I thought if he left it would be for the Bears. It's a pretty good situation. A lot of draft capital. Room in the salary cap.
Personally, I just don't get the appeal for him making the jump. Is winning the Super Bowl that much better than his situation at Michigan? It probably is better for a lot of other college coaches, but his specific situation I see his job as a dream job outside of winter weather versus somewhere warmer.
I know the NBA and NFL are very different, but I keep referencing back to Beilein. Making the jump to the pros isn't always as great as it seems. Now granted, Jim also has layers in there with his brother at Baltimore so there's probably a large amount of appeal of competing against him as well.
My goggle side says he stays and should, but my gut tells me he's going to the NFL.
I look at a lot of the college coaches and wonder why they'd subject themselves to the year-round recruiting nightmare. And it's only getting worse with the transfer portal and NIL--you have to constantly be recruiting your own roster to stay. You don't have to do that crap in the NFL.
Of course, that's balanced by college football being recruiting-based, with no salary cap or attempts at parity. Which sucks for 90%+ of the programs in the nation. But if you're a helmet team like Michigan, especially coming off winning a championship, you can stock your roster with better talent than all but about 3-4 other programs in the country. So unlike the NFL, you're going to win almost all your games just based on massive talent differential.
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But for Jim, I think it might come down to his goals--and his fears.
The fear, of course, is quite simply what the NCAA might do to him given the two active investigations. Getting the hell out of their jurisdiction might be important.
But the goal is different. He's now taken Michigan back to the mountaintop. Was that his goal, or was his goal to make it his lifetime job? Like many coaches, he might be extremely challenge-driven and a little bit crazy, so maybe he knows he won't be happy unless he chases the next thing--a Super Bowl ring.
And we all know he's certifiably crazy, and trying to predict the actions of a crazy person is always a little difficult.