

It’s not necessarily a stunning revelation considering that Harbaugh hasn’t met the sky-high expectations that were set for him 5 years ago. Given his NFL background and previous speculation that he’d eventually return, Tuesday’s report adds a little validity to that. And yes, I realize it doesn’t make sense for Harbaugh to admit to any of this.

But there are still some takeaways from such a notable development like this whether it’s 100% true or not:

I HATE the timing of this

Brutal. Just brutal.

Right after Michigan suffers its second loss of the season and essentially eliminates itself from the B1G East and Playoff race, this report comes out? Yikes. That’s bad on a variety of fronts. Internally, I imagine it’s got to be awfully difficult for a locker room not to catch wind of that. Nobody likes the idea of playing for a coach with a foot out the door.

You know who else doesn’t like hearing about a coach with a foot out the door? Recruits. In this era of rumors of verbal commits constantly changing their minds, something like this could have a major impact in how Harbaugh recruits the next couple months. Remember that even if Harbaugh does stay, there could be speculation all the way through the Early Signing Period because the NFL season won’t be over yet.

This is a fairly easy way to negatively recruit against Michigan. Speaking of that …

But the timing is also why I have an eyebrow raised

That’s also why I’m questioning the legitimacy of this. The timing is almost too perfect. A report like this detailed that Harbaugh’s representatives were seeking NFL opportunities.

Who would leak or perhaps make up something like that? The agent of a rival coach.

Shoot, maybe Harbaugh’s representatives would leak something like this to see where the school stands with him. Though I suppose Harbaugh having one of the richest contracts in America should show that. Regardless, it could still be a negotiating tactic just to see what that interest would be like from both Michigan and potential NFL suitors.

Or it could be more of the same stuff we’ve heard before but with a different spin with it coming via actual reporting:

Still, why now? No NFL vacancy is going to be filled until the end of the season. This seems like the perfect time for someone looking to really get the Harbaugh skepticism rolling. It would make sense for him to leave, his team’s goal is ultimately going to come up short and he just lost another big game.

Diabolical, perhaps.

There could be a pride/ego thing here

I always laughed at people when they said that Harbaugh would be fired. I still don’t think he will be. Why? Well, anybody who has actually been paying attention to Michigan football the last 5 years — and not just scoreboard watching — knows that Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel loves Harbaugh. The idea of him cutting bait on someone with 3 top-15 finishes in 4 seasons seems, um, naive.

Having said that, it makes sense that Harbaugh would want to get ahead of that before it even surfaced in Manuel’s mind. In my opinion, Harbaugh has too much pride to get fired. Look at the way things ended with the 49ers. Granted, Harbaugh disagreed with the front office and that was past the point of no return.

It’s better for Harbaugh’s brand to leave before it gets to that point. Whether that’s fair or not, consider this. If Harbaugh were to leave Michigan after a 9-3 season this year as opposed to staying another couple years and perhaps going 7-5 without an Ohio State win, which situation would yield more value for him? The former.

Well, unless Harbaugh could pull a Kliff Kingsbury. Based on what we’ve seen from the Michigan offense this year, that ain’t happening.

How I’d feel if I were a Michigan fan

Frustrated beyond belief.

Here’s the thing. Harbaugh can deny these rumors until he’s blue in the face (see what I did there). It’s still out there. Even if it has zero ounce of truth behind it, it can still be used against Michigan with the aforementioned negative recruiting during the final 2 months before the Early Signing Period.

It’s not a rallying cry that will make the locker room want to “win one for their coach” because these rumors aren’t about him getting fired. This can only hurt a team.

Or rather, The Team, The Team, The Team.

I don’t blame Michigan fans for being angered about heading into the last weekend of October with 2 losses while Ohio State looks like a potential national champ and the Harbaugh rumor mill is churning in a different kind of way. It’s one thing for a talking head to speculate. It’s another for an actual publication to report that there’s NFL interest from his representatives.

Michigan was supposed to end the drought this year. The Ohio State drought, the B1G Championship drought, the Playoff drought, all of it. Instead, this has the makings of another good, not great season in Ann Arbor. That’s true regardless of what happens with Harbaugh moving forward.

And if we’re being honest, who’s the person who’s going to come in and turn that around? Michigan doesn’t have a Lincoln Riley or a Ryan Day waiting in the wings. There isn’t a Scott Frost-like candidate who just seems so obvious that it would be a match made in heaven. That was supposed to be Harbaugh.

Maybe it still can be. But he’s running out of time.

And if that report has any truth to it whatsoever, even Harbaugh is running out of patience.