The best thing in the long term for a college football program is stability. Michigan knows far too well what stability hasn’t been during the Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke tenures. The Rodriguez years were atrocious and set Michigan back big time, and Brady Hoke gave it a “Michigan man” of an effort but the results were mediocre ultimately. Stability just wasn’t there.

Stability has been found with Jim Harbaugh. When things are stable, a team is always in the conversation for a Big Ten and National Championship. When they’re stable top recruiting classes can happen year after year. When they’re stable wins and losses aren’t going to drastically fluctuate from a good record to a doormat of one. Jim Harbaugh, as a coach, motivator, recruiter, and person has given Michigan much needed stability that Michigan fans have yearned for since 2008.

Florida State trending downward

Florida State is now learning what happens when stability is thrown out the window, implosion usually ensues.

That’s not a good look for a university. Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher resigned earlier today, and the effect will be long lasting for FSU. Three players already de-committed earlier this week, and a hefty handful will likely follow suit as Fisher is officially out of Tallahassee. It being December 1st and not having a head coach at the helm is not good for a program, as this is a pivotal time for flipping recruits and making sure commits stay with the program.

Another not so good aspect of the Fisher debacle is even if the coach stayed, Florida State players anonymously said “If he’s back, I’m out.” They no longer trusted Jimbo, so this was a lose-lose situation all around that will likely leave the program in shambles for at least a few years. Things like this can be absolutely devastating.

A side note: Michigan and Florida State both lost their starting quarterback for the year due to injury, the Seminoles are 5-6, the Wolverines finished the regular season 8-4. It appears the on field product is more stable when there’s adversity at Michigan opposed to some other programs.

Tennessee dumpster fire

Michigan fans can party it up knowing they aren’t going through what Tennessee Volunteers fans are right now. Their athletic director has been fired after agreeing to hire Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Shiano as their head coach only to receive a fury of denouncement of his Penn State Sandusky era ties by almost everyone in the state that led to cancelling the agreement. Now Tennessee has tried hiring just about anyone that can hold a clipboard including Mike Gundy, Mike Leach, Jeff Brohm, Dave Doeren, and others.

No one seems to want the job now, a lot of damage has been done, coaches and recruits tend to shy away from a team that fires an athletic director and has over a half dozen coaches decline a high profile SEC job. This is implosion at its finest, and pretty ugly. I’m not even sure Nicolas Cage would take this job right now, and he takes ANY JOB.

Be Grateful

While the first three years of Harbaugh’s tenure haven’t been what fans have been salivating for, they haven’t been bad either. Things are trending upward and not downward, there’s optimism and not stagnation.

What is happening at Tennessee and Florida State will bring long-lasting devastation, while Harbaugh has brought much needed and rare security for a program to go forward, and likely never backward again, as long as he is at the helm.

The days of Rich-Rod and Hoke are over, there likely won’t be days of Tennessee bizarro-world vibes coming to Ann Arbor either. Both of which bode well for recruiting, a place where National Championships are won before a game is even played.

Who’s got it better than Michigan? Well, quite a few schools, but many won’t consistently have it better than Michigan in the years ahead. They’ll be wishing stability was at their program the way it is at Michigan.