Was John Harbaugh the Right Choice for the Baltimore Ravens?

A month or so ago, the Baltimore Ravens hired John Harbaugh, an obscure NFL assistant coach better known as the brother of former NFL Quarterback Jim Harbaugh to be the new head coach. John Harbaugh had been special teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles since 1998, until being promoted to secondary coach a year ago.

Let's see, no head coaching experience, never been an offensive or defensive coordianator, let's hire him, that's the ticket! The Ravens have had good special teams units for most of their existence, along with an outstanding defense. The offense has been the thorn in the Ravens' side, so how is hiring a special teams coach going to solve that?

Special teams coaches in the NFL have not often had the opportunity to become head coaches. They get a lot of face time on the sidelines, but rarely move all the way up the ladder to head coach. Frank Gansz, Sr. is the only one who comes to mind right away. Gansz was head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs years ago, before Marty Schottenheimer turned the fortunes of that franchise around. Gansz was regarded as one of the greatest special teams coaches in NFL history, but simply didn't win enough as a head coach to keep his job.

Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' General Manager, has a good track record when it comes to the draft and had a major hand in the Ravens' run to the Super Bowl championship seven years ago, so maybe John Harbaugh is a diamond in the rough. Harbaugh's father Jack was a head coach at the collegiate level and brother Jim led Stanford to a huge upset of USC last fall, so the guy comes from good stock. It's just hard to fathom going from primarily a special teams coach to an NFL head coach with only a year as a secondary coach and no coordinator experience.