Notable head coaching records through 31 games

Submitted by ThatGuyCeci on
I’m sure this has been discussed somewhere on the blog, but I thought it warranted emphasis. Through their first 31 games as head coach at their schools: Urban Meyer: 28-3 Nick Saban 23-8 Brian Kelly 21-10 Dabo Swinney 18-13 James Franklin 17-14 Where does Jim Harbaugh fit? 24-7, good for second on the list. I’ve seen and heard a lot of negativity from our fan base over the season. First, we were winning but not by large enough margins. Then it was bad qb play and play calling (understandable to an extent). Now it’s turned to none other than Harbaugh himself. Can he really develop talent? Etc etc. I say all that to say this, there is no other head coach in America more equipped to be our head coach than Jim Harbaugh. Yeah our team may have some holes right now, but they are being addressed via recruiting and coaching. We’re also one of the youngest teams in the nation. I mean, based on all the bitching I’ve seen you’d think people thought we would be undefeated this year. We knew this year was going to have its ups and downs. So let’s not lose our minds and act like the sky is falling. Regardless of how this year turns out, the future is as bright as its ever been in Ann Arbor. Keep calm and GO BLUE!

Double-D

October 20th, 2017 at 9:11 AM ^

I just thought FSU beat us on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That and Harbaugh's 1st (Durkin game) OSU are really only two games we were kind of handled. Utah was the very 1st game. We have had some bad luck. Sometimes you have to force breaks to go your way. This program is in great condition with a ton of young and getting experienced talent.

The Denarding

October 20th, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^

I am completely content with Jim Harbaugh. My reasons are fairly simple. He has exceeded expectations everywhere he has been. He is completely committed to the betterment of the kids he coaches and the university we all profess to love and support. But most of all, it's because I expect to win and am disappointed when we don't. We are pissing and moaning about MSU. Why? Because unlike the years where they were unloading on us, and we knew there was no way we were going to beat MSU,we expect to beat them now. I love how the narrative is about getting owned by rivals, yet a 35 yd Hail Mary at the end of the last MSU game is as improbable to connect as a botched punt leading to a touchdown from the 50 yd line. Then we say things like "it's not luck that Harbaugh has dantonios number....". There is an inherent sky is falling attitude that is pathgnomonic to this fan base. Every middle of January it strikes again when people call to fire Beilein and a bunch of us rage against the dying of the light to little avail. Then lo and behold, it turns around. But ultimately it never mattered. Our student athletes are being mentored by great coaches playing a game they love. I never feel, now, like they are ever overwhelmed of over matched. I can't say that prior to the current coaching staffs ive always felt that way. This is a win to me.

Perkis-Size Me

October 20th, 2017 at 6:27 AM ^

He’s 1-4, and likely to soon be 1-5, against the teams that matter most. Doesn’t matter that he’s near undefeated against everyone else. His teams are consistently coming up short in the biggest games.

B1G Winning

October 20th, 2017 at 8:38 AM ^

I think it frustrates most people that we can't get by MSU and OSU because both teams are in the same division as us, which means we simply can't get to championships unless we beat them both. I know it hurts some people's pride that OSU has been the flagship school of the conference for as long as most of today's kids can remember when it comes to football productivity. MSU and now even PSU have conference championships to go along with OSU's success. Not to mention, our biggest rivals have now both represented the conference in the playoffs. I sense that most people want so bad to prove that we have a team of that caliber too. Conversely, I suspect that a lot of people on here downplay conference rivalries because we havent been competitive in them for the better part of the last decade. The Game is touted as one of the greatest rivalries in sports, but it's been pretty one-sided since the new millennia. I think UM is going to be in a really good place and win a lot of football games in 2 years if McCaffery or Peters turn into serviceable QB's. I fully expect us to get ours, it's just going to take us a bit to get there. Michigan isn't as quick of a turnaround as OSU was in 2012 for Meyer.

Dennis

October 20th, 2017 at 6:54 AM ^

The "rivals record" is stupid and shouldn't be used as a metric for evaluating a coach. Those games are important, but we'll get there. I'm happier about a shitload of our players doing well in the NFL because Harbaugh coaches them for PRO-level schemes. Other coaches don't prepare them for NFL fundamentals.

Perkis-Size Me

October 20th, 2017 at 8:23 AM ^

The rivals record is stupid? Agree to disagree, pal. 

Harbaugh can win a ton of games and put a shitload of kids in the NFL, and that really is all great. But if he loses to MSU and OSU every single year, that's a pretty hollow on-field legacy to leave behind. You career at Michigan is ultimately judged by what you do, or don't do, in those games. I'm not saying he should win those games every year, but for the money he's being paid he should be doing far better than 1-4, probably soon to be 1-5. 

And so the hell what if other coaches don't prepare kids for pro-level schemes?Meyer has ZERO obligation to teach kids an NFL scheme. His scheme works and wins titles. Why the hell would he move away from that? His only obligation to OSU and to his players is to win. And he wins big. And he still gets whatever recruits he wants, and still sends a ton of them, on both sides of the ball, to the NFL. And many of them are doing incredibly well there. So your argument there doesn't hold a lot of water. 

Sleepy

October 20th, 2017 at 8:49 AM ^

...UM is 1-4 in the games you mentioned. They're a modicum of luck, and *almost* nothing else, away from being 4-1. If Blake O'Neill catches the snap in 2015, is Harbaugh a better coach? If the refs arbitrarily spot Barrett a quarter-inch short last season, is Harbaugh a better coach? If State doesn't recover all four fumbles that hit the ground a couple weeks ago, is Harbaugh a better coach?

rice4114

October 20th, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^

We beat them badly head to head and lose to in conference Iowa instead of out of conference Pitt. Thats really it. Pretty much the same seasons really. Penn state won the 3 loss superbowl and we had a complete failure of a season due to Iowa having a big ten patch on their unis. College football is a strange thing. Clemson can have 7 close wins against the Wake Forests of the worlds but that better than 1 close loss to OSU. Until we make our own luck the haters will have the ammo they need.

Perkis-Size Me

October 20th, 2017 at 9:06 AM ^

True, luck is involved to a certain degree, but  you shouldn't consistently put yourself in a position to where you have to rely on luck to win games. Sometimes it's necessary and you just find yourself in those types of games. I get it. But you can look at those games you mentioned several other ways: 

If the offense could pick up one measly first down in the fourth quarter of last year's OSU game, or if Speight doesn't turn the ball over three times, Michigan isn't in position to have to rely on luck in OT to win a game. The game is over at the end of regulation. You can blame the players, sure. But that's also on coaching. When the chips were down they just couldn't put OSU away when they had the chance. 

OSU 2015 is all on the coaching. They just weren't prepared. Especially on the defensive side. 

2017 MSU - We had five turnovers of our own. Five. Before you blame the monsoon, MSU had to play in the same weather, and they found ways to take care of the football and not shoot themselves in the foot over and over and over. 

2015 MSU - again, one more first down ices that game. Just one more. 

yourmom_is_hot

October 20th, 2017 at 8:54 AM ^

The "rivals" record matters because if you don't beat your rivals, you're not winning the Big 10 East.  

In Saban's 3rd year at Bama, he won a national title

In Urban's 3rd year at OSU, he won a national title

In Kelley's 3rd year at ND, the team played for a national title

Dabo's 3rd year was garbage, Franklin's 3rd year at Pederast St he won the B10 and played in the Rose Bowl.

Getting kids drafted is great, but Harbaugh isn't getting paid to get kids drafted.  He's getting paid to win - inclusive of beating OSU and MSU.  

 

 

 

PeterKlima

October 20th, 2017 at 8:00 AM ^

Of course rivalry games don't count for more than regular games.... well, to anyone except fans. 

Its a personal thing.  But, not really the way to evaluate wins and losses.

Bo and Woody helped make OSU/UM a big rivalry because it was personal to them.  It became personal to the fan bases.

Dantonio has made the MSU/UM game personal to him.  While most in the state feel similarly, Michigan fans are slow to warm up to it as a personal rivalry.

Harbaugh is obviously a great coach with a great track record. The above shows he is well on his way at Michigan.

befuggled

October 20th, 2017 at 8:55 AM ^

This board would have been ready to fire Bo by 1975. At that point he'd had the historic upset of Ohio State in 1969 and a close win over a 6-4 Ohio State team in 1971 sandwiched around a decisive loss in 1970.

Then from 1972 to 1975 comes three close losses and a tie. Particularly painful were the way they lost (or tied) those games. In 1972, they couldn't run it in on 8 plays from the 1 and lost by three. In 1973 (the tie) and 1974 they missed field goals, including a chip shot at the end of the 1974 game. In 1975 Bo's freshman quarterback three three interceptions and they lost by a touchdown. That freshman quarterback struggled all year long and ended up completing less than a third of his passes for the entire year.

UMxWolverines

October 20th, 2017 at 10:14 AM ^

Bo was a great coach, but let's be honest here. He did not win a national title. He is pretty much the only legendary coach of a major program not to. And people will blame it on luck for him too like the Charles White fumble and shit like that, but he had plenty of national title caliber teams, just didn't get it done. Notre Dame won multiple national titles in the 70s and 80s while we settled for Rose Bowl Losses. And his team that was closest to a national title, 1971, was undefeated going into the Rose Bowl, but lost to a 3 loss Stanford team 13-12. At some point the program has to stop blaming everything on luck and just go out and get rid of the over hyped stigma.

Sambojangles

October 20th, 2017 at 9:35 AM ^

I see two kinds of complaining about this coaching staff: one is the "when can we fire this guy?" type which is completely delusional when you are talking about Jim MF Harbaugh. He's the best coach we can possibly have for the current time period, and he's not going anywhere. Luckily this seems to be pretty rare from actual Michigan fans, and only rivals and trolls who are trying to stoke the honeymoon over narrative. Looking at Pete Finebaum and others. The second kind is OUTRAGE and complaints of the UNACCEPTABLE variety. These are ultimately masturbatory and don't really accomplish anything except maybe making yourself feel better for posting on social media or bitching with your friends. Hot takes won't win games. If you don't think our coaches and players are doing everything they can to win games I don't know what to tell you. At the end of the day we are fans of amateur athletes and professional coaches, competing against the same on the other side. Results are out of our control so why get so worked up about it? Enjoy football for what it is, and find happiness instead of emotional misery and we will all be better for it.

MGoStrength

October 20th, 2017 at 10:52 AM ^

So far his record implies he's been great considering the circumstances he inherited.  He inherited a decent amount of talent, particularly on the defensive side of the ball in his first two years.  His defenses have played pretty well in all 3 years.  He found and developed Jake Rudock.  They won 10 games in 2015 with a close loss to Utah and a random punter issue against MSU, and got handled by OSU.  They looked amazing in the bowl against FLA.  In 2016, he got pretty good production out of Speight minus one game.  He lost a close game to Iowa and lost to another rival, this time OSU on a random call.  They barely lost to FSU even when they couldn't pass block and didn't have Peppers.  This years offensive struggles were expected.  Maybe we expected the QB, o-line, and young WRs to be better, but we knew there would be a learning curve.  I think the defense is exceeding expectations.  

 

There are areas of concern.  How long should it take to build a cohesive o-line?  He inherited the RT problem.  How long does it take a new QB to be comfortable in his offense?  Brandon Peters will have to answer that question sometime between Rutgers and sometime next season.  Is the offensive coaching/playcalling on par with the defensive coaching/play calling?  These are all legitimate concerns, but so far all in all he's been great considering the circumstances with a few things left to iron out. 

 

In the next 2 years however I think given his salary, name, UM's considerable resources, and the recruiting success, fans are going to expect a win over OSU and a conference championship.  If that doesn't happen in the first 5 years it will be a tough pill to swallow.

Class of 1817

October 20th, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^

"Right now" or "At the moment" or "All things considered"...

He's the BEST coach we could EVER hope for. He is one of the absolute best football coaches on planet Earth, is in the top 5 in win percentage as an NFL coach, made Stanford (STANFORD) relevant even long after his departure, and has met with unbridled success everywhere he has been a head coach.

There are literally only a handful of football coaches on the planet that could even be considered to be "better" than JH. Not college coaches, not coaches on the market...all living coaches. Period.

Our struggles now show just how badly our offensive cupboards were under Hoke and how decimated our program was in the transfer over to Rich Rod.

The inane collective questioning Harbaugh's results up to this point need to quit whining, STFU, and get on board.

Be as good of a fan as he is a coach and everyone will be happy.

Go Blue.