We often have tons of insights into the day-to-day behind being a great football coach. Those are the types of results you see on the field day in and day out during their tenures.

But let's not forget: Coaches delegate, ramp up responsibility, teach, and work with their staff to make them better and get them ready for the next steps in their careers, just like in the business world. We saw it with Harbaugh and David Shaw at Stanford. We're seeing it now with Harbaugh and Moore, as well as with Herbert and Tress. 

Each coach infuses his own philosophy into the machinations of football, but the football community writ large often loses sight of the managerial aspects of coaching, along with the fact that they're not just coaching players. They're building their tree. 

Sometimes, you see the tenets of a mentor in the philosophy of a budding coach, and it doesn't completely work. Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, Eric Mangini...those are perfect examples of the Belichick tree not working the way we expected to. The fact is, I didn't really have Belichick figured for much of a manager or mentor. He's much more of a Football Mind™️ than a teacher. 

This is fascinating to me, because I think in general, college is a much better arena for teaching than the NFL. Kids are learning to be better players and better adults, and the coaches are there to instill different values than you see on NFL rosters. The players traditionally haven't been making millions of dollars for their abilities, and they're at a stage of development that requires a more human, even nurturing, approach.

It's similar to how I felt at the beginning of my career as a Copywriter at an advertising agency. My first year, I spent figuring out how to write, who to talk to, how to hone my strategic chops. I had talent, but I was figuring out how to apply it. For coaches as young as Tress and Moore, that's very similar to transitioning from player to coach. The mind is there, but the big-picture conversations hadn't yet started. Their focus had been singular. As coaches, their worlds begin to expand. 

As a burgeoning copywriter, you learn from your Creative Directors, strategists, colleagues...you take in everything you can. There's a lot of emphasis on being "hungry" in advertising, making you want to move on to bigger things, do the work that takes you to the next step, and makes you great. Usually, that's a euphemism for working long hours and not getting paid. Luckily, we don't have to worry about that here. 

As a Manager of Coaches, Harbaugh has a track record of using old hands (Drevno, Warriner, etc.) when he needs something urgently, but he also brings in younger minds when he has time to develop, train, and develop. 

Sherrone Moore is a great example of this. In five years, Moore went from TE Coach to Co-OC/OL coach, to OC, and now head coach. He has been fast tracked, partially due to the untimely departure of Matt Weiss, partially due to winning two consecutive Joe Moore awards, partially due to a whole bunch of other qualities we're about to see on full display in the years to come. 

Ben Herbert is a trainer by nature. Sure, his primary medium is strength and conditioning, but he's spent the last 5 years working with Justin Tress to train his abilities as a coach. 

A lot of this comes from Harbaugh as a manager. More than anyone I can think of in the public eye, we've seen him work to help coaches to succeed. After Jedd Fisch, Biff Poggi, David Shaw, et al. have moved onward and upward to the ranks of head coaches, Jesse Minter is now an NFL DC, and Ben Herbert has grown into an NFL S&C guy (which...I guess they exist now...). Saban hired complete coaches who needed jobs: Lane Kiffin, Tommy Rees, Bill O'Brien, Steve Sarkisian...It doesn't seem like he's taught anyone since Kirby Smart, and that's debatable. 

I'd argue that Harbaugh, more than any other coach in college football, believes in management and mentorship of COACHES. He made hires not just based on output, but on potential (see: Minter), he puts them in places to succeed (giving Minter, Hart, and Moore all gameday coaching responsibilities), and then he advocates for their advancement. Harbaugh has been saying for years that Sherrone Moore is ready for the next step in his career. This was not an accident. This was motivation, it was mentorship, and it was support from a manager. Harbaugh is not gone from the program. His legacy is still in big block letters behind Moore, who takes up the mantle.

Maybe it's because I'm closer to Michigan than I am to other programs. Maybe there's really something here. But not only am I optimistic about the direction of the program, I believe this was part of what Harbaugh saw as the goal when he took over as Head Coach. The Rodriguez and Hoke eras had left the coaching tree cupboard bare, and it was Harbaugh's job to create a new lineage for Michigan coaches. 

Now, the new lineage is here. Those who stay will be champions. And the best part? Some of them already are.