Poll: Harbaugh Already Third-Most Powerful College FB Coach

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

CBS Sports conducted a poll of people in the college sports industry, asking them to name the most powerful coaches in college. Harbaugh finished No. 3 among football coaches, trailing only Urbz and Saban. He was No. 8 overall.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/25238269/th…

Let's hope power translates into wins.

CLord

July 13th, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^

Almost as bad as PSU's "We Are" nonsense.  I remember going to a game in State College back in the late 90s when Brady lit up Lavarr Arrington and we won in the 4th during our 9 game streak against them, where I heard the "We Are" cheers for the first time.  I sat there perplexed at how stupid they sounded.  Everyone knows you are Penn State, why do you feel compelled like a giant mass of simpletons, to restate the obvious?  I felt like I was in a scene from Rain Man except I was surrounded by 100,000 rain men and women.

Former_DC_Buck

July 13th, 2015 at 12:27 PM ^

Post Sandusky, in an effort to bolster their image they attributed the chant to this story. 

History has it that in the 1940s the Penn State football team canceled a game in an effort to protest traveling south without their black players. And when captain Steve Suhey was asked if there would be further discussion about it, he allegedly said, “No, we are Penn State.”

However as this story goes, it was actually due to envy of the OH - IO chant. 

Dave Eckhart, a cheerleader in 1977 for the Penn State cheerleading team, said the whole squad was in awe of Ohio’s student section when they first heard their “O-H, I-O” cheer overtake the stadium.

“We thought the cheer was cool, and we thought, ‘There’s got to be something like that we can do at Beaver Stadium,’ ” Eckhart said.

NittanyFan

July 13th, 2015 at 2:44 PM ^

I don't know (or particularly care) exactly when/where "We are Penn State" began, but you're completely wrong in your characterization of the 1948 Cotton Bowl story as "a post-Sandusky effort to bolster (our) image."

http://www.centredaily.com/2009/02/15/1199050/triplett-psu-helped-chang…

That (non-broken) link is from February 2009, 33 months before the Sandusky story broke.

Ronnie Kaye

July 13th, 2015 at 12:42 AM ^

Jesus, is Delany going to die in office? Get some new blood in there already. Most Big Ten fans hate him.

NittanyFan

July 13th, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^

these guys serve forever .... look at some of these tenures:

Delany --- B1G commish for 26 straight years.

Swofford --- ACC commish for 19 straight years.

Bettman --- NHL commish for 22 straight years.

Selig --- was MLB commish for 17 straight years.

Tagliabue --- was NFL commish for 17 straight years.

Stern --- was NBA commish for 30 (!!!!) straight years.

I don't hate Delany, but there's an argument for someone new just from the "new blood" perspective.  26 straight years is a LONG time.

Aero01

July 13th, 2015 at 12:36 AM ^

This is fucking stupid.  Number 7 on the list is:

"All Power Five conference football coaches"

So saying Harbaugh is number 8 means absolutely nothing.

 

Shame on you.

Honk if Ufer M…

July 13th, 2015 at 2:10 AM ^

This is bad and stupid and meaningless on so many levels from so many angles but I don't have the energy to disect it. I was hoping people had already done it. Somebody please do it.

Blueblood2991

July 13th, 2015 at 2:44 AM ^

When I see useless articles like this during the offseason, it makes me appreciate MGoBlog so much more.  While apparel and jorts threads may get old, it's still better than this crap.  And these guys are getting paid to write this stuff!

TruBluMich

July 13th, 2015 at 6:05 AM ^

So he is the least most powerful Power 5 coach in both basketball and football?  I think you missed the insult before you got excited and decided it was a good idea to share it as good news.

UMForLife

July 13th, 2015 at 7:42 AM ^

I disagree with Saban being listed below UM. At the very least he should be tied. Four basketball coaches in the top 7? No way. What is the criteria for power. Wins? Rule changes? Money? Dominance?

Without explanation, it is one man's garbage. It is just not my treasure.

M Gulo Gulo

July 13th, 2015 at 8:25 AM ^

It may be a silly usless poll but Harbaugh is the third most powerful football coach without even coaching a game. That's power you cant buy (or cheat to get *cough saban and meyer*cough) 

TheMannis

July 13th, 2015 at 8:55 AM ^

I don't think people give him enough credit for what happened at Stanford (Which could be the  best measuring stick when we think of what he can do at Michigan.) He took a Stanford team that had won 30 games since 2000 and nearly matched that number in 4 years. (If you also count the 12-2 team in 2011 that was comprised entirely of his players and coached by David Shaw, a part of Harbaugh's coaching tree, that adds a lot more wins) 

There's also this other thing that he did once,  like leading a team that had been a hot pile of garbage to THREE CONSECUTIVE NFC TITLE GAMES, AND  ALSO HAVING THE FIFTH BEST WINNING PERCENTAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF FOOTBALL ON EARTH  I think Michigan could be in for a quick turnaround. 

The team has talent. Now it just needs to be coached up, and with the staff he's assembled, that shouldn't be anissue anymore.

Former_DC_Buck

July 13th, 2015 at 12:56 PM ^

I think a bit more of the logic, fwiw, can be found in the main article, http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/25236858/the-25-most-influential-people-in-college-sports, which includes folks like Phil Knight and others not emplyed by a specific University. 

I don't buy this idea that if Urban Meyer or Nick Saban came out with the an idea and every other football coach opposed it, they would get their way.  Plus I can imagine the list would be short on what all of them agree on. 

However, the example they cited about travel expenses and Meyer speaking out on this and something getting done, supports the idea that he does have some influence.  We'll see about Saban's influence when it comes to satelite camps.  That is assuming he gets Meyer on board or to "abstain" from commenting.  His move to try to change the rules to slow the game down hasn't been successful.  I know Meyer would oppose that, but this gets back to the idea that if one of them went against everyone else they would get their way. 

I think the collective coach group should either be removed or put ahead of everyone.  I notice the even more diverse collective MBB coaches is nowhere to be found.