FIRST THINGS FIRST:49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh (inset, with brother John and father Jack) got his start in coaching while still an NFL quarterback, helping recruit players to Western Kentucky. (AP ()
FIRST THINGS FIRST: 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh (inset, with brother John and father Jack) got his start in coaching while still an NFL quarterback, helping recruit players to Western Kentucky, where his father was coach and earning him a night of celebration in his honor (above) in 1997. (Western Kentucky athletic media relations; AP (inset))
Long before he coached the 49ers to a Super Bowl XLVII meeting with the Ravens, Jim Harbaugh was known as “Captain Comeback” in the 1990’s for all the rallies he staged as an NFL quarterback.
Harbaugh’s greatest comeback, however, may have been the turnaround he helped engineer in the mid-to-late 1990’s at Western Kentucky, then a floundering Division I-AA program.
The Hilltoppers, coached by Harbaugh’s father, Jack, were in turmoil in 1994. After the program was nearly dropped, fresh off four losing seasons in five years, the football team’s budget was drastically cut and scholarships and coaching staff diminished.
“We were in desperate trouble,” Jack said on a conference call last week. “Other schools were using it against us in their recruiting. … I figured my coaching career was pretty much over.”
Jim Harbaugh wouldn’t let it happen.
Although still in the midst of his NFL career, Harbaugh offered his help as an unpaid volunteer assistant coach during the offseason, which allowed him to recruit the football hotbed of Florida out of his Orlando home. His older brother John, the current Ravens coach who was then an assistant at the University of Cincinnati, supplied contacts, recruiting targets that fit Western Kentucky and hours of highlight film. With that help, Jim infused the program with the talent it needed to not only become a winning program again, but win the 2002 Division I-AA national championship.
“There’s no question it was huge,” said David Elson, Western Kentucky’s defensive coordinator at the time, who is currently an assistant coach at New Mexico. “That gave us instant credibility, especially at a time when we were a program trying to take it up a notch. Without his influence as an NFL quarterback, there are a lot of things that couldn’t have gotten done.”
Willie Taggert, a quarterback and defensive back out of powerhouse Manatee High School in Bradenton, Fla., was the first name on Harbaugh’s list. The first time they spoke on the phone, Taggart initially didn’t believe he was indeed the same Jim Harbaugh he had watched play on Sundays.
“It was pretty unique to have an NFL quarterback calling you,” said Taggart, who was being recruited by elite programs as a defensive back.
Harbaugh’s recruiting approach was unique in itself. During his in-home visit, he took Taggart into his backyard to throw the football around. Word spread and soon the entire neighborhood was there, Harbaugh signing autographs and sharing NFL stories.
“To this day, when I go home, everyone asks ‘How’s Jim Harbaugh? I still remember when he recruited you,’ ” said Taggart, who became a starter his freshman year in 1995 and finished his career with 3,997 yards rushing (an NCAA record for quarterbacks at the time) with 47 rushing touchdowns and another 30 passing TDs. Taggart was Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator at Stanford and is now the head coach at South Florida
“[Harbaugh] wasn’t the typical NFL quarterback,” Taggart said. “He was a down-to-earth, genuine guy. The other coaches were the typical coaches, ‘How are you doing? My school is this and this.’ Jim was trying to get to know you personally and show you what he was all about. He made you feel at home.”
Former NFL players and Florida products Mel Mitchell and Rod Smart (famous as the XFL’s “He Hate Me”) echoed that sentiment. They were drawn to Harbaugh by his big name, but went to Western Kentucky because of his honesty and confidence in the program. Legendary Lakeland, Fla., coach Jim Castle said the entire school would be drawn to Harbaugh when he came to recruit.
“He was able to relate to a younger generation,” said Mitchell, a safety drafted by the Saints who also played for the Patriots. “He knew what to say, how to say it. He could sell you. You’re taking a chance, but you got that good feeling about being around him within minutes.”
Harbaugh wasn’t directly involved in coaching at Western Kentucky, but he would come around during the season when possible and offer his help. The quarterbacks and wide receivers would always perk up when they saw him — it meant run-heavy Western Kentucky would throw the ball more that upcoming week.
“He’d be on the sideline in his dad’s ear, ‘You got to throw this pass,’ ” Elson said with a laugh.
Jack would also have Jim speak to the team on the night before games on occasion. Those speeches were passionate, emotional and forceful — the kind of motivational talks he has given to the 49ers and will deliver the night before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“He always would hit the nail on the head,” Elson said. “You could tell it was in his blood.”
Smart said Harbaugh commanded the respect of his teammates as if he were already a coach.
“He always just gave guys confidence at what they were doing,” Smart said. “I just saw leadership in him.”
Western Kentucky became a big winner, capturing the 2002 Division I-AA title with 17 players Jim signed and Jack finished up on a 61-24 run. The program later moved up to Division I-A level in 2008.
Harbaugh retired the year Western Kentucky won the championship and immediately broke into coaching, a journey that began as an assistant coach for the Raiders, continued with head-coaching stints at the University of San Diego and Stanford before becoming the 49ers’ head coach.
On Sunday, more than 15 years after he got his start in coaching as a recruiter, he will lead his 49ers against brother John’s Ravens in New Orleans.
Harbaugh’s former recruiting targets aren’t surprised to see his meteoric rise up the college ranks.
“You saw greatness in him as a coach,” Smart said.