Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of the NCAA National Champion University of Michigan Wolverines, is rumored to be considering a return to the professional ranks. Antonio Pierce, interim coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, led the team to a 5-4 record. Winning three of four divisional games, including a win over the defending champions at GEHA Stadium. These two men are in heated competition for the leadership of the Las Vegas Raiders.
With that out of the way, let’s take a real deep dive into all of this.
Opening arguments for Antonio Pierce and Jim Harbaugh
Based on the impassioned pleas of the players and the nearly universal support across the media and fans, it’s obvious who the popular choice is. Pierce has captured the hearts of the locker room. Moreover, he has succeeded in changing the franchise’s culture. Instilling unwavering discipline with straight shooting led the team to unheard-of first-time franchise-history accomplishments.
Harbaugh, on the other hand, is a horse of a different breed. Despite falling short of the ultimate measure of success as a player, Harbaugh achieved college coaching immortality. Leading the storied institution of the University of Michigan to its first-ever 15-0 undefeated season and winning the undisputed National Championship for the first time in 26 years.
What the Raiders need and what many seem to want are two completely different things.
Contrary to popular belief, the Raiders aren’t “broken” heading into the offseason.
Similar to 2021, the Raiders established their identity as a physical football team. One committed to establishing and stopping the run while playing stifling defense and entrusting the youth on the team to learn and perform on the job.
Continuity vs. Star Power
In his own right, Antonio Pierce has been the NFL’s darling for the last 10 weeks of the season. The job he did in resurrecting the Raiders season is downright admirable and made him the hottest name across the NFL landscape. If it weren’t for the glimmer of even brighter lights, he could easily retain the position he was bestowed and continue leading the Raiders moving forward.
Jim Harbaugh has all the hype. Everyone knows his name, his resume, and his family’s coaching acumen. He has accumulated extensive coaching experience and achieved success at every program he’s been a part of. Finally winning the big one, at the ripe old age of 60 years old, got the monkey off his back. With his legacy cemented, no one can argue his accomplishments or detract from his success.
But the question remains: who is best for the Raiders? In their rights, both have every right to claim this job for themselves. Who is the better candidate is a matter of opinion, not for Raider Nation but for owner Mark Davis. It is Davis, after all, who has to write the checks. More importantly, it’s ultimately his call.
Separating fact from fiction…
Somehow offensive guru and six-time Super Bowl winner Josh McDaniels wasn’t working. Offensively, he couldn’t break 20 points per game; his handpicked quarterbacks, James Richard Garoppolo and Brian Hoyer, were cataclysmically abysmal. The team couldn’t run, they couldn’t stretch the field, and it was obvious he had no answers and appeared like he was waiting to get fired.
Despite inheriting a playoff team in 2022, McDaniels was wasting away the best years of premium offensive talent. Culminating in a 9-16 record and mercifully being relieved of his duties 25 games into a five-year deal. This was your offensive expert who could not lead a troop of Girl Scouts to the supermarket to sell cookies.
At the end of Week 8, the Raiders were dead on arrival. They were listless and had no answer at quarterback. Pierce took the very same burning barge filled with the most offensive-smelling fecal matter and helped turn it into something resembling a winner.
Inexperienced pooch screwing
But Antonio Pierce lost a 3-0 game to the Minnesota Vikings, and that doesn’t sit right. Listen, it didn’t sit right with me either. One thing is for certain: Pierce didn’t commit the false start penalties that precipitated the sacks that took the offense out of scoring range. Nor did he commit the holding penalties or intentional grounding that placed his offense behind the sticks. Four out of five first-half drives encountered either a sack or a penalty, which placed them behind the sticks and killed the drives.
Against the Miami Dolphins, Pierce made his first series of rookie coaching mistakes. Getting caught up in the moment is easy, and coming up empty while being uber-aggressive is a coaching no-no. A mistake that Pierce attempted to rectify against the Kansas City Chiefs in their first meeting. Unfortunately for him, letting up the gas against the defending champions proved to be a different mistake and cost him back-to-back games.
Losing the pivotal game to the Indianapolis Colts once again wasn’t the fault of Pierce. Rather, phantom calls after bad calls from the zebras did. Before you get up in arms and say that he said otherwise, stop and consider the fact that he didn’t want to get fined like Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid did. What else was he supposed to say when the refs gave the Colts an unwarranted second opportunity to kick a field goal and put the game away?
A Raiders fan logic for what makes a better coach…
Many people often believe that a coach hired off the street realizes the roster as currently constructed isn’t good enough to win and gets the opportunity to rebuild. Once the rebuild is performed and the winning ensues, the coach is a genius and the savior. It was a colossal improvement over the previous guy there, and why? Because he was allowed to choose his team.
Try this analogy for size. Pierce was handcuffed to the bow of the Titanic with the entire ship on his back. Essentially, he was tasked with steering the ship clear of the incoming iceberg and getting them to the playoffs with only his feet to guide them. Despite almost managing to steer the ship clear, it still scraped underneath and sank, but everyone blames Pierce for not saving the ship.
Pierce’s X’s and O’s have been called into question; he’s been referred to as a player’s coach and a “rah-rah” guy. His football acumen continues to be disrespected, despite his success at the highest level. Nevermind the fact that he had no offseason to establish anything. There was no training camp, no offensive coordinator who had ever called plays before, and no rookie quarterback who the previous coach set up to fail. Just for the purpose of not playing Aidan O’Connell over a decrepit Garoppolo.
The logic is baffling, yet so many seem ready to believe it, whether due to a preference for familiarity or more mysterious and nefarious reasons. Qualification as a coach does not require prior experience as a coordinator. John Madden started as a linebacker coach just like Pierce and ended as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.
Jim Harbaugh, The Great
In his 13 years as a D-1 coach, Jim Harbaugh has amassed quite the impressive .720% winning percentage, going 118-46 in 164 games. Beating all the bullies on his block and eventually returning the Wolverines back to prominence.
Who’s had it better than Jim Harbaugh, nobody!
Harbaugh has coached teams to the 2023 National Championship, 2x Big 10 Conference winner, NFC Champhionship games 2011–2013, the 2012 Super Bowl, and 2x NFC West Division champs. On paper, this alone suggests that he is the greatest college coach since Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Urban Meyer, or Pete Carroll. Except that one of these names is not like the other.
Harbaugh has never defeated Smart; in fact, when they played in 2021, the Bulldogs bit into and shook the Wolverines and Harbaugh to a 34-11 defeat in the Orange Bowl.
Elite? Yes. Great? Sure. But not perfect…
It is easy to pile on the accolades, but not as easy to acknowledge the road to get here. Harbaugh has been at Michigan for nine years; for seven straight years, he lost the Big 10 to Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly prevented Harbaugh from ever going to the Rose Bowl and winning the Pac-10 championship.
Up until Monday’s decisive victory over the University of Washington, Harbaugh has predominantly always been the bridesmaid and never the bride. In 11 bowl games, Harbaugh has only won four, and two of those four came this season. Prior to 2023, Harbaugh was 2-9 in Bowl games, 1-3 in NFC championship games, and 0-1 in the Super Bowl. While it’s been a long time since Raider Nation was close to seeing a big game, that record is frightening.
What is the significance of that? Now that he has finally won it all, he should be absolved of all those previous shortcomings, right? Or maybe, just maybe, he caught lightning in a bottle. Georgia, the consensus number one team all year long, was upset by Alabama in the SEC Championship game, and Harbaugh never had to beat them.
A true-life underdog story, Harbaugh struggled with the bullies of any league he played in or coached in. Much of Raider Nation will b*tch, moan, whine, and cry about Antonio Pierce having to potentially play the Chiefs, Chargers, and Broncos twice a year. But he has already beaten all of them in convincing fashion.
“Let AP Cook”
- Least penalized team in 2023 (WTF, he did coach the Raiders, right?)
- Single-game scoring record 63 points against the Chargers
- 3-1 AFC West division record (4-2 overall)
- No. 6 scoring defense in the league
- Staff developed young talent weekly (O’Connell, Michael Mayer, Tre Tucker, Tyree Wilson moved inside, Malcom Koonce)
- Complete culture shift in 36 hours
- Unanimous player support
- Unanimous media support
- Back-to-back defensive touchdowns in back-to-back weeks (first time since 2012)
- Benched Jimmy Garoppolo and had the balls to play the rookie
Antonio Pierce left his resume on the field. In any other situation, hiring Jim Harbaugh should be a given. Offer that man whatever his heart desires; just know that he is probably using the Raiders as leverage for a better offer. It wouldn’t be the first time Harbaugh has done this.
Understand this: for the Raiders, the Autumn Wind has blustered in from the sea. With a rollicking song, Antonio Pierce is swaggering boisterously. If Mark Davis can’t see the future right in front of him, he never will.
*Top Photo: Associated Press