I'll preface this by saying I'm on record as saying harbrau is a "good" coach. Good, yes. Great, no. Now, a couple points of order...
I'm a Niners fan, so I feel I'm qualified to speak to this. He walked into a 49ers job that had a pretty stacked roster...especially on defense. They had been the victim of AWFUL coaching for years. Mike Nolan, and Mike Singletary...nuff said. Now, he deserves credit for making Alex Smith a serviceable NFL QB. But that was a former #1 overall pick, and lets not pretend he made him a superstar. He made him a game manager. Early on, it looked like he struck gold with Kaepernick. However, he and his OC (Greg Roman) made a grave error by trying to make Kap a pocket QB. Directly in conflict with what made Kap so effective early on. I point to that decision as the fulcrum point for his downfall in SF. Also, one of my big criticisms of him today, and when he was in SF is that he is not a good big game coach. He puckers up BIG TIME in pressure situations. Your cited SB appearance is a prime example. He has them 1st and Goal at the Ravens goalline with the game on the line. Instead of utilizing a bruising running game that was a hallmark of his SF teams, behind one of the best OL's in the league, he inexplicably calls FOUR pass plays. FOUR passes, ZERO runs on the goal line. Baffling. His teams got worse/sloppier each year. By year four, he had a near mutiny on his hands and I wouldn't have rated him as a top-10 coach in the NFL. 2014 was filled with poor performances, and maddening coaching decisions all year.
A CU team that was handling them until their starting QB got injured. If that QB doesn't get knocked out of the game, I feel they win that game, as their offense fell apart with the backup.
I'll give them credit for beating ped aggy. Howeva, it's worth noting they beat them at home. Playing them at home is a different animal than on the road, in a night game. Wiscy, again at home...a different animal than at Camp Randall under the lights. Sparty was a clunker for us on par with their Iowa clunker. Difference is we found a way to win. We also beat an Oklahoma team, on the road, that is now a top-10 team. If you wanna look at the body of work wrt to schedules, we have the more impressive body of work. If you factor in the makeup of the teams (scum's experience vs. our abundance of youth/inexperience), it's amplified even more so.
* That was Kyle Williams, not Teddy Ginn.
I'm a Niners fan, so I feel I'm qualified to speak to this. He walked into a 49ers job that had a pretty stacked roster...especially on defense. They had been the victim of AWFUL coaching for years. Mike Nolan, and Mike Singletary...nuff said. Now, he deserves credit for making Alex Smith a serviceable NFL QB. But that was a former #1 overall pick, and lets not pretend he made him a superstar. He made him a game manager. Early on, it looked like he struck gold with Kaepernick. However, he and his OC (Greg Roman) made a grave error by trying to make Kap a pocket QB. Directly in conflict with what made Kap so effective early on. I point to that decision as the fulcrum point for his downfall in SF. Also, one of my big criticisms of him today, and when he was in SF is that he is not a good big game coach. He puckers up BIG TIME in pressure situations. Your cited SB appearance is a prime example. He has them 1st and Goal at the Ravens goalline with the game on the line. Instead of utilizing a bruising running game that was a hallmark of his SF teams, behind one of the best OL's in the league, he inexplicably calls FOUR pass plays. FOUR passes, ZERO runs on the goal line. Baffling. His teams got worse/sloppier each year. By year four, he had a near mutiny on his hands and I wouldn't have rated him as a top-10 coach in the NFL. 2014 was filled with poor performances, and maddening coaching decisions all year.
He deserves credit for making Stanford a solid program. However, he had one really good year there with a generational QB. He did upset USC, but he had a number of bad losses too.
Here's the thing, and I think this is what most of us take exception with...yes, he won 20 games with what appear to be average QBs. However, that was mostly against some pretty bad teams. His record against good teams isn't sterling. 0-2 vs. tOSU. Lost to Sparty last year, beat a BAD sparty team this year. Lost to Utah last year. Lost to Iowa this year. When he plays good teams, he's not winning at a rate a supposed "elite" coach should. Everybody likes to make a big deal about him coaching Hoke's kids. Well, Hoke recruited pretty well for the same systems that Harbrau runs. It's not like he was walking into a huge mess, roster-wise. They were highly regarded recruits that needed somebody to actually coach them.
Yes he did. His team played very well for three quarters. But that 4th Q and OT were classic Harbrau. He puckered up, lost his cool, and his team pissed a way what for all intents and purposes should have been a romp. His "veteran" team got outplayed in crunchtime by a bunch of kids, and he was outcoached by an ELITE coach.
I don't think anybody is saying he's "irrelevant", I think "overrated" is the sentiment. I know I'm willing to say he's a "good" coach. I've stated numerous time he's worlds better than the last two clowns they've had. But the results don't match the hype. In two of the last three games, when the chips were down, his teams blew it. That was his hallmark in the NFL, and in his first two years at scUM. Whoop the losers, pucker up against the good teams when it counts. I said earlier this week, I think Harbrau will have them in contention in the B1G most years, and get them to 9-11 wins regularly. However, until he proves otherwise, I'll continue to believe he lacks the makeup to win the big ones...which is what he was brought in for.
Upvote
0
