Dallasbowlin
Everything woke turns to sh*t
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Glad to see you acknowledge that Harbaugh is a great coach. Guys at his level (you can count them on one hand) can win and win big with the same players that other lesser coaches can't. Recall what Meyer did in his first year at Ohio State with essentially the same team that Fickel struggled with the season before.....from 6-7 to 12-0 in the blink of an eye.
Harbaugh is one of those guys who can "beat yours with his and his with yours" IMO.
no doubt UM is a very good coach....but, giving him credit over Fickell is sorta disingenuous.
OSU had been good for many years under Tressel. Fickell was a placeholder while Tressel was under suspension, and when the latter quit....OSU really didn't have a choice mid season. Fickell might be a decent DC, but he wasn't ready to be a HC. Talent aside, the program was reeling in 2011.
OTOH, I think the dude is somewhat of a head case...so, if Harbaugh manages to stay out of his own way, he could have some tough teams for years to come at UM.
Disingenuous? It makes the point perfectly IMO, to the extreme. Take a headcoach who isn't very good and he goes 6-7 with pretty much the same team that the elite coach goes 12-0 with.
Hoke was a poor headcoach who couldn't do much with what talent he had. In steps Harbaugh with the same team, in what was expected to be an off season/rebuilding year....and improves the team from 5-7 to 10-3. That's impressive imo and confirms what most think about Harbaugh given his previous stints at Stanford and with the 49ers.
Yes, on one hand it definitely demonstrates how a very good coach can win with same talent.
I just don't think the comparison is justified in the case of OSU - it's not like they really wanted Fickell at the helm....just had no choice....that's why it provides an "extreme" example.
A comparision of Tressel w/ Meyer is more applicable since it was "really" Tressel's team and talent...he just didn't coach it that year. Two fairly equal coaches, at the same program, comparable talent, and very similar results.
Just my opinion KB...I see it differently when doing comparisons
Still gotta do something with your talent. Hoke was 20-18 his last 3 seasons at Michigan. Harbaugh steps in a immediately goes 10-3. Coaches make a difference no matter where your program is and the best ones win at a high level in a very short period of time.
If you acknowledge that relative talent is an important indicator of success, then you must also acknowledge that a win loss record should be judged through the same lens.
In other words, you are conflating matrices. On one hand you acknowledge the importance of talent, give a nod to the importance of the relative talent of a team that takes the field, and then look at raw win/loss records as an indication of the quality of coaching. Using the latter often requires ignoring the first two things you looked at.
TR: It's entirely possible for a coach to have a team go 4-8 and be doing heroic things, while a coach that goes 10-2 is average.
Ummmmm........sure. I'm not ignoring anything. I have a very simple premise here....a good coach wins more, with the same type of talent, sometimes even the same exact talent, than a bad coach. Keep on pontificating but that's all I'm saying and Harbaugh and Meyer are excellent examples of this very simple, pretty pedestrian idea.