Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh the college football version of Taylor Swift
Stanford is to Taylor Lautner
When Jim Harbaugh arrived in Paolo Alto, CA the Stanford Cardinal had not had a double-digit winning season since 1992 under legendary coach Bill Walsh. Walsh’s Cardinal won ten games in ’92, a feat that Dennis Green, Jack Elway, Walt Harris and Ty Willingham couldn’t match during their time in northern California.
When Harbaugh arrived in 2007, Stanford was coming off of a 1-11 season under Harris. Harbaugh finished his first season 4-8, followed by 5-7, and 8-5 before the breakout 12-1 season in 2010 culminating in the 40-12 Orange Bowl victory over the Virginia Tech Hokies. Harbaugh then left Paolo Alto for nearby Santa Clara to become the head football coach of the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL. Coincidentally or not this was the same path of former Stanford head coach Bill Walsh.
After her first album, Swift too dipped her toe into the power five by dating the multi-talented actor-singer Taylor Lautner. Swift’s album Fearless won Best Country Album and Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammy Awards. During that time she was dating Lautner, her co-star on the movie Valentine’s Day. After her breakup with Lautner, Swift went on to date rock vocalist and guitarist John Mayer and release “Speak Now,” while Lautner went on to star in the Twilight series, Cuckoo, and the vastly underrated campy series Scream Queens.
Mr. Lautner recovered after a Swift breakup much like Stanford recovered post-Harbaugh. The Cardinal promoted offensive coordinator David Shaw to head coach and Stanford has won seventy-three games in seven seasons with their worst output being an 8-5 season in 2014. Like Swift, Harbaugh moved on to a bigger name and while it had its perks it had its downfall as well.