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In a sport with 130 teams all competing at the theoretical same level, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is one of the top 25, right?
He took over a 5-7 team that was moving backwards and in his five years in Ann Arbor, he’s gotten 10 wins three times, with an 8-5 and 9-4 season mixed in. There’s a large swatch of teams in college football that would kill to have such a record.
But, Harbaugh is talked about as someone not getting the job done, because he hasn’t beaten Ohio State and has lost four of his five bowl appearances. Also, when it comes to facing top teams on the road, the Wolverines have fallen short more than not.
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So, when The Athletic‘s Bruce Feldman — a friend of the site, as we’ve interviewed him one-on-one here a few times now — composed his list of the Top 25 coaches in college football ($) Harbaugh had to be on there, right?
He was, but not for the reasons people might think.
18. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan: The most polarizing figure on this list, Harbaugh is 47-18 in his five years back at his alma mater. Yet it feels like a disappointment because of the massive expectations that came when he arrived, and because he hasn’t been able to beat his arch-rival Ohio State, which has blown out the Wolverines the past two years. Overall, he’s 10-14 against Top 25 teams since coming home. It doesn’t feel like Michigan has closed any ground on the Buckeyes, but he’s still done a lot better overall than what the Wolverines had over the previous decade or so. Harbaugh is on this list, though, because of what he did before Michigan — lifting Stanford from being the worst Power 5 program into one that mauled people and won BCS bowls, and for an amazing turnaround job with the 49ers.
Whatever the reasoning, we can’t argue. Until Harbaugh actually beats Ohio State and gets Michigan to Indianapolis and beyond, he’ll continue to gain derision from fans, media and rivals.
However, where we do take umbrage is with some of the other rankings.
Yes, James Franklin won the Big Ten in 2016, which is a giant feather in his cap. But to have him ranked as the third-best coach in college football feels a little high, to say the least. Same thing with Kirby Smart at No. 7. Yes, he made the College Football Playoff, but otherwise, Georgia hasn’t won anything of note.
Conversely, Paul Chryst from Wisconsin is too low at No. 19 and Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald missed the cut, according to the article.
First-year Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was not mentioned in the rankings.