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In a time without sports, outlets are getting creative about their content.
Among them is The Athletic, which put together a draft of the top coaches in college football ($), assigning points for regular season wins, bowl wins, conference championships and playoff appearances.
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Given that rubric, naturally, it wasn’t going to go well for Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who’s accumulated a lot of regular season wins in his five-year tenure, but not much else save for one bowl win in his first year. Thus, with each round lasting seven picks each, Harbaugh got picked with the No. 22 pick overall, the first-pick of the fourth-round, with plenty of caveats for Michigan’s shortcomings since he arrived in 2015.
Round 4, Pick 1 (No. 22 overall): Jim Harbaugh, Michigan
Yes, I took Kelly and Harbaugh with back-to-back picks. Yes, fans of every other team will laugh endlessly at the inflated brands of their two programs. Go ahead. There’s a reason Harbaugh fell to the 22nd overall pick, anyway. He has underachieved. But we’re not being measured against expectations here. And since Harbaugh’s arrival in Ann Arbor, only six coaches have won more games than him. I’ll gladly use this spot to take 9.4 wins per year. I say there’s a better chance of Ryan Day, James Franklin or Lincoln Riley going to the NFL before him at this point. — Fortuna
Regardless of the rubric, there are plenty of coaches selected above Harbaugh that most college football fans likely wouldn’t take ahead of him.
Like Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell (Rd. 1, Pick 5), Louisville’s Scott Satterfield (Rd. 2, Pick 5), Minnesota’s PJ Fleck (Rd. 3, Pick 2), West Virginia’s Neal Brown (Rd. 3, Pick 4), SMU’s Sonny Dykes (Rd. 3, Pick 5) and Florida State’s Mike Norvell — formerly of Memphis (Rd. 3, Pick 6).
Naturally, Harbaugh has an Ohio State problem which has kept the Wolverines from achieving many of their goals. But to put him behind many of the aforementioned — not to mention others like Boise State’s Bryan Harsin and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, fine coaches who don’t have to contend with a yearly juggernaut — seems like the voters aren’t taking into account the difficulty that comes with facing a powerhouse in the Buckeyes, along with Penn State and Wisconsin, every year.