Jim Harbaugh took the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl as a head coach and that is an accomplishment that not many college football figures can boast. Upon his return to his alma mater in Michigan, some flatly assumed that Harbaugh would soon flee for the professional ranks, if only because the challenge of the NFL is often assumed to be alluring in a way that the collegiate game simply can't provide.
As a result, whispers that Harbaugh could be considering a new position have persisted, even in the midst of reputable voices shouting against it. Still, his history is such that the buzz will almost certainly remain... unless one report comes to fruition.
In short, FOX analyst Brady Quinn took to the radio on Tuesday and apparently passed along rumblings that Harbaugh and Michigan could be "working on a life contract" to keep the head coach in Ann Arbor.
As noted by Quinn, no one has any idea what the specifics could possibly look like but Harbaugh is already well compensated in his role at Michigan. While skeptics would point to his lack of title-level success over three seasons in Ann Arbor, he has engineered a program rebuild on the fly in the wake of the Brady Hoke era and the 2018 season looks to be the most favorable of his still-short tenure.
Throw in the fact that "Michigan Men" are quite particular about their hires for this job and, well, it is hard to imagine a better fit than Harbaugh if he would like to remain in place. It seems far-fetched that a legitimate "lifetime contract" would exist in college football but Harbaugh butters his bread on engineering the unprecedented and this could be the latest.
