Jim Harbaugh's attorney accuses Michigan of throwing his client under the bus

Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh.

Jim Harbaugh won the Michigan Wolverines a national title and then left for the greener pastures of the NFL.

Now head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, some may suggest that Harbaugh “pulled a Pete Carroll” in that he jumped ship for the NFL before the NCAA could get ahold of him. Carroll infamously left USC right before the Trojans were hit with massive sanctions for recruiting violations that Carroll was likely a part of.

The same thing is now happening at Michigan. The NCAA recently released a statement saying that it had reached a disciplinary agreement with “Michigan and five individuals who currently or previously worked for its football program.”

Michigan is being accused by the NCAA of violating in-person recruiting rules during the COVID-19 dead period. As such, the school will be on a three-year probationary period that includes a fine and recruiting restrictions. The individuals involved also agreed to a one-year show-cause.

The NCAA did have this statement to add.

“One former coach did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision.”

Interestingly enough, the NCAA revealed that as part of the sanction, Michigan agreed “the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation.”

That wording is clearly talking about Harbaugh without mentioning the new Chargers head coach by name, and his attorney, Tom Mars, basically confirmed that by releasing a statement to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

He (nor his client, presumably) doesn’t seem happy that Michigan agreed to wrongdoing by its former head coach.

“I filed a lengthy response to the (Notice of Allegations) on behalf of Coach Harbaugh, which unfortunately hasn’t been made public and will probably never see the light of day,” Mars said (h/t On3). “That concluded Coach Harbaugh’s participation in the case. I saw from Warde Manuel’s statement that Michigan changed its position for the purpose of ‘moving forward,’ which doesn’t surprise me considering that Coach Harbaugh is no longer Michigan’s head coach.

“I can almost hear the wheels of the bus going ‘whomp, whomp,’ but sometimes that’s the way things go in college sports.”

It’s worth noting that the NCAA still has not ruled on the sign stealing allegations against Michigan and Harbaugh, as that investigation is still pending.

“The committee will not discuss further details in the case to protect the integrity of the ongoing process, as the committee’s final decision — including potential violations and penalties for the former coach — is pending,” the statement read.

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