It’s no secret Jim Harbaugh is Michigan’s top target in its search for a new coach, and some have reported the Wolverines are even looking to make Harbaugh the highest-paid coach in college football.
Jim Harbaugh not the only NFL head coach Michigan has looked at, per report
The other reported NFL considerations are strange, to say the least.
However, according to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, the Wolverines are looking at other NFL coaches, as well.
Michigan has maintained a desire to land Harbaugh's brother, John, as well, sources said, but the Ravens coach has made it clear he has no interest in leaving Baltimore. Other NFL coaches on the school's radar include New Orleans' Sean Payton, Buffalo's Doug Marrone and Dallas' Jason Garrett (who is expected to sign an extension with the Cowboys shortly after the season).
As La Canfora mentioned, John Harbaugh has not shown interest in the job. He doesn’t have the ties that his brother does. He has also never been a college head coach, and his last experience in college was as the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at Indiana in 1997.
Harbaugh has options
The other names are even more curious. Sean Payton hasn’t been a college coach since 1996, when he coached the quarterbacks at Illinois. He’s an NFL guy who already makes $8 million a year, and usually, NFL guys don’t want to go to college and deal with all the hassles of boosters, NCAA rules and recruiting -- especially coaches with no particular ties to the school pursuing them. Payton also was suspended for a year from the NFL for his role in covering up the New Orleans “Bountygate” scandal, in which players received bounties for attempting to injure opponents. Michigan is already dealing with a player safety scandal, after former coach Brady Hoke left a concussed player in the game.
Buffalo coach Doug Marrone was in college as recently as 2012 as the coach of Syracuse. However, he never did anything of note with the Orange -- he went 4-8, 8-5, 5-7 and 7-5 in his four years -- and there's no indication that he would want to leave the Bills so quickly, especially since the organization is finally starting to bring in some better talent.
Then there is Jason Garrett, who played at Princeton, has never coached in college and never even been involved with major college football. It seems unlikely he would leave the Dallas Cowboys to take a college job for the first time.
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