by Football championships are well within reach this year for both John and Jim Harbaugh. The historic narrative of the brothers facing each other in the 2013 Super Bowl was practically the last time we mentioned the two in the same sentence. Flash forward to today and both guys are on the cusp of hoisting championship trophies for their respective teams.
Over the past month, Baltimore has emerged as the Super Bowl front runner as John and the Ravens dominated the Dolphins 56-19 on Sunday to lock up the No. 1 seed in the AFC. John also has an MVP quarterback in Lamar Jackson playing the best ball of his career.
For Jim, he’s faced a lot more scrutiny and public pressure in the recent past. First, he couldn’t get the Ohio State monkey off his back after losing the first five meetings as the head man at Michigan. Once that problem was solved, he dropped two straight CFP semifinal games, making people wonder if he could ever win a big game. That’s until last night when the Wolverines finally got over the hump after beating Alabama 27-20 in an OT thriller to punch their ticket to the national title game.
There are a lot of parallels between the two brothers and teams as well. For starters, John and Jim are definitely “unique” in the way they carry themselves: old school, fiery, blunt, methodical, and, well, kind of abnormal. One is reserved and quirky while the other is rather temperamental and hated because of a sign stealing scandal. But regardless of what you think about the two head coaches, they simply just win.
From a team standpoint, Michigan’s defense directly resembles Baltimore’s in terms of schemes and structure, and both offenses are run-oriented and compliment their quarterback’s style. The two teams are consistently physical, tough, disciplined and play clean games (rarely beat themselves). The Ravens and Michigan are both top-10 teams in the NFL and college on an annual basis too.
John and Jim are also two under appreciated head coaches in my opinion, and never receive enough praise from the mainstream media or public like they should. Their accolades should paint the picture for you…
John Harbaugh:
- 160-98 (.620) regular season record
- 11–9 (.550) playoff record
- 1 Super Bowl championship
- 1 AFC championship (3 appearances)
- 4 AFC North championships
- 1x Coach of the Year
- Most ever road playoff wins by a head coach: 8
- Future Hall of Famer
Jim Harbaugh:
NFL
- 3 straight NFC title game appearances (49ers missed playoffs 8 years in a row before his hiring)
- 1 Super Bowl apperance
- Never had a losing record in 4 years in NFL
COLLEGE
- Took over a Stanford program that went 1-11 and had five straight losing seasons before he arrived (went 12-1 in fourth year)
- 88-25 at Michigan (10+ win seasons in first two years)
- 3 College Football Playoff appearances
- 1 national championship appearance
The “HarBros” are some of the best football coaches on earth and there’s a strong chance we could see them both win chips at the professional and collegiate levels this year. Whether you love them or hate them, it’s time to fully respect these two men and what they are accomplishing.
P.S. I’m a Steeler fan!