An illuminating post about overpaid, underachiever Jim Harbog (stolen from a USC site)

usc.scout.com/forums/1720-trojan-football/13534406-harbaugh-some-substance-and-a-whole-lot-of-b-s?s=15

"Spin" is a concept and phenomenon that too few really seem to appreciate.
Some people are all substance, zero spin. Real life hero Louis Zamperini is like that.
He DID REALLY HEROIC THINGS, but he never claimed credit, never sought acclaim,
gave thanks to God and everyone else involved. A humble and admirable man.

Other folks are totally spin. There's nothing really there but an image, the desire to
grab attention, a persona that is created, enhanced, dreamed up and manufactured,
carefully protected. Total frauds are rare, heck, even Milli-Vanilli could dance, but they
do exist.

Watching the Jim Harbaugh corination this past week, the concept of spin kept coming to mind.
Harbaugh has had coaching success, no doubt. But there is a lot of hype and few people really
look at what Harbaugh did and did not do.

At the University of San Diego, the Toreros went 8-2 the year BEFORE Harbaugh arrived.
Tim Drevno was the Offensive Coordinator, and his offense was one of the nation's most
productive. The team went 8-2 and won a share of the conference title. Harbaugh ended
up being chosen as the next head coach of the program, and retained Drevno and the
offense that had already taken the team to the top of the conference rankings.
In that next year, the Toreros went 7-4. After that, 11-1 and 11-1 in the tiny Pioneer Football
Conference. After Harbaugh left, Ron Caragher won 3 more conference titles over the next
five years. Sure, Harbaugh and that very strong staff did a good job with
X's and O's on that very small stage. But Harbaugh didn't build anything at USD.
He simply kept key staff members and kept things going in the direction they were already
taking. Impressive in that context, but not exactly proof that Harbaugh is or was a "wow" football coach.

Stanford football has had some strong coaches and periods of success.
Ty Willingham spent 7 seasons at Sanford, from 1995 through 2001, and had a combined
record of 44-36-1. In five seasons at Stanford, his last in 1994, Bill Walsh went 34-24.

At Stanford, Jim Harbaugh went 29-21. The program rose under the offensive direction of
Andrew Luck, who led the Cardinal to its best season in years in 2010, when they reached
the Orange Bowl. That was Harbaugh's last season in college ball.
Harbaugh came in as a brash and abrasive guy who was given the reigns and a lot
of freedom because Stanford's Trustees and AD were tired of being beaten. The school wanted
to change the culture, and a guy who had a coaching family pedigree and an overabundance of
confidence seemed like a decent shot. He brought in a great staff and a whole lot of swag,
found that one quarterback who could make a difference, and that was it.

Was Stanford better, did Harbaugh "turn things around?" To some extent, yes.
The team won more. But was it Harbaugh, or Luck, both, other factors?
Maybe it was all of it. Clearly, by the time Harbaugh left Stanford, there were plenty
who were happy to see him go. Four years of abrasiveness, unbridled ego, immaturity and
self importance, took its toll. Harbaug was seen as arrogant, immature, a jerk.

So Harbaugh's "spin" and swag moved off to the NFL. The 49ers bought into the "magic" of
a coaching pedigree and a 29-21 record across the bay, and brought in Harbaugh the
"little boy" coach. The 49ers were a good team, a very good team, when Harbaugh arrived.
In fact, they were favored to win their division, and some said the conference, in 2010.
But things went sideways for Head Coach Mike Singletary, who could not settle on a
starting quarterback (Alex Smith and Troy Smith split time), and the 49ers parted ways
with Singletary in December 2010. It was widely thought that Singletary simple needed
to settle on a QB and get solid play there, and the team would win. He didn't, so the
team made some changes. They drafted Colin Keapernick early in the second
round and brought in Harbaugh as Head Coach.

The 49ers continued to hit and miss until injury took Alex Smith out of the equation and left the team
to Keapernick. That's when things changed. Kap led the team back up to expectations. They
started to win, and Kap was the key. But there were issues. Harbaugh's ego and arrogance again
took its toll. When the team started to slide, the front office looked for an out. There was talk of
trading Harbaugh to another team, releasing him, and more. Eventually, the University of
Michigan came along.

There is no doubt that Jim Harbaugh knows the game. He come from a family of coaches,
and has studied it. He was a decent, but not great quarterback (career 77.6 rating as a pro,
with 126 TD and 119 INT). He was a decent successor at USD, did a decent job at Stanford
but left when many were very happy to see him go, and did a decent job with the 49ers but
left when the team was ready to fire him outright.

"Spin" says that Harbaugh is the "savior" of Michigan football. I suppose we will see.
And perhaps he will win at first, bringing in the right staff to make things work. But before
long those issues of character, immaturity and arrogance will arise again. And it won't
come as much of a surprise if Jim Harbaugh is seen as something other than a savior
after the glitz settles and people take a second look."

Some perspective:

Jim Harbaugh - 0 Pac 12 Championships, 1 BCS Bowl Win
David Shaw - 2 Pac 12 Championships, 1 BCS Bowl Win
Chip Kelly - 3 Pac 12 Championships, 2 BCS Bowl Wins, 1 NCG Appearance
Mark Helfrich - 1 Pac 12 Championship, Will be playing for National Championship