Harbaugh at Stanford Orange Bowl Story

Submitted by winterblue75 on

Article this morning on....ugh, Bleacher Report, most of it is stuff we all know and they're just rehashing, but this part of the article is hilarious

Frank Beamer has one. The Virginia Tech head coach is sitting on a porch overlooking a golf course in Reynolds Plantation, Georgia, on a tar-bubbling summer afternoon—a lazy, storytelling kind of afternoon. As he puts down a glass of lemonade on a table, he says he has a tale to tell. It might just be, he claims, the weirdest damn story of his entire coaching career.

Beamer leans back in his chair and loosens a memory from late 2010. The Hokies of Virginia Tech, where Beamer has coached for the last 28 autumns, were preparing to play Stanford in the Orange Bowl. A few days before the Jan. 3 game, Beamer met the Cardinal head coach—Harbaugh—at an event in Planet Hollywood in Miami.

“After we take some pictures, we start talking, just the two of us,” Beamer said. “Jim says over and over how much respect he has for Georgia Tech. He must have said it five times. I’m just looking at him like, ‘Are you serious?’

“Finally, I’m joking with him and I say I can’t wait to tell my team that you called us Georgia Tech. Because, you know, we’re Virginia Tech.”

Harbaugh then threw his infamous shark expression at Beamer: mouth agape, eyes on fire, looking poised to chomp. Harbaugh’s assistants have seen this look for years; he sometimes holds it for about 30 seconds without speaking, causing everyone in eyeshot to wonder what is flowing through his mind—if anything.

Beamer continued to lock eyes with Harbaugh for a few moments, waiting for him to say something, anything. It may have been the most uncomfortable silence of Beamer’s life.

“Well,” Harbaugh finally told Beamer. “I can’t wait to tell my players that you said you were going to play Samford, not Stanford!” He then turned and walked away.

More than four years later, Beamer smiles at the memory, still befuddled by Harbaugh's response. “No question, Jim is a different kind of coach,” said Beamer, whose team lost in the Orange Bowl to Harbaugh and Stanford 40-12 in what was Harbaugh’s last college game.

“He’s either crazy...or he’s crazy like a damn fox.”

JamieH

September 1st, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^

IMO he's just unbelievably competitive. 

He most likely screwed up and referred to Va Tech as Georgia Tech several times without realizing it.  When Beamer called him on it, he froze up for a moment, realizing he had given them massive bulletin board material.  "Harbaugh doesn't even know who he is playing!"

 

But he wasn't about to let Beamer get one over on him, so he just decided he would even out the score by telling Beamer that he would essentially lie to his own team and tell them that Beamer did the same thing to Stanford (calling them Samford) thus "evening the score" even though Beamer didn't actually do it.  So Harbaugh was letting Beamer know that he wasn't going to let Beamer get an advantage out of Harbaugh's screw-up.

I doubt Harbaugh actually said anything about Samford, but I bet Beamer didn't say anything about the Georgia Tech quip either, and THAT was the point of what Harbaugh said.  To attempt to neutralize his obvious mistake. 

All IMO of course.   The guy never stops trying to win every encounter, even when he knows he's flubbed up. 

LKLIII

September 1st, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^

Agreed. I think this is exactly what happened. A normal guy would've said "oh my goodness Frank. I'm so sorry. Complete slip of the mind. I meant Virginia not Georgia." It would've kept the personal relationship w Beamer friendly but so run the risk that Beamer would pull a Dantonio and use is to get his locker room offended. So Harbaughs odd pause/stare was processing that and trying to get out of the jam on the fly.



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