Following Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL as the Los Angeles Chargers’ coach, Michigan’s coaching staff is still undergoing changes. The most recent departure is Jay Harbaugh, the special team coordinator, who is going to the Seattle Seahawks to work with Mike Macdonald.
This is hardly a surprising move, considering last week Michigan hired J.B. Brown to serve as their new coordinator of special teams. a step Harbaugh publicly supported on social media.
Since moving to Ann Arbor, Harbaugh has played for Michigan under a number of different jerseys, but he has always been connected to the team’s special teams, which for the previous nine seasons has been among the best in the country.
The younger Harbaugh was the tight ends coach and assistant special teams coordinator when he joined his father’s staff in 2015. He coached the team’s running backs from 2017 to 2020 before moving on to coach the tight ends once more in 2021 and the safeties in 2022 and 2023. Since 2017, he has also served as the primary coordinator on special teams.
In 2023, he also got the chance to coach Michigan in an acting capacity for the first half of the team’s match versus UNLV.
Before following his father to Michigan, Harbaugh served as a member of John Harbaugh’s staff with the Baltimore Ravens from 2012 to 2014 and at his alma mater, Oregon State, from 2008 to 2011.
Harbaugh’s contributions have made Michigan’s special teams teams among the best in the country in recent years, so his absence in Ann Arbor will undoubtedly be felt. In addition, he was a skilled recruiter who had a positive reputation among families and recruits.
