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Former QBs McElwain and Harbaugh took different paths to Florida and Michigan jobs
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The upcoming Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl in Orlando between No. 19 Florida (10-3) and No. 14 Michigan (9-3) will feature two of 2015’s most successful first-year coaches in Jim McElwain and Jim Harbaugh. The former quarterbacks turned Power 5 head coaches took radically different paths to get where they are today.
Here’s the timeline for the two hot-prospect coaches:
COLLEGE DAYS
Harbaugh and McElwain were both college quarterbacks, but the similarities end there.
As a junior, Harbaugh led the 1985 Wolverines to a 10-1-1 season. The following year, he guided UM to a 11-2 record, including a guaranteed victory over rival Ohio State. The Associated Press named Harbaugh its first-team All-Big Ten quarterback for 1986, and he finished third in Heisman Trophy voting. The Chicago Bears selected Harbaugh in the first round of the 1987 NFL draft with the No. 26 overall pick.
McElwain’s career, on the other hand, is less decorated and often glossed over in biographical references. He saw limited playing time at Eastern Washington from 1980-1983, but gained an understanding of the game that led him down the coaching path.
AFTER GRADUATION
Well off any professional team’s radar, McElwain’s only option to stay in football after graduating from EWU was to get into coaching as a graduate assistant. By 1987, McElwain became his alma mater’s quarterbacks and wide receivers coach. McElwain would spend the next 25 years as an offensive assistant at EWU, Montana State, Louisville, Michigan State, Oakland (NFL), Fresno State and Alabama. He accepted the head coaching position at Colorado State in December 2011.
In its last season before McElwain, CSU went 3-9. In the two seasons that followed a 4-8 debut (2012), McElwain took the Rams to back-to-back bowl games, posting records of 8-6 and 10-2 – a turnaround that caught the attention of UF athletics director Jeremy Foley.
Harbaugh’s NFL career lasted from 1987 into the 2001 season. During the later years of his playing days (1994-2001), he worked as an unpaid offseason recruiting assistant for his father Jack Harbaugh, who was then the head coach at Western Kentucky. The younger Harbaugh’s first paid assistant job was at the NFL level with Oakland as a quarterbacks coach for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
In 2004, Harbaugh became a college head coach at the University of San Diego. After a 29-6 three-year run at San Diego, Harbaugh moved on to Stanford. The Cardinal went 29-21 under Harbaugh, including a 12-1 campaign in 2010 that earned him national Coach of the Year honors.
After Stanford, Harbaugh took his talents to San Francisco to become the head coach of the 49ers. In San Francisco, Harbaugh went 44-19 in four seasons that included a trip to the 2013 Super Bowl, where he lost to the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his brother John Harbaugh. At the end of an 8-8 season in 2014, Harbaugh and the 49ers announced a mutual parting of ways.
FIXERS
The two Citrus Bowl coaches inherited similar situations with their current teams.
When McElwain accepted the Florida job, he took over a program unsatisfied with a 28-21 run over the previous four seasons. McElwain’s predecessor, Will Muschamp, notched an 11-2 season in 2012, but the temporary good feelings in Gainesville soured when the Gators went a dreadful 4-8 in 2013 and 6-5 in 2014.
Michigan went through a similar rough patch of disappointment before hiring Harbaugh. In 2011, head coach Brady Hoke led the Wolverines to an 11-2 season and a Sugar Bowl victory. It turned out to be a fluke, however, because the next three seasons (2012-2014) UM posted records of 8-5, 7-6 and 5-7.
By guiding their teams to 10-3 and 9-3 seasons, McElwain and Harbaugh have the Florida and Michigan fan bases buying into promising futures.
THE NEXT STEP
While a spot in the Citrus Bowl, the top bowl game outside the New Year’s Six for the SEC and Big Ten, is a sign of progress for Florida and Michigan, McElwain and Harbaugh both know it’s not going to be good enough at their respective schools in the long term.
As evidenced by the hot seat drama at Georgia and LSU, losing to rivals and Alabama doesn’t go over well in the SEC. Gator Nation is excited to see the football program moving in the right direction, but McElwain’s approval will fade if UF continues to come up short against FSU (27-2 loss in Week 13) and Alabama (29-15 SEC Championship loss).
It’s doubtful that the Wolverines faithful would ever completely turn against Harbaugh, a favorite son, but he will eventually be defined by how he fares against rivals Michigan State (27-23 loss in Week 7) and Ohio State (42-13 loss in Week 13). After dropping two of its biggest rivalry games this season, Michigan finds itself spending New Year’s in Orlando instead of Pasadena (Rose Bowl) or Dallas (playoff semifinal).
A Citrus Bowl victory will help McElwain or Harbaugh put an exclamation point on a solid rebuilding season and take momentum into their respective second years.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
