Michigan beat Maryland, 31-24, to earn their 1,000th win in program history. It’s a truly historic win, as they are now the first college football program to win 1,000 games in their history.
It also brings up an interesting question: should suspended coach Jim Harbaugh get credit for the historic win? Harbaugh is serving a 3-game suspension for sign-stealing operation, has spent years turning Michigan into a perennial championship contender and is arguably the single best coach in college football. The other side of the argument is…he’s not on the sidelines, and the interim head coach, Sherrone Moore, deserves the credit for leading Michigan to a win in a hostile environment. For what it’s worth, Moore has said Harbaugh should be on the sidelines and the win “wouldn’t count as mine”.
However, while it is unfortunate that Harbaugh wasn’t on the sidelines, it would potentially set a bad precedent for deciding who gets credit for wins. Secondly, why would we want to take away credit from coaches who actually “coached” the team to a win that day? Harbaugh and Michigan accepted the penalty that was handed down to them. It would feel like to many that Harbaugh was awarded something when the Big Ten is trying to levy a punishment.
At the end of the day, wins and losses should belong to the coaches that do the work of coaching on gameday. Interim head coach Moore deserves this hard fought win on his ledger, and it should stay that way.