Four Years ago I sat in my room and watched the TV as the
anchors on ESPN (I forget who they were on that day) and they were talking
about the hottest coaching commodity in the game. Stanford Cardinal HC Jim
Harbaugh, who had blazed himself a trail through college football. He was a QB
coach with the Raiders and was very successful at the job, then he went on to
coach the San Diego State Aztecs and I believe he led them to a 11 win season
and made them a consistent bowl team and relevant in the world of college
football. Then he moved on to Stanford where he took a team and school that was
known for academics and not football and made them a powerhouse within the Pac
10. He first did this by dropping the biggest guy in the yard (USC) with a two
win team. Then by taking the team to multiple BCS bowls even though they fell
short of the National title game multiple times during his tenure. But today I
was watching as my San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins make bids to reel
in a hot coaching commodity and boy did they battle? With Miami offering as
much as $10M dollars a year, But alas Jim decided to stay local and signed a
5yr $25M deal with my favorite NFL team the 49ers…
The next four years were a blur of fun and success, in his 1st
year he helped Alex Smith revive his career that had been marred in
disappointment and failed expectations of a #1 pick. Not in 2011 though Jim and
Alex led the 49ers to a 13-3 season a #2 seed (GB finished 15-1) and took them
on a trip to the first of 3 straight NFC Championship games. He revived his
rivalry with Pete Carroll from their days inn the Pac 10 and made the 49ers
relevant in today’s NFL. In his 2nd year he did the unthinkable and
led the team not only back to the NFC Championship game but this time after a
win over the Falcons he reached the Super Bowl. He would face his own brother and
after a battle that looked lost ended in near victory. Jim walked away knowing
that this team had given him everything but it just wasn’t enough. In his 3rd
season the old rivalry that Jim had dominated for so long came back to bite him
in the butt as Pete and the Seahawks were able to beat the 49ers in Seattle on
a last second play to go on and do what the 49ers could not an win a Super Bowl
in dominating fashion…
In what would be his final year all the signs pointed to the
4th year being his final year, all of the usual ESPN pundits were
saying that basically he was gone. As I watched this team struggle through this
season and finish it 8-8. The writing was on the wall was that the Jim Harbaugh
era in San Francisco was coming to a close. This upset me because I said all of
the things that most people would that the 49ers front office were idiots for
parting ways with him. Then I began to think about it like a grown up and
realize that football is a business like any other and after a 4 year run maybe
things got too tense between Jim and the front office. Just maybe Jim wasn’t as
awesome of a guy as I gave him credit for. At the end of the day it didn’t/doesn’t
matter because Harbaugh is no longer the HC of the San Francisco 49ers. He has
moved on to his “dream job” as the HC of the University of Michigan
Wolverines!! I expect that he will do well there the same as he has done everywhere
else that he has gone and I wish him the best. Now that leaves a very good
49ers team coming off of a bad year with no leadership, Who will steer the
ship? That’s up to two guys Trent Ballke and Jed York and they have made good
decisions in the past and I hope they will make the right choice now….
If you want to listen
to the Double K’s Classrrom show on the 4ACES network…
Every other Friday
nights at 8pm PST/ 11pm EST
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