Hlas: Harbaugh hire is win for Big Ten

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. - Thirteen other Big Ten schools may not want to hear it, but they're better off with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.

Let's put it this way: ESPN and Fox Sports 1 didn't cut into their regularly scheduled programming this month to air the press conferences of Wisconsin introducing Paul Chryst or Nebraska rolling out Mike Riley as their new head football coaches.

They did for Harbaugh and Michigan Tuesday. Harbaugh matters, all over the map. And when Michigan is strong, Michigan matters all over the map. Which means the Big Ten matters more. All over the map.

Before Tuesday, all that today's Big Ten consisted of in much of America's eyes was Ohio State. OSU is 24-0 in league play since Urban Meyer became coach, and will play Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Thursday.

As good as Michigan State has been over the last five years - and it has been excellent - it isn't Michigan. A big problem for Big Ten visibility is that Michigan had stopped being Michigan. A 5-7 record? Losing at home to Utah, Minnesota, Maryland? Incomprehensible.

The Wolverines' last Big Ten football title was in 2004, when it shared the crown with Iowa. The two programs have been virtually identical since then. Michigan is 42-38 in conference play over those last 10 seasons, Iowa 41-39.

Michigan changed coaches twice between 2007 and 2014, and didn't hire the right guy either time in Rich Rodriguez or Brady Hoke. Both can coach. Rodriguez will go for an 11th win this season when his Arizona team plays Boise State in Wednesday's Fiesta Bowl.

But they weren't Big Guys. And it takes a Big Guy to make the biggest programs hum. Meyer at Ohio State. Nick Saban at Alabama. Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, at least until this season's 8-5 aberration.

Harbaugh is a Big Guy, a football force of nature. He took over a Stanford program that had gone 1-11 in 2006 and had it going 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl four years later. He then moved to the San Francisco 49ers and had them in the NFC title game his first three years, and in the Super Bowl in his second season.

He will brashly stand up to Meyer the same way he did to USC's Pete Carroll when Harbaugh was at Stanford. He instantly makes Michigan relevant again, with the nation interested in what he says and does there.

'Jim's an excellent coach,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday before his team held its TaxSlayer Bowl practice at Fernandina Beach High School.

'I was actually with Jim in Baltimore. (Ferentz was a Ravens assistant coach in the late 1990s and Harbaugh was that team's starting quarterback in 1998.) Jim was a fearless player, a great leader. That's transcended to his coaching career. He's done a great job wherever he's been.”

In 2004, when Iowa and Michigan were enjoying what has been their most recent Big Ten title-shares, Harbaugh was a first-year head coach for the University of San Diego's non-scholarship FCS program.

Between then and now, he became one of the most impactful coaches in his sport. Now the Wolverines have him at a price of $5 million per year, a $2 million signing bonus, and a pile of incentives.

'Good for him,” said Ferentz, who may secretly be glad to have someone in his league 'dwarfing” his much-discussed $3.65 million per year plus incentives.

Michigan had no losing seasons between 1968 through 2007. It has had three since. Don't look for a fourth anytime soon.

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