Jim Tressel takes shot at Jim Harbaugh, calls out lack of success in The Game

On3 imageby:Griffin McVeigh01/24/22

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Spanning over the entire history of college football, the Michigan Wolverines are the sport’s winningest program. Only two coaches have a losing record during their tenure in Ann Arbor and five coaches have won national championships.

Jim Harbaugh has found somewhat of the same success, currently having a 38-14 overall record as the Michigan head coach since being hired in 2015. However, a lot of those losses have come against fierce rivals, the Ohio State Buckeyes. To add on, the Wolverines have only contended for one championship over the past seven years.

Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel was recently on the 1 Star Recruits podcast and discussed Harbaugh’s legacy. He said since the head coach has not been able to beat the Buckeyes consistently, his image with Michigan fans will be tarnished.

“Because of his lack of winning in The Game and lack of winning in the postseason, that makes it tougher to have a win-loss legacy,” Tressel said. “I really don’t know what his legacy is with his student-athletes and what the relationships are and so forth. And that’s the ones that last the longest anyway. The public is going to assess – as they should – the win-loss records. But the impact that you have with your students, that’s really what your record is and honestly, I’m not sure what those relationships are.

“So, I guess I’ve got to give him a 1 star on the win-loss thing.”

Harbaugh finally broke through during the 2021 season and beat Ohio State, sending Michigan to the Big Ten Championship game. However, the overall record comes out to 1-5 against head coaches Urban Meyer and now Ryan Day, not exactly something to be bragging about.

Latest on Jim Harbaugh NFL rumors

Harbaugh may not even have the opportunity to improve his record against Ohio State, with a move to the NFL still a real possibility. ESPN’s Dan Graziano gave an update on where things stood with the head coach and the Las Vegas Raiders.

“The Las Vegas Raiders and Jim Harbaugh have kind of been connected in rumors and speculation, etc., for the last month or so,” Graziano said. “My understanding on where this stands, Harbaugh has had contract talks with Michigan, that there is an offer on the table that he could take but hasn’t yet, and that he remains intrigued by the idea of returning to the NFL where he was very successful with the 49ers and doing so as the coach of the Raiders.

“Look, everybody I’ve talked to have said the same thing: ‘It is very hard to predict Jim Harbaugh.’ But there’s real interest both ways, the question is whether it results in him getting the Raiders job or whether they decide it’s not the right time and they look elsewhere. But this is the spot to watch for Jim Harbaugh if he’s coming back into the NFL this year.”