What makes Harbaugh a good NFL coaching prospect?

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I agree with the OP; he seems to be the sexy name all of a sudden, but when does the college to nfl thing really work, especially when the college coach's success came with a consensus #1 in the draft QB?!

This argument is damn weak and played out. Harbaugh is NOT those other guys, and it's so damn obvious to anyone who watches Stanford play.

The most common of these examples of "other guys".

-Dennis Erickson. Never played in the NFL, and spent 25 years as a college coach before going to the NFL.
-Butch Davis. Never played in the NFL, and spent 14 years as a college coach before becoming an NFL HC. He did spend 5 years as an NFL assistant under Jimmy Johnson and the SB winning Cowboys however.
-Steve Spurrier. Played in the NFL for 11 seasons, but mostly as a backup. He then spent 24 years in the college ranks before going pro.
-Nick Saban. Never played in the NFL. He spent 28 years in the college ranks as a coach before going pro, with 4 years in between as an NFL assistant.
-Bobby Petrino. Never played in the NFL. He spent 21 years in the college ranks before going pro with 3 years in between as an NFL assistant.
-Mike Riley. Never played in the NFL. He spent 24 years in the college/cfl ranks before becoming an NFL headcoach

Of all those named, only one has ever played in the NFL, and he was a career backup. Everyone of them spent at least 14 years in college before going pro, with all of them except Butch Davis spending over 20 years in college before going pro.

As for Harbaugh. He spent 14 seasons in the NFL (playing as recently as 2001), starting 140 of 177 games. He was a good NFL QB, who won many games, even made a pro bowl and was inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor and earned the nickname Captain Comeback. He started off as a QB coach for the Raiders after his retirement in 2001. A raiders team which made the SB with Rich Gannon having the best season of his career. He's coached up one of the best NFL QB prospects in quite some time. He runs arguably the best pro style offense in college football.

This whole "Because other college coaches who don't resemble Jim Harbaugh in the slightest didn't pan out, that means Harbaugh won't pan out" argument is a giant crock of **** that's only being spewed by people who have no idea what to look for in a coach. And that's obvious to anyone who watches Stanford football. Harbaugh is an NFL coach coaching college. Seriously, it amazes me how the hell there's some people not seeing this.