re: Per Michigan 247; they've been told it's 1) Harbaugh 2) Miles

quote:

---

Harbaugh

On today's edition of "As Harbaugh's World Turns", there's a growing sentiment that Michigan is fighting a losing battle for the San Francisco 49ers head coach. Is this other writers hedging their bets and making the safe play, or is there something to it?

We've maintained this entire time that Harbaugh's personality has been labeled as "flaky", and that he may waffle given his current situation. It is FACT that he has personally told former teammates that he holds interest in the job. Still, there's so much uncertainty in his current situation that it's incredibly difficult to decipher the rest of the facts from the fiction.

One thing we've grown confident in: Hackett was brought on from the beginning with one mission: get Harbaugh. It's unfair to label whatever hire that's made as a failure based on who we've talked so, simply because of Harbaugh's personality.

Miles

There was some scuttlebutt that some players on Michigan's current roster are expecting LSU head coach Les Miles to be the next to lead the Wolverines. Miles is a name that is naturally going to be tied to this until the end. Despite that, I talked to three different team related sources that deny this. In fact, those surrounding the program still have no idea what's going on.

"We haven't heard anything," the source said. "Nobody knows anything as of now. The coaches, the GAs or the players. Right now it's all just social media-related stuff".

Despite that, expect Coach Miles's name to continue to be brought up.

Mystery Candidate?

On Thursday, ESPN personality Colin Cowherd stuck his neck into the Michigan search and noted that a mystery name would be emerging, and that it could go public as soon as this weekend.

Two names immediately come to mind in this situation from our standpoint: Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops and current UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr.

Stoops is a name that's been on our periphery since the beginning, and even before Brady Hoke was fired. His name first surfaced when Dan Wetzel at Yahoo! Sports randomly threw his name out there as a top candidate. Despite that, we've talked to two sources that don't believe Stoops is the guy.

"If he didn't pursue the job at Florida," they said. "He won't be a candidate for the Michigan job."

We also know through 247Sports National Analyst Steve Wiltfong that Stoops has been on the recruiting trail like a madman this week for the Sooners; in fact, he was recently at the home of former Wolverine commitment Darrin Kirkland Jr. In that case, it's a mix of positive and negative information in that regard.

Mora Jr. is more of a mystery, although one source informed us this afternoon that he may have reached out through some backchannels to show interest in the Michigan job. It plays into Cowherd's west coast ties as well, and Mora is obviously still currently coaching his team, as the Bruins finished 9-3 this season and are poised to contend in the Pac-12 in the future.

---