Hype machine? You realize that Michigan early in the season beat Colorado - a team that will be playing for the PAC championship? That they crushed Penn State by 39? That they beat Wisconsin? That they beat Sparty by nine in East Lansing? Yes, they caught some scheduling breaks, but they matched the Buckeyes win-for-signature-win. That's not hype, that's on the field performance.
What has he ever won? Let's start with taking a miserable 49er team and getting them within a Ted Ginn fumble of the Super Bowl and within a bad no call of the Super Bowl Championship the next year. How many NFL coaches have that on their resume? or how about this for turning a moribund Stanford program around:
"Although many remember Appalachian State toppling Michigan at the Big House as the upset of the 2007 season, based on the point spread, Stanford over USC is the biggest upset in College Football history.
Maybe the biggest reason for the difference between a 42-0 drubbing in 2006 and a 24-23 victory in 2007 was the head coach, Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh replaced Walt Harris in December of 2006 and the latter left Stanford with the lowest winning percentage of any coach in school history (.261). Under Harris, Stanford was a team without an identity. That all changed when Jim Harbaugh came...
How many times did Ohio State beat Pete Carroll and USC?
The 2010 season brought more success for Harbaugh and the Cardinal. The team went 11–1 in the regular season, with their only loss coming from Oregon, a team that was undefeated and earned a berth in the BCS National Championship Game. The first 11 win season in program history earned the Cardinal a #4 BCS ranking and a BCS bowl invitation to the Orange Bowl. Stanford defeated Virginia Tech 40–12 for the Cardinal's first bowl win since 1996 and the first BCS bowl victory in program history.[112] Second year starting quarterback Andrew Luck was the runner-up to for the Heisman Trophy, the second year in a row that the runner-up was from Stanford. Harbaugh was named the winner of the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year Award.[113]
Now we can point and say things like "Well, yeah, but he had Andrew Luck..." but then you also need accept that he won twenty games with Wilton Speight and a kid that couldn't start at Iowa.
We don't have the ten year data to compare him to Bo or Woody, and his personality may prevent that from happening. However, it's good to remember that it took Woody five years to win the Big Ten, a Rose Bowl and an NC. Over his career Woody was 4 and 4 in 8 Rose Bowl appearances. Behavior? "Late in the 1971 rivalry game against Michigan in Ann Arbor, furious over what he thought was a missed defensive pass interference foul committed by Thom Darden of Michigan, Hayes stormed onto the field, launched a profane tirade at referee Jerry Markbreit, and tore up the sideline markers, receiving a 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. Hayes then threw the penalty flag into the crowd, began destroying the yard markers and threw the first-down marker into the ground like a javelin before being restrained by Buckeyes team officials; Hayes was then assessed an additional 15-yard penalty and ejected. Hayes was suspended for one game and fined $1,000.[14]" This is 1971 - six years before Hayes would take swing at Charlie Bauman.
Finally, he came into Ohio Stadium, into a hostile home field, and had the Buckeyes on the ropes for all but the final five minutes of the game. Maybe he doesn't fit your definition of a closer and maybe he never wins an NC, but he's a far better coach than most of the folks out there.
Do I like Harbaugh? Hardly. He's obnoxious. His sideline mannerisms are immature. His criticism of the refs is uncalled for. BUT, he doesn't throw his players under the bus like a certain Leprechaun in South Bend, he's made Michigan relevant again in just two years, and while JT has slipped in skills, Rudock and Speight got better. He's a sure fire bet to do something crazy that will get him bounced from Ann Arbor, but it's pure hubris to brush off Michigan and Hairball as irrelevant.
