Jim Harbaugh, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins: What Are You Thinking?

Steve Spurrier.  Nick Saban,  Bobby Petrino.  Dennis Erickson.  Butch Davis.  Mike Riley.  Rich Brooks. 

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you read that list of names?  If you’ve followed the NFL over the past 15 years, you will know those are some of the most colossal head coaching failures the league has seen since the modern age of free agency kicked in. 

What else do those coaches have in common?  They all have been brought to the pros after spending most of their coaching years in the college game.

Yet, here we sit, observing two teams salivating and fighting over Jim Harbaugh.  Jim freaking Harbaugh, who has been coaching football for 17 years, but has had nothing more than a cup of coffee coaching in the NFL, spending less than two years as a position coach. 

And this is the best head coaching candidate the most powerful sports league in this country can find?  Seriously?

And of all teams to be grasping at this straw, the Dolphins and 49ers should know better.  It wasn’t that long ago that Nick Saban and Dennis Erickson left them both high and dry after two seasons apiece ate them up.  The fans in Miami and San Francisco should be rioting at the thought of another college coach.

Why are the positions of college head coach and NFL head coach so different now?  At one time, the college game was thought to be a good training ground for NFL head coaches.  However, that was in an age when the NFL was more similar to the college game, the modern age of free agency had not kicked in and "rah rah" speeches were more effective.

Today’s NFL player is much more sophisticated, as are the schemes and play-calling.  After many of the failed college coaches listed above left their teams or were fired, they were ridiculed by their own players for either not understanding how to motivate a pro or for not understanding the complexity of the pro game.

These owners and G.M.’s are hoping to find the next Jimmy Johnson.  I suppose if one of these teams can manage to trade Herschel Walker to the Vikings again for a lifetime of high draft picks, then maybe their college coach will stand a chance.