Saban and Meyer both managed to win NC's with inherited players. Harbaugh came into a gravy situation and still can't even win the conference. Some coaches have "it", some don't.
Yeah, but ask Vermeil what two teams he coached to a SB? See if he remembers.
5-7 is not a gravy situation. Come on. You have to give him some credit for getting those players on track. Those players were asscheecks two years ago and not awesome last year.
Infant stage is pretty strong, but I certainly think the program has room for improvement. I don't think it is at its peak.
Alright but you never answered the question, are the primary contributors to this team upper classmen? Should Texas have kept Charlie Strong because they were still in the "infancy stage"? Most coaches are given three years to get things going. Unlike many coaches starting out, there was lot of raw talent (two top ten classes) that just wasn't coached very well. Unless you are going to tell me that players like Peppers and Glassgow are horrible and useless players, then Harbaugh did have a solid base to start with.
A lot of those players were ruined by Hoke. See Smith, Kalis and Magnusen. A lot were off the team and/or never panned out. See Green, Morris and most of the OL classes from 2012 and 2013. The cupboard was much more bare than one realizes. Rich Rod was given more talent to work with. The 2014 and 2015 recruiting classes were god awful as well. How about actually looking up the players they had to rely on.
Before he was hired, with the mess given to him. Most analysts said 3 to 4 years. He has exceeded expectations. People are dumb asses expecting NC in two years. Should they have won the B1G knowing what we know and how much he really has exceeded expectation? Sure. Still doesn't take away the fact that he has the program on track much quicker than most of us imagined.
I don't get why other people don't see this. A lot of those Seniors and Juniors were overachieving. You have like 6 legit players for sure. But others had some weaknesses.
Saban was competing against a loaded, Meyer coached UF team in a super tough conference at the time and inherited Mike Shula's recruits. Harbaugh has it good comparatively.
Saban was hired slightly earlier in the process. He was able to get a legit recruiting class his first year in. Harbaugh missed one recruiting cycle. Also, Shula out recruited hoke his last year compared to Hoke's 2014 which sucked.
