Harbaugh

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Today's game against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants can answer a big question about the Ravens. Are they playoff caliber? "I don't know if we worry about that at this point in the season," tight end Todd Heap said. "We're going in to win this game. And we'll let people talk about that after that happens." Said linebacker Ray Lewis: "For us, it's just the next game up. We take the same approach with every game, and the guys do a great job with it."

There are two kind of teams in the NFL: the ones that have a capable quarterback and the ones that don't.The Buffalo Bills and the Ravens were in the latter category last year, which explains why they went 6-10 and 6-9-1 and wound up in the ninth and 10th spots in the draft, respectively.The Bills couldn't win with Todd Collins and Alex Van Pelt. And the Ravens couldn't win with Vinny Testaverde, who has more talent than Collins and Van Pelt, but makes too many mistakes to be a winner.That's why the Bills and Ravens have made two of the best moves so far in the off-season.

Most first-round draft choices come into the NFL followed by a stack of favorable press clippings. When Jim Harbaugh joined the Chicago Bears out of the University of Michigan five years ago, he was shadowed only by doubts.In Harbaugh's case, he wasn't labeled can't-miss. It was more like can't throw. Just another ex-Wolverines quarterback whose glorious past in Ann Arbor would not translate into a bright future in the pros.Call it guilt by alumni association."When one person said it, then everybody said it," Harbaugh recalled last week.

On the first day of the John Harbaugh era, there was barely time for a handshake and a "Pleased to meet ya." Not surprisingly, no concrete plans were laid out. The starting quarterback for Week 1 wasn't named. The candidates to fill out the new coaching staff weren't paraded about the building. And the offensive and defensive schemes weren't drawn out on a blackboard. What we did learn at yesterday's news conference, in which Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti introduced his new coach, is that the broad strokes already on display lead us to believe that there will be plenty of change ahead.

As the two newest Ravens arrived in Baltimore yesterday to meet their coaches, teammates and the place they possibly will call home for the next couple of seasons, quarterback Jim Harbaugh and running back Errict Rhett expressed feelings of appreciation.Both players became Ravens within the past five days -- Harbaugh on a trade by the Indianapolis Colts for a third-round pick in this year's draft and Rhett on a trade by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a third-round pick in 1999.Tampa Bay, which originally sought a fourth-round pick for Rhett, later asked for a third-round selection.

J ohn Harbaugh didn't know where to begin in talking about his team's turnaround from a year ago after the 11-5 Ravens clinched a playoff spot yesterday with a 27-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. But there are three major reasons. The biggest difference from a year ago is Harbaugh, who replaced Brian Billick as coach after a 5-11 season. Harbaugh put together a quality coaching staff, and the final piece was the development of rookie Joe Flacco, the franchise-changing quarterback that this team has coveted for so long.

NFL practices, no matter what time of year, erupt into slugfests from time to time. But all things considered in what used to be dubbed Camp Creampuff, there was nothing ordinary about what happened at the indoor practice facility in Owings Mills yesterday. The Ravens players chalked it up to typical competitiveness. The new coach attributed it to the "tempo" of practice. Trevor Pryce, who has been around awhile, said it would impress him more to see guys put up their dukes in the fall against other teams.

Jim Harbaugh likes to take all all comers.The feisty ex-Raven once broke a bone in his hand taking on former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly because he didn't like something Kelly said about him on TV. Harbaugh was at it again last week.He went after San Diego teammate Michael Dumas during and after the Chargers' 28-9 loss to the Oakland Raiders.With just under 12 minutes to play, they got into a shouting match on the field after Harbaugh threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-10 at the Oakland 31.They then got into it again in the tunnel after the game and had to be separated.

Deborah C. Harbaugh, a longtime English teacher who has been an innovator in Carroll County schools, is the school board's nominee for Maryland Teacher of the Year.Assistant Superintendent Gary L. Dunkleberger announced Ms. Harbaugh as the nominee at last night's school board meeting at Manchester Elementary School. Ms. Harbaugh was unable to attend the meeting."On the issues and trends in education, Ms. Harbaugh reminds us that in education, our most important clientele are the students," Dr. Dunkleberger said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Ravens quarterback Jim Harbaugh will be a working stiff tomorrow, down in the pits, holding a sign board for his IndyCar driver, Scott Goodyear.Football personnel and motorsports -- it's beginning to sound like love and marriage. Joe Gibbs, Dan Marino, Walter Payton, Mark Rypien, Jerry Glanville and Joe Montana all have owned one kind of race team or another.Now it's Harbaugh's turn.He is back in Indianapolis getting ready for the 82nd Indianapolis 500 as part-owner of the car that Goodyear will start from the inside of the fourth row."