By MARK PURDY
By MARK PURDY
San Jose Mercury News
I do not make a habit of crawling around inside Jim Harbaugh’s brain. I can only imagine what the interior of that brain might look like. I envision chambers full of khaki pants, a refrigerated cave stocked with caffeine products and vast acreage of neurons unknown to mankind.
Harbaugh never opens up that brain much, anyway. He is consistent in keeping the media at a distance. He plays no favorites in that regard, which I appreciate. However, I have been around the man on a professional basis since his arrival at Stanford in 2007. And I have a strong opinion about this week’s speculation that Harbaugh might leave the 49ers, return to the college ranks and become head coach at Texas.
The rumors are full of Longhorn poo.
Harbaugh will not stay with the 49ers forever. His history shows that he seems to get restless after four or five years at one job and looks to move upward or sideways or somewhere else. But he is focused on winning a Super Bowl with the 49ers. I think that will be his mission until he believes it can’t happen within the team architecture as it exists.
He is also an NFL guy, first and foremost. Just like every coach with ambition, he knows the pro game is the highest level of his calling. It was apparent to me during his time at Stanford that Harbaugh was pawing the dirt and eagerly waiting for the best NFL job offer, especially after his brother became Baltimore’s head coach in 2008.
Harbaugh lives to coach. But right now, I believe he lives to win a Super Bowl trophy more than a BCS National Championship trophy. There might come a time in the future, after he has won Super Bowls, that Harbaugh might wish to revisit the college atmosphere and work with younger players — perhaps at his alma mater, Michigan. But seeing him at Texas does not compute, for cultural and business reasons. After coming so close to winning the Super Bowl last season, does Harbaugh want to abandon that challenge and go back to visiting recruits’ living rooms? I don’t think so.
So how did the Longhorns rumors start? Probably because Texas, with the largest budget in college football, could reportedly offer Harbaugh $10 million a season. With the 49ers, Harbaugh is in the third year of his five-year contract, at $5 million per season. There’s also Harbaugh’s history at every stop of his career. He is so competitive and driven that he tends to wear out everyone around him, including his bosses. I gained a real grasp of this two years ago when I interviewed Ky Snyder, who was Harbaugh’s athletic director at the University of San Diego.
The USD program was Harbaugh’s before he was named head coach at Stanford. And it was a typical Harbaugh tenure. He won 29 of the 35 games he coached at USD and claimed two Pioneer League championships. Before he arrived, the Toreros had posted losing records in six of the previous nine seasons.
“He leaves a large wake,” Snyder said, descriptively. “But it’s great being on the ship.”
I knew exactly what he meant. Harbaugh can be relentless in pursuit of something he believes will help his team win, to the point of driving his bosses loopy.
Examples? At USD, he would visit Snyder’s office and if the answer was “no” would return over and over until the answer was “yes.” At Stanford, Harbaugh nagged administrators about changing certain traditions — the team bench being on the hot and sunny side of the field, the notion of practices being open to all who wanted to watch — because he did not see how they assisted the team mission. After enough nagging, Harbaugh won the argument.
You can presume the same stuff is happening at 49ers headquarters. Enough voices have hinted as much. But the formula has been successful so far. And 49ers owner Jed York is not about to change that formula, especially with a new stadium opening next season.
York is telling reporters this week that now is not the time to discuss Harbaugh’s status because the focus should be on the final three regular-season games and playoffs. York said a contract extension will be discussed in the offseason. Sports Illustrated reported this week that Harbaugh was offered a two-year extension last summer but declined the offer, for unknown reasons.
Could the reason be more Harbaugh restlessness? Or simply Harbaugh confidence that if he delivers more victories, his price will rise? I vote for the latter. Harbaugh makes $2 million per season less than his brother and less money than Andy Reid or Chip Kelly, who signed deals with new teams last summer. Harbaugh is owed a big raise. He’ll get one soon. It won’t be in Austin.