One thing I think we should consider is that, as far as I know, head coaches are not necessarily directly involved in the day-to-day of each player.
There are the seniors, the captains, and other team leaders, who are especially important because so many activities are "voluntary" and coaches cannot be present.
As many have noted, the person most involved day-to-day in a player's physical development is Shannon Turley.
On a day-to-day practice basis (and even during gametime), it's the assistant coaches. Last year, I mentioned seeing Coach Bloomgren get into a lineman's grill during the Rice game. During the Iowa Rose Bowl, I remember watching Coach Hart fire up the D Linemen. I remember seeing Coach Hart dissatisfied with Lute Kaumatule's performance on a drill, and Coach Hart explodes, gets in his face, yells some stuff I didn't hear, followed by, "This the Rose Bowl!!" Lute, from what I heard, a generally calm and gentle person, got pissed off and starting walking after Coach Hart, when one of his teammates grabbed him to calm him down. Now Kaumatule, you may recall, was redshirting that year, so he wasn't going to play. And yet here Coach Hart was, screaming when one redshirt player didn't do 1 warm-up rep to his satisfaction and standard. And that was Randy Hart, verteran of 10 Rose Bowls as a coach and player.
So, I think EUTM is more appropriate for an assistant coach, and in particular, line coaches. On the other hand, it seems many coaches are very protective of the feelings and the proper alignment of the aura for their quarterbacks.
And I don't recall seeing very many of the most successful college coaches being manic. Sure, I have seen Urban Meyer, Chris Petersen and Nick Saban get *pissed* (especially Saban), but I don't think of them as hyper-emotional, insane, drill sergeant types in recent years. And they seem to do just fine.
On the flip side, if you want manic, super-emotional head coaches, shouldn't we include Steve Spurrier, Brian Kelly and Bobby Knight (I know, switching sports here).
If Stanford were someday hiring a new head coach (hopefully, not for a very, very long time), I would not be saying, oh please, please, I want a Spurrier-Kelly-Knight type of personality.
I think it is important to separate one part of Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind which is commitment, energy, long works hours, and dedication. Another part of Harbaugh's energy is his persona.
Not everyone who has Harbaugh's persona works as hard as him. Again, I don't think someone needs to act like Harbaugh to be a successful coach (and again, I think Shaw has been more successful). I think what we really need is the dedication, work and commitment. A willingness to continually improve, to continually get better and to demand that of others, and to outwork, out-energy and out-commit your competition. That is the part of EUTM that you continually want regardless of the personality. And I think overall, Shaw has shown these traits in general if you take the last 5 years as a whole.
And since people have brought up military leaders, I have known many incredible, just amazing members of America's armed forces who are low-key, chill, even stoic people, and I don't think that personality does not mean they are in any way inferior as leaders or soldiers. In fact, most military officers I've known were quite un-Harbaugh-like.
There are the seniors, the captains, and other team leaders, who are especially important because so many activities are "voluntary" and coaches cannot be present.
As many have noted, the person most involved day-to-day in a player's physical development is Shannon Turley.
On a day-to-day practice basis (and even during gametime), it's the assistant coaches. Last year, I mentioned seeing Coach Bloomgren get into a lineman's grill during the Rice game. During the Iowa Rose Bowl, I remember watching Coach Hart fire up the D Linemen. I remember seeing Coach Hart dissatisfied with Lute Kaumatule's performance on a drill, and Coach Hart explodes, gets in his face, yells some stuff I didn't hear, followed by, "This the Rose Bowl!!" Lute, from what I heard, a generally calm and gentle person, got pissed off and starting walking after Coach Hart, when one of his teammates grabbed him to calm him down. Now Kaumatule, you may recall, was redshirting that year, so he wasn't going to play. And yet here Coach Hart was, screaming when one redshirt player didn't do 1 warm-up rep to his satisfaction and standard. And that was Randy Hart, verteran of 10 Rose Bowls as a coach and player.
So, I think EUTM is more appropriate for an assistant coach, and in particular, line coaches. On the other hand, it seems many coaches are very protective of the feelings and the proper alignment of the aura for their quarterbacks.
And I don't recall seeing very many of the most successful college coaches being manic. Sure, I have seen Urban Meyer, Chris Petersen and Nick Saban get *pissed* (especially Saban), but I don't think of them as hyper-emotional, insane, drill sergeant types in recent years. And they seem to do just fine.
On the flip side, if you want manic, super-emotional head coaches, shouldn't we include Steve Spurrier, Brian Kelly and Bobby Knight (I know, switching sports here).
If Stanford were someday hiring a new head coach (hopefully, not for a very, very long time), I would not be saying, oh please, please, I want a Spurrier-Kelly-Knight type of personality.
I think it is important to separate one part of Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind which is commitment, energy, long works hours, and dedication. Another part of Harbaugh's energy is his persona.
Not everyone who has Harbaugh's persona works as hard as him. Again, I don't think someone needs to act like Harbaugh to be a successful coach (and again, I think Shaw has been more successful). I think what we really need is the dedication, work and commitment. A willingness to continually improve, to continually get better and to demand that of others, and to outwork, out-energy and out-commit your competition. That is the part of EUTM that you continually want regardless of the personality. And I think overall, Shaw has shown these traits in general if you take the last 5 years as a whole.
And since people have brought up military leaders, I have known many incredible, just amazing members of America's armed forces who are low-key, chill, even stoic people, and I don't think that personality does not mean they are in any way inferior as leaders or soldiers. In fact, most military officers I've known were quite un-Harbaugh-like.