College Football Coaching Carousel: Jim Harbaugh Update; A New Possibility for Noel Mazzone?

Happy Holidays everybody. Hope everyone is enjoying some much needed R&R time these last few days and enjoying quality time with family and friends (in case of Steve Alford every day is X-Mas thanks to Dan Guerrero).

In the world of college football there are three bowl games on the docket for today. Islandbruin2 has the details and open thread here. There hasn't been a lot of major movement of note on the coaching carousel front. It appears that folks are holding pattern for Jim Harbaugh. Footballscoop.com had this Harbaugh primer 3 days ago:

NFL sources tell me that the 49ers have told Michigan that if they reach a deal with Jim to become their next head coach, that the 49ers will release him from his contract and seek no compensation. Why? Well, per sources, if Jim isn't going to be the Niners head coach next season, the 49ers front office would prefer to have him in the college ranks to avoid having to deal with...

If Jim decides he wants to remain in the league, NFL sources tell us the most likely landing spot is the Raiders. Problem is, the 49ers organization is less than excited about the possibility that their head coach could be coaching across the bay next season. Per sources, if Jim were able to get the Raiders to the top, some within the 49ers organization would look very foolish for allowing this to happen while he was under contract.

We can't imagine anyone in the Niners organization being excited about Harbaugh ending up with the Raiders, and making them look foolish for next few seasons. In the meantime Michigan people are feeing good about getting back their prodigal son. We should know more by middle of next week as the Niners wrap up their difficult season.

When the Niners are officially on the market for a new coach, we imagine we will read or hear chatter about Mora and the NFL, but we can't imagine Niners being foolish enough to pursue someone who has been fired twice from previous NFL gigs. Then again we are talking about an organization that couldn't find a way to keep a proven winner like Harbaugh happy and with a track record of bringing in losers like Terry Donahue to manager the franchise,  and washed up retreads like Dennis Erickson to coach the team.

Couple of other notes of interest from the carousel:

• After losing his DC to Oregon State, Utah's HC Kyle Whittingham is about to lose his OC - Dave Christensen - to Texas A&M. If that happens Whittingham should really look to raid the UCLA staff and hire away the most dynamic OC in the conference from Jim Mora.
• Colorado State hired Georgia OC Mike Bobo to replace the Rams' departed head-coach Jim McElwain, who earlier this month took the head-coaching position at Florida. Bobo is potentially great pickup for Colorado State, who may emerge as one of the up and coming coaching candidates in two-three years. CSU AD seems to know what he is doing.

We wonder why Mazzone didn't get the call to be the next HC at CSU?