"It's one week at a time, and things will fall into place," Jack Harbaugh said of his son's outlook. "We play this week, I'll go home and get three or four hours' sleep and now, we're presented with another situation."
The same perseverance and sense of self that helped Harbaugh climb the coaching ranks have impressed players during the Ravens' rebound from a 5-11 record in 2007.
"Unflinching," defensive tackle Trevor Pryce said when asked to describe Harbaugh's style. "He's very confident, and that's a good thing. That's the one thing you want in a coach. Sometimes, coaches give you lip service. But when he talks, you believe that he believes what he's saying."
"I haven't seen him blink an eye," said kicker Matt Stover, a veteran of 18 seasons who has spoken with Harbaugh about leadership. "Of course, he has to be like, 'Wow,' at where we are. But he knew coming in that this was the toughest job but the best, too, because he would have a chance to win right away."
When the Ravens hired Harbaugh, he had coached for 24 years at various colleges and as an assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles. Before that, he had grown up at the knee of his father, a longtime high school and college coach.
Despite his lifelong bond with the game, Harbaugh had never been a head coach at any level. So early doubts from fans and reporters were unavoidable. His brother had none. During Jim's stint as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders, opposing players jogged up every week and said, "I played for your brother in Philadelphia. That guy's the best."
"I didn't know how good he was until I started coaching myself," Jim Harbaugh said. "When I kept hearing from these guys that he was the best coach they'd ever had, I knew he was going to be a head coach in the NFL."
The new guy said he took his coaching philosophy from his dad and from Jack's old Michigan boss, Bo Schembechler. He went so far as to hand out copies of Schembechler's book to Ravens staffers who wanted to know what their new coach was all about.
It was a telling move, because many of the traits Harbaugh's players praised come straight from the pages of Bo's Lasting Lessons.
Have a plan - every practice and meeting should be clearly tied to your ultimate goal. Insist that the people around you meet your standards rather than adjusting to meet theirs. Never be afraid to tell a player or assistant coach where he stands.
These were Schembechler's tenets, and Harbaugh's approach is quite similar.
