We Currently Live in a World Where Jim Harbaugh Could Become the Browns Coach, Putting Ohio State Fans into a Mental Pretzel
Michigan fans have rapidly turned against Coach Jim Harbaugh since Ohio State thumped them 62–39 in Colombus last November. But after Wisconsin demoralized them on Saturday 35–14, things have really heated up.
In fairness, college football is a crazy world. Fans live and die with each game in a way that can’t be replicated in any other sport. One loss can put a teams playoff hopes at risk, and two losses is a death sentence, so anytime you drop a game, the fans go nuts. But, it looks like the locker room is starting to turn on Coach Harbaugh:
Losing the locker room is almost a guaranteed death sentence. With fans, if you can rattle off a couple of wins, you can win us back, in fact, if he beats Ohio State they’ll probably extend his contract and build him a statue. But if the players give up on the coach, winning becomes a difficult task especially with the schedule they have this year:
Based on how they played against Army and Wisconsin, there looks like 6 more potential losses on this list.
vs Iowa
@ Penn State
vs Notre Dame
@ Maryland
vs Michigan State
vs Ohio State
The Jim Harbaugh era is certainly in jeopardy. Say they go 3–3 here including their seventh consecutive loss to Ohio State (four of which belong to Harbaugh). That leaves them 8–4, coming off a year where they expected to win the Big Ten and go to the playoff. That might not sound too bad, but a fan base like Michigan demands excellence and in a lot of respects, Jim Harbaugh has not met that expectation.
That takes us to the Cleveland Browns, who at the very least, aren’t thrilled with how Coach Freddie Kitchens has been handling the Lamborghini that is the Browns Offense, starring Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr, Jarvis Landry, and Nick Chubb:
The tweets go on and on and on. The point is that Freddie Kitchens is not getting the job done, which should surprise no one seeing as he has had zero head coaching experience. His resume includes being the Quarterback Coach of the 2016 Browns who famously went 0–16. The next year he was promoted (demoted?) to Runningbacks Coach where the team really hit their stride with an impressive 1–15 record. Hoping to ride this momentum, in 2018 the Browns fired Head Coach Hugh Jackson and promoted none other than Freddie Kitchens. Currently, the Browns sit at 1–2, but the difference is, this year they are actually talented. None of there top guys were on these 2016 or 2017 teams, its a totally new team with the same exact results. Browns fans hoped to make the playoffs this year and three weeks later their dreams have been crushed. Again we are only 3 weeks into the season, maybe they turn everything around and Freddie Kitchens becomes a great coach, you never know, but for the sake of this blog, let's say he also gets fired.
All the sudden a franchise with a lot of offensive talent, a young quarterback with a winning mentality, and a desire to win is looking for a head coach just as Jim Harbaugh is looking for a job. This is a perfect situation for both sides, Harbaugh was a quarterback and has a track record of developing quarterbacks (Andrew Luck, Alex Smith, Collin Kaepernick). He is as offensive-minded as a coach can get running high tempo spread offenses highlighting talented receivers, maybe receivers like Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry? There's only one thing hindering this beautiful romance:
Ohio State fans HATE Michigan and everything affiliated with it, including Jim Harbaugh.
The week of The Game the school crosses out each “M” on every sign, statue, or monument across the entire campus.
Furthermore, Ohio State fans won’t even dare say “Michigan” out loud, instead referring to them as “The Team Up North”.
What does Ohio State have to do with any of this? Well, the Venn diagram of Ohio State fans and Cleveland Browns fans is more or less just a circle. On Saturday they paint their faces Scarlett and Gray and on Sunday they put on their dog masks. These people wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. On one hand, they want to laugh at poor Michigan for not being able to compete with them, but on the other hand, the loser who couldn’t lead Michigan to the promised land, is now the guy they beg takes them to the Super Bowl.
I know there's a lot of speculation and jumping to wild conclusions here, but they say sports are the worlds greatest drama, and I am here for this drama to play itself out.
