The path not taken: Harbaugh and the KU job
It's a famous but oft-misunderstood and deceptively simple poem. High school seniors like to quote it as an ode to noncomformity ("Two roads diverged in a wood and I-- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference"). But it isn't. At all. It's actually very complicated and tricky (I read somewhere that Frost himself noted this).
If you go back and read it, there's really no significant difference between the roads ("had worn them really about the same") in the original perspective at an earlier time. But one has to be chosen, so you pick one.
Then the narrator's time shifts years into the future and he considers how he will look back at this moment. He knows he'll do a very human thing: ascribe the course of his life to some decision made many years earlier which he later believes made an enormous difference, for better or for worse (for better in this case).
But that's a post-hoc rationalization, and he knows it. Our lives might have/probably would have turned out very similarly even if we chose differently, but we just like creating the narrative of some dramatic conscious decision that dictated everything that followed. Now, suddenly, it's the road less traveled, but at the time, it was basically the same.
Sometimes you have two basic equivalent choices and you pick one because you have to make a choice... and it really isn't that big a deal, until you ascribe it with tons of meaning later on. The result is inflated blame and credit, and a good story to tell yourself about why things went well in your life, or didn't.
"Sometimes you have two basic equivalent choices and you pick one because you have to make a choice... and it really isn't that big a deal"
Yep, that's what Yogi Berra said too.
You never know what you're going to learn on this blog. Good stuff.
This is it...and this is life. The decisions we make and the paths we choose, or not, are interesting to reflect upon...but that is the extent of the weight those choices should carry-a reflective interlude to where one is at today. But I do love this Frost offering.
That's great Sopwith! As someone who cannot stand poetry, I now have some of the symbolism behind what people tell me is a great poem/story.
April 27th, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^
I’m throwing the BS FLAG on this statement.
"Our lives might have/probably would have turned out very similarly even if we chose differently, but we just like creating the narrative of some dramatic conscious decision that dictated everything that followed. Now, suddenly, it's the road less traveled, but at the time, it was basically the same."
Imho, Coach Harbaugh would have ended up at Michigan either way.
April 26th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
Kansas has great facilities. They are geographically in an interesting spot as they can recruit Iowa and Nebraska linemen and also speedy players from Texas. And they can recruit attending Kansas basketball games. Point is, Kansas has nobody to blame for its stste other than it's own administrative decisions. In better hands, Kansas should be a nationally competitive program.
I'd agree that some of the Kansas wounds are self-inflicted. Kansas State is less of a name school than Kansas and has had many good seasons.
But, I don't see what's special about Iowa and Nebraska linemen and there are very few of them (especially Nebraska) each year at the D1 level. They'd have to pull them away from the local schools, too. As for the state of Texas, they're competing with several better schools that are closer to the talent. Finally, I don't think having Kansas basketball available on the same campus would move the needle much.
April 26th, 2022 at 11:17 PM ^
KU is a program that only Glen Mason has made relevant since the 1970s. Mark Mangino had one GREAT season in 2007 but was otherwise 16-40 in B12 in his other 7 years. I feel for Turner Gill who had only two years before being canned for Charlie Weis. JH would have never been satisfied when people want to talk hoops starting on Oct 15th. I do think the guy they have now could be successful getting to a bowl game.
April 27th, 2022 at 12:38 AM ^
Since the talk of Kansas joining the B1G have ended. People down here were all excited when there was a chance of joining the B1G. I think KU would have dominated our conference in basketball.
guess they’re deep in the off-season, “what the hell shoukd we write about” doldrums over at the athletic, too.
I really doubt he would have taken it. Besides Michigan I don’t think there’s a more perfect fit for Harbaugh than Stanford. People used to like to say that Harbaugh never stays anywhere very long but every job he’s taken has been a step up. Kansas isn’t a step up, it’s a step off a high dive into an empty pool
April 27th, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
I know Kansas thought Harbaugh would take that job...but a lot of that confirmation seems to be coming from the KU side of the discussion and is also a decade old. I have a hard time believing Harbaugh would have actually taken the job because, even with KU's recent success, the ceiling was still lower than Stanford's in the Pac-12. You weren't going to recruit top players to KU in the numbers you needed to compete, and there wasn't some special allure to the school. You'd always be #2 next to the basketball team, and I can't see Harbaugh liking that.
Anyway, it was an interesting article mostly to see how poorly an AD can be run but that was it.
April 27th, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
I think there are other issues people are forgetting. For one thing, it's a pain in the ass to recruit at Stanford. It's a separate, detailed application for potential recruits with a fair amount of meetings between administration and coaches about players being admissable. I get it's STANFORD, but I'm not sure every big time recruit with the academics wants to spend hours pouring over one application. I can imagine it's just easier being a ball coach at a place like Kansas.
Thanks. Good article and looks like a great series!
This story and posts about it demonstrate we’re about to enter the traditional football Silly Season between the NFL draft and opening of fall camps. Football junkies will consume anything, no matter the quality, to satisfy their cravings.