Should Michigan Hire Jim Harbaugh as Their Next Head Coach?

Okay, so it's very early and Rich Rodriguez still has a very good chance to keep his job if Michigan can get to 8 (or maybe even 7 would do it) wins, but people in Ann Arbor have a hard time avoiding talk about whether or not Michigan should hire Jim Harbaugh to be their next coach.

After all, Stanford beat USC the same day UM lost their 3rd straight to Michigan State for the first time since the 60's and all the losses were under Rodriguez's watch.

It was USC's 3rd loss in 4 games to Stanford and beating the top teams like that can take a coach very far in the case of Harbaugh.

But would he be a good fit for the Michigan football team?

Harbaugh took over a one-win Stanford team and got them to a bowl game last year in his third season and has the Cardinal ranked in the top 20 again this year.

Keep in mind however that Andrew Luck is a once-in-a-generation QB and he is at the helm of the Harbaugh offense as the projected number-one NFL pick.

Rich Rodriguez still has to prove a lot considering Luck's presence can help him look better than he is.

Plus, he still is unproven on the big stage as he lost his bowl game last year albeit against a better Oklahoma team.

Then, the next question regarding whether or not Jim Harbuagh should be the next head coach at Michigan revolves around the style difference.

Changing coaches and coordinators is not a good idea when Michigan needs to win now. Michigan needs to start beating their rivals because life is miserable for the fans now, although they have done well against Notre Dame.

Harbaugh seems like a creative playcaller who could make things work with Denard Robinson Michigan's good offensive line.

Plus, Harbaugh would restore badly-needed swagger and especially fundamentals and tackling skills on defense Michigan has lacked for a long time.

All of this hinges on whether or not Rodriguez makes it through the season, however.

Would Harbaugh be a good fit? The answer here is that he would be, in a year or two, however, and Michigan fans might not want to have to put up with the transition considering how well recruiting is going now with UM getting top running back Dee Hart and still having a very young team.

While some think Harbaugh's comments about Michigan football and academics have created bad blood, many others don't think it would be much of an obstacle especially considering how badly the older UM supporters want to see the program get back to its more traditionally and winning ways.

But the best bet for Michigan is to give Rodriguez until the end of 2011 to see his team come to fruition for the sake of the program, unless the bottom drops out on UM and they only beat, say, one more Big Ten team all year.

If that's the case, it may be a good move for Michigan to hire Jim Harbaugh as their next football coach right away.