[BostonCard]

No it wasn't a throwaway line; it was a response to you trying to make an apples to oranges comparison with what Harbaugh inherited at Michigan and what Shaw inherited at Stanford.  While Shaw came into Stanford while it was doing well at the time, that was not the norm for Stanford historically, Harbaugh inherited a team that had been struggling recently, but it has been a football powerhouse and a an average level coach can and should accomplish there is higher than what a average level coach can accomplish at Stanford over the long term.  The better analogy is that Michigan is the Ferrari whose owner has left it in the garage a few years gathering dust.  It takes some work and EUTM to get the car gleaming, but if your a competent mechanic and tune the thing properly, you can reasonably expect to dominate.  

BC

[BostonCard]

No it wasn't a throwaway line; it was a response to you trying to make an apples to oranges comparison with what Harbaugh inherited at Michigan and what Shaw inherited at Stanford.  While Shaw came into Stanford while it was doing well at the time, that was not the norm for Stanford historically, Harbaugh inherited a team that had been struggling recently, but it has been a football powerhouse and a an average level coach can and should accomplish there is higher than what a average level coach can accomplish at Stanford over the long term.  The better analogy is that Michigan is the Ferrari whose owner has left it in the garage a few years gathering dust.  It takes some work and EUTM to get the car gleaming, but if your a competent mechanic and tune the thing properly, you can reasonably expect to dominate.  

BC