After nearly five hours of interviewing with the Ravens Tuesday for their vacant head coaching position, Eagles secondary coach John Harbaugh emerged from the team?s Owings Mills complex and was surprised how quickly time passed while he was behind closed doors.
“It seems like it went by like that [snapping his fingers], and it was over,” he said. “It?s been challenging, but it has been fun.”
Harbaugh was the sixth NFL assistant to interview with the Ravens regarding their head coaching position, but the first to talk with the media before exiting the team?s headquarters. The longtime assistant has never been an NFL coordinator, but said it should not hurt his chances to replace Brian Billick, who was fired on Dec. 31.
“I don?t think there?s any one way to prepare to be a head coach,” Harbaugh said. “I don?t think you?re a head coach until you become a head coach and you find out what your style is. Everybody applies their experiences, their talents, their efforts and you see what happens. [Philadelphia coach] Andy Reid was never a coordinator before he was a head coach and he?s one of the best in the league, so I think you just see what happens.”
Harbaugh, 45, the brother of former Ravens quarterback and current Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, has the endorsement of Reid, who moved Harbaugh from special teams to secondary coach this season.
“John wants to be a head coach some day and maybe a defensive coordinator,” Reid wrote in Harbaugh?s biography on the Eagles? Web site. “This gives him a different responsibility. It gives him a professional opportunity to step out of that special teams mode and it strengthens our staff.”
Indianapolis assistant head coach Jim Caldwell, Dallas assistants Tony Sparano and Jason Garrett, former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and New York Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer all have interviewed with the Ravens since Friday.
John Harbaugh has been with the Eagles since 1998 after several stints in the college ranks in which he served as running backs, tight ends, linebackers, special teams, secondary and strength-and-conditioning coach at numerous schools.
“I think any coach coming up through the rank, you try to learn as much as you can,” Harbaugh said. “I?ve had great mentors. That prepares you more than anything else.”
Harbaugh walked into the lobby of the Ravens? headquarters, stunned by what he saw.
“Wow, this is beautiful,” he told a team employee.
When he walked out, he was still beaming.
“I tell you one thing, it?s a great organization,” Harbaugh said. “Up, down, sideways, from the very top, it?s a very impressive place to visit.”
The Ravens have not commented on which candidates they?ll interview, but Tennessee defensive coordinator and former Ravens assistant Jim Schwarz, a native of Arbutus, might meet with the Ravens soon.
Ryan interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons to be their head coach Monday and with the Miami Dolphins for the same position yesterday.
