great moments in harbaugh

Harbaugh has been voted the year’s best coach in the country by the Associated Press.

BREAKING: Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is The Associated Press college football coach of the year, finishing ahead of Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell and others.

Full story and voting breakdown of the award presented by @askRegions: https://t.co/Q3970Z12yu pic.twitter.com/GTnyPKk9cg

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 10, 2021

Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, who took the Bearcats to the playoffs and an undefeated regular season, finished second. Harbaugh received a plurality (22) first place votes of the 53 cast, with Fickell (16), Baylor's Dave Aranda (5) MSU's Mel Tucker (4), and Utah State's Blake Anderson (3) the others receiving more than one vote.

The Football Writers Association of America also named Harbaugh a finalist for their Coach of the Year award, which will be announced on December 20. The FWAA often, but not always, chooses the same winner as the AP. Harbaugh was also Pro Football Focus's choice for the award.

CoY awards usually go to coaches of small schools having historic seasons or coaches of blue blood programs bouncing back from historic lows. Performance relative to expectations is a (de facto) primary component. The last ten AP CoYs were Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina), Ed Orgeron (LSU), Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Scott Frost (UCF), Mike MacIntyre (Colorado), Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Garry Patterson (TCU), Gus Malzahn (Auburn), Brian Kelly again, and Les Miles (LSU). Harbaugh is the first Michigan head coach to win the AP’s designation, which they’ve been giving out since 1998 (Bill Snyder). The FWAA winners of those years were the same except they chose Bill Clark (UAB) over Kelly in 2018, Kirk Ferentz (Iowa) over Swinney in 2015, and Mike Gundy (Ok St) over Miles in 2011.

Clearly, Harbaugh falls in the latter category. After his 2-4 season in 2020, Harbaugh agreed to a restructured to make him easier to buy out. That also occurred well into January, IE after the NFL coaching carousel stopped spinning. Harbaugh jettisoned several longtime and grizzled assistants—including at OL coach and defensive coordinator—replacing them with guys in their 30s in the mold of his recently Broyles-winning OC Josh Gattis. Needless to say most of the fanbase, including this space, were not optimistic that the gambles would work out.

Harbaugh and his young staff are now Big Ten champions, ranked #2 in the country with a 42-27 win over Ohio State and a berth in the college football playoffs. They’re currently ranked 4th in SP+, with the #16 defense and #7 defense to Bill Connelly, plus the #1 special teams unit to Brian Fremeau’s FEI.

The new contract does have a clause that pays Harbaugh a $75,000 bonus for winning this award, but since he decided to donate all of his bonuses this year to those who took a paycut in the athletic department during last year’s COVID cutbacks, that’s just more good news for them. Harbaugh finished one vote behind MSU head coach Mel Tucker for Big Ten coach of the year.

Previously: 1984 Miami, 1985 Notre Dame, 1985 South Carolina, 1985 Minnesota, 1985 Ohio State

The Highlights: WolverineHistorian

The Setup: Although Michigan finished second in the Big Ten to Iowa, their victory over Ohio State earned them a top-notch bowl bid; the fifth-ranked Wolverines would face off against the sixth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, who'd climbed as high as #2 in the polls before falling to Oklahoma in their regular season finale.

The Wolverines were looking for their tenth win of the season. Bo Schembechler also wanted to improve his 2-10 bowl record. He'd have to do it in his first matchup against Tom Osborne.

[Hit THE JUMP.]

Previously: 1984 Miami, 1985 Notre Dame, 1985 South Carolina, 1985 Minnesota

The Highlights: WolverineHistorian

The Setup: Despite giving up just three offensive touchdowns all season, Michigan entered The Game looking to prevent Ohio State from a chance at the Rose Bowl; a Buckeye win combined with an Iowa loss would send OSU to Pasadena because of M's last-second loss to the Hawkeyes five weeks prior. The Wolverines still had plenty to play for: avenging the previous year's 21-6 defeat to OSU and making another New Year's Day game.

While the leadup to the 1986 edition of The Game would live on in Michigan lore, the week before the 1985 version was pretty eventful, too. Bo Schembechler suspended kicker Mike Gillette and kickoff specialist Rick Sutkiewicz that week for unspecified violations of team rules, leaving redshirt junior Pat Moons, who'd never attempted a field goal in his career, to handle both jobs.

Ohio State had a wheelchair-bound Woody Hayes give a pep talk before the team made the trip up to Ann Arbor. Bo Schembechler one-upped his friend by bringing in... Bo Derek. Seriously, there's an archived LA Times piece with an incredible Harbaugh quote to prove it:

The last few days were particularly enjoyable. The Michigan coach's friend and namesake, Bo Derek, stopped in Michigan to pick up a custom-made Lincoln Continental at a local auto plant. The Schembechlers invited her to their home for dinner, and she also dropped by Thursday's practice.

Derek really didn't do much except pose for Polaroids with the players. Harbaugh taped his to his locker. "To see her was pretty impressive," the quarterback said. "Although she did look kind of nervous around so many big guys. It's probably because she's so short. Oooh. Maybe I'd better not say that."

Maybe not, but then you wouldn't be Jim Harbaugh, and we'd all be worse off.

[Hit THE JUMP.]