To this point, Harbaugh is this era's Tom Osborne of the 70's

Generally, I like Joel Klatt but I just saw a horrific take of Klatt's on his appearance on Cowherd where he compared Harbaugh to Washignton State coach Mike Leach...

No, no, no, no, no...just...no...

I made a comment here a few days ago where I compared Harbaugh's stint at Mchigan to the early years of Tom Osborne's stint at Nebraska. I expanded it into a commentary at another blog and now I'll post it here...I mean, everyone else has a hot take on that hot mess from last Saturday...why not me?

--------------------

After the 1972 season, Nebraska coach Bob Devaney retired to become athletic director at the University of Nebraska and handed the reins over to his assistant, Tom Osborne. Also, Oklahoma’s coach, Chuck Fairbanks, resigned as Oklahoma’s coach in order to take the job as head coach of the New England Patriots. Fairbanks’ offensive coordinator, Barry Switzer, was promoted to become the head coach at Oklahoma.

From 1973 to 1977, Barry Switzer’s Sooners went 5-0 against Osborne’s Cornhuskers...and, for the most part, the games were not even close. Switzer's Sooners beat Osborne's Cornhuskers by scores of 27-0, 28-14, 35-10, 20-17, and 38-7.

In fact, Nebraska did not even score a 4th quarter point in any of those games.

In those years, Nebraska remained a Top 10 team but could not win a Big Eight title simply because they could not beat Oklahoma.

Finally, in 1978, Osborne’s Cornhuskers beat Switzer’s Sooners and that series began to even out up until Switzer was fired...still, even while beating Oklahoma, some of Osborne’s finest teams came up against a new wall when they began to earn trips to the Orange Bowl (the destination of the Big Eight Conference champion) and the then-emerging programs at Miami and Florida State,

I would submit that after the 62-39 annihiliation that Ohio State put on Michigan in Columbus, this past Saturday, that Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is this era’s equivalent of Tom Osborne in the 1970’s.

TBH, Harbaugh’s task, to this point, has been a bit more difficult than Osborne’s when he took over Nebraska; after all, Nebraska was two years off of a national championship team and was going to major bowls while Harbaugh took over a moribund Michigan program and has returned it to some national prominence.

Osborne’s early ineptitude against Oklahoma in his coaching career did not make Osborne a bad coach then nor does Harbaugh’s ineptitude against Ohio State make him a bad coach now.

But...I have never seen such a talent-laden Michigan Wolverines team that was so poorly coached as I did last Saturday in my almost-forty years of beng a fan of Michigan Wolverines football.

But I definitely do not want Harbaugh to go down the road that Tom Osborne went down for the sake of national championships...it's a given that Urban Meyer has already begun trailblazing down the same road that Barry Switzer paved.