I've been tough on Harbaugh, but with the O-line regression these past 2 years, I'm not sure I can definitely say that he himself should be fired for the struggling offense over the past 3 years.
2023: Solid O-line and great RB play despite all of the injuries leading to the need to go far in the depth chart, but poor QB play from a QB who missed his Senior (or Junior?, I can't remember) HS season and was recruited by a different OC for a different scheme
2024: Solid (but not necessarily game changing) QB play from an experienced transfer QB, but the beginning of the O-line regression and less solid RB play
2025: Promising QB play from a Redshirt Fr QB, but more O-line regression and the worst RB play we've seen since Brewster (and maybe even since the turn of the century)
If we had the O-line/RB play from 2023 this year, we'd likely be at 9 wins (with a shot at 10 wins as the Iowa game would've been closer) with Harbaugh at OC, so I'm not sure I've seen enough to feel like rolling the dice on an OC makes sense.
What I will say is I'd like to move on from Brian Callahan as OLine coach. The last 2 years are unacceptable and I'm not sure giving him another year to turn the ship around is necessary. Go out and hire one of Navy's OLine coaches and get the boat back on track. I haven't looked much at the RB coach's tenure here/prior experience , but I would also ponder if he's not helping the RBs develop the skills to salvage broken plays.
If we can get the running game back to what we're used to in 2026 or 2027 and we still have Drake as QB, we have a chance to see an offense that could take us on a run.
The other offensive coach is looking at is the WR coach, but really only because we just haven't seen the recruitment/development of an NFL quality receiver since Bateman. Obviously if you're making a bunch of coaching changes elsewhere, maybe you don't rock the boat much more, but if in 2026/2027 all other pieces of the offense are humming and our receivers are still dropping balls/unable to make plays, then we should look for someone better to lead that position group.
On defense, if this was the hire right after Rossi left and we had this performance, I'd say fire/demote Collins from the DC position. However, doing so now would mean the 4th DC in 4 years, so for the sake of seeing if consistency in scheme/DC helps, I think you give him one more year. Next year he has to show improvement on both limiting explosive plays and letting teams with stuggling-mid offenses stay in the game. If he can do that, I'm willing to let him continue to cook, but if we see a similar performance next year where we let teams who finish under .500 stay in the game until late in the fourth quarter and better teams putting 40+ points up on us, he needs to go.
The other option I'd be okay with is if Rossi isn't retained at MSU and wants to come back and mentor Collins some more. As far as the other defensive coaches, I'm not sure how much of the poor defensive play I can really attribute to the coaching of the position coaches versus scheme issues.
I'd also look at the Strength and Conditioning coach...idk I always feel like even when the talent/athleticism of the other team should match ours, we appear slower. On top of some of our players seeming to have nagging injuries, I just wonder if a change in the strength & conditioning coach might help, either by injecting some newer/modern ideas or just being better at identifying what players should focus on to be more explosive/less injury prone.
