Looks like Tanny/Woody flirted with Jim Harbaugh before settling on Rex. They're both great coaches with good defensive minds but the one big difference is I can NEVER see Rex dumping his starting QB (Alex Smith) for a young upstart in Colin Kapernick. Putting the team's future ahead of current loyalties is one area Harbaugh stands head and shoulders above Rex. Of course, it's easier to be disloyal when you have Kapernick standing next to you on the sidelines. Jets missed out on Jim Harbaugh By DAVID SATRIANO Last Updated: 2:16 AM, January 22, 2013 Posted: 12:30 AM, January 22, 2013 Jets Blog Four years ago, when the Jets hired Rex Ryan as head coach, he vowed they would win the Super Bowl and visit President Obama in the White House. That hasn’t happened yet, but another coach the Jets secretly interviewed at that time, Jim Harbaugh, may get that chance. Harbaugh was head coach at Stanford when the Jets were looking for a new coach in 2009. When Jets brass flew to Arizona to interview Russ Grimm of the Cardinals, they secretly also flew to California to meet with Harbaugh. Shortly after the interview, Harbaugh took himself out of the running and was quoted on the Stanford website as saying: “In response to persistent reports speculating my interest in other coaching positions, I would like to unequivocally state that I am 100 percent committed to Stanford and I look forward to leading this football program for years to come.” After dismissing himself from the opening, Harbaugh returned to Stanford posting a 20-6 record over two seasons, including a win in the 2011 Orange Bowl. That’s when his stock really rose, and he hasn’t disappointed. The 49ers, who are 24-7-1 since he became coach, have made back-to-back NFC Championship Games after not being in the playoff since 2002. They advanced to the Super Bowl after a 28-24 win over the Falcons. Harbaugh will square off against his older brother, John, who is the coach of the AFC champion Ravens. As for the Jets, who opted for Ryan, they have gone in the opposite direction. Ryan’s last two seasons have left fans calling for his firing as the Jets have failed to make the playoffs, while Harbaugh has been one of the more successful coaches in the league since then. Ryan did make the AFC Championship Game in his first years as coach, but his win total has regressed each of the past two seasons, as the Jets were 8-8 in 2011, and 6-10 this season.
I don't think Harbaugh would have done much more with this team than Rex. Unless you can argue that the personnel moves would have been different with another coach.
If Rex Ryan drafted Kapernick, I could absolutely see a change in the QB position. I think he would of benched Alex Smith, because Kap is easily put the better QB. Sanchez was the best available option we had on this team. I respect Rex for standing pat on his decision.
Misleading thread title. Harbaugh took himself out of the running, which means they actually couldn't have had him.
Thread title was less-misleading than the actual Article Title: 'Jets missed out on Harbaugh'. Plus who knows, the 'Harbaugh interview' was done in secret while on another interview trip. Maybe if Tanny/Rex actually put their money where their 'secret agenda' was, it could have been different. Meeting someone in secret for 15 minutes over a cup of Starbucks fluffy Cappuccino is far different than making it public and interview someone for 8 hours in a place that matters.
Why don't you think the interview was secret based on Harbaugh's insistence? The Jets at the time were all about publicizing every single damn thing they did during that coaching search. Hell, they put out a press brief stating that they would do anything possible to get Cowher out of retirement. Now they're gonna go all secretive to interview a college coach? Yeah, that smells like horseshit. The Jets had nothing to lose by interviewing Harbaugh. But when college HCs start interviewing with NFL teams, their ADs start looking for replacements and recruits start wondering if they picked the right school.
I hate threads like this. People start these threads as if they knew all along that they guy we could have had was their choice all along. Hindsight gives us all the benefit of seeing what worked out and what didn't. Unfortunately, there is no way of really knowing until the guy has been doing his job for a few years. Hell, Rex led this team to 2 AFC championship games, and Jets fans everywhere were sucking his d!ck every time he unzipped his pants. Now that he hasn't had that success the past couple years, he is a bum, and Woody is an idiot for "passing" on Harbaugh. It's nonsence. And I'm not targeting the OP of this thread. I have mad respect for FG214. But these types of threads really don't add anything. They just serve to allow Jets fans to bash without cause. There is enough issues with this team that we don't need to make up more stuff to be pissed about.
With all the respect to Jim Harbaugh, IMHO Rex Ryan is a far superior head coach and better person. Period. There is no question about it. He (and Mike) pushed out Brett Favre, whose name was much bigger than Alex Smith. He started his young QB right away, comparing to Jim who waited so long to give Kaepernick a chance. Rex is the best thing ever happened to this organization in recent years. Please don't have second thought, cause that sounds silly.
I agree - except that Rex had stated in multiple quotes that if they didn't draft a QB he would have had Farve come back. That to me would have been a dream scenario - Favre repairing his arm w/ surgery and playing like he did in Minny with our 09 defense - Superbowl...
Ehh.. this doesn't bug me at all. Yes he has a good football mind but you can say the same for anyone who isn't in the SuperBowl that could of used a better HC I'm still on board with Rex great defensive mind if our new OC has his own thing and is reliable our team will be fine just need to full holes.
You know if we hadn't hired Weeb Ewbank in 1965 we coulda had Don Shula. All we had to do was push Ewbank somehow to the Bills and Shula probably would have jumped to us when his little brother thing took over and he had to prove to the world that Weeb wasn't the boss of him. Thirty years of hall of fame coach and we blew it!
As a former QB no way Harbaugh goes into 2011 and 2012 with brunnell and tebow as the backup. The guy benched arguably a top 5 stat wise QB for an unknown Kapernick, things would've been much different under Harbaugh.
Man how different this franchise's history could have been. Especially because of how realistic it would have been to draft them.
Rex isn't an awful coach, he just is clueless when it comes to offense. So, Harbaugh would have been better in that sense. However, the defense will be a top 5 defense next year once they replace the OLB's. If the offense does anything, this is an 8 win team. And if they hit the jackpot like the Colts did in rebuilding their offense, this team can win 11 games next year (although, there is obviously no Andrew Luck, so they will need a Russell Wilson like player in round 2 or 3).
If rex's first 2 Jet teams played in the NFC West he'd have 2 div titles too and a SB app at the least. If we had harbaugh we would have had similar success at best b/c no one is beating NE out for the division so we'd be a WC team. also rememebr, 2 years ago rex was Harbaugh. he was this beloved, great coach but we have a down year and now many think he sucks.
