Jim Harbaugh's Possible CFB Curtain Call Is a Fairytale Ending Despite Chaotic Season

The season began with a suspension, which is not normally where most national championship runs begin. For Jim Harbaugh, it also wasn't the last suspension he would serve.

On Monday night, however, that same season culminated in a title that evaded a coach who returned home to Ann Arbor to accomplish this very goal.

Despite everything that has led to this moment—and there's a lot to unpack—Harbaugh delivered in a way many doubted he ever could.

And now, he could be gone.

Fairytales are funny like that. Well, if you want to call this that.

Some, in the sports world, are much easier to digest. The plucky underdog led by the backup quarterback pulls off the magical upset. The lovable coach with a dominant team delivers a clean and easy victory.

Some championship runs are easy to appreciate. This one is much more complicated, even if the achievements are undeniable. It was ugly at times and dominant at others. It was awkward, given Harbaugh's multiple absences throughout the year. It was also controversial given the reason those absences were forced to take place at all.

In short, it was the perfect synopsis of an imperfect head coach who has always done things his way.

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On paper, Michigan's season was indeed perfect. The Wolverines finished 15-0, won the Big Ten (again) and won their first national championship since 1997 with a brutish 34-13 win over Washington.

The game was closer than it should have been before getting out of hand in an instant. Michigan played the role of bully extraordinarily well. It just took a little longer to arrive at the conclusion.

To arrive to Monday night, Harbaugh conquered Penn State, Ohio State (again) and Alabama. His defense was exceptional, his running game, led by the electric Blake Corum, was the staple. All of it was often overwhelming.

After failing to get past the semifinals in consecutive seasons, Harbaugh conquered Nick Saban before capping off the season in fitting, ugly fashion. In doing so, he caps off one of the strangest and most polarizing seasons in recent memory.

The sign-stealing scandal that engulfed college football for months will be more than a footnote for many. While it's still unknown what exactly the NCAA will have to say about the matter when the dust settles—which could be many, many months from now—the entire escapade seemed to almost galvanize the team along the way.

"Off-the-field issues? We're innocent," Harbaugh said to reporters following the team's win, staying true to form. "We stood strong and tall because we knew we're innocent."

If nothing else, Harbaugh is consistent. Persistent is a better way to sum it up. And whether you believe him or not, nothing he or the team has said over the past few months will convince you otherwise.

This part is where the perfect fairytale falls apart for many, and perhaps understandably so. But the many years of close calls and failures that led to this moment bring Michigan's new reality back to focus.

It took Harbaugh nine seasons to win a title. Few coaches ever make it that long under any circumstances, let alone these. He was almost fired along the way, almost left a handful of times for the NFL and was largely a poster child for unmet expectations for many years.

In the past three seasons, however, Michigan went 40-3.

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Three playoff appearances. Three wins over Ohio State, a team Harbaugh simply couldn't beat. Three conference championships. One national title.

There are fairytale pieces in there somewhere if you look hard enough, although the true ending has yet to be written.

Weeks from now—perhaps even days from now—Harbaugh could have a new job. The allure of a return to the NFL has tantalized Harbaugh for years, and the momentum seems to be pointing in that direction. That, of course, is nothing new.

This script was being written before the scandals or the beginning of the season. The writing has been on the wall all along, and Harbaugh has done very little to convince anyone differently.

"I just want to enjoy this," Harbaugh said following the win. "I hope you give me that. Can I have that? Does it always have to be what's next, what's the future?"

In fairness, he's right. No one should have to provide this context on this night. Harbaugh has earned that.

But the moment will come quickly, and the answer to that question, given the sudden lineup of NFL teams in search of a savior—the kind of savior Michigan was searching for nearly a decade ago—will likely check in before long. Some likely already have.

Whether it materializes or not will be decided soon enough—sooner than most Michigan fans will want to grapple with. Such is the nature of the beast.

If this was indeed the end, however, what an end it was. Like the sport itself, Harbaugh's rise was imperfect. It was never linear, although it was complete and convincing.

It was controversial, jam-packed with painfully awkward postgame interviews and occasional sideline absences.

It wasn't perfect by any means, and it doesn't end without questions. It was also a smashing success.

It was, in many ways, perfectly Harbaugh.