Rivals Rivalry Week: Who is more disliked, Harbaugh or Meyer?

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate about which coach, Urban Meyer or Jim Harbaugh, is the more disliked coach.

MORE RIVALRY WEEK: Top coaching rivalries | Best rivalry? | Dead rivalries

To me, as much as non-Ohio State fans dislike Urban Meyer because of his national titles and recruiting success, more people will be pulling against Jim Harbaugh. Why? Because of all the media attention Harbaugh has received since taking over the Wolverines. From sleepovers to satellite camps, there has been way too much coverage of everything the man does. Is that his fault? Nope, but he is a marketing genius and has used the media to his advantage every step of the way.

Fans of other programs are tired of it and don’t think he deserves it. If I had a dime for every time someone tweets at me that Harbaugh hasn’t won anything on the college level yet, I’d have a lot of dimes.

Michigan fans love him, and they should because he’s the best hire that the Wolverines could have possibly been made. But non-Michigan fans hate him whether they are in the Big Ten or even the SEC.

Another tantalizing storyline in this matchup between the two coaches – Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh – is the genuine dislike college football fans have for both programs and especially both coaches.

Meyer’s departure from Florida for health reasons, only to reinvent himself at ESPN and then land the Ohio State job a few years later has certainly been called into question by some fans.

Meyer has won three national titles, he’s dominated the Big Ten since arriving in Columbus, he stole away running back Mike Weber from Michigan and has really taken the mantle as the best coach, best recruiter and biggest winner in the conference the last few years.

That resume has so many people pulling against him, as is natural in rivalry games, big-time conferences such as the Big Ten and in this game in particular because Michigan finally has a pulse again in Harbaugh’s second season.

The Buckeyes won this game 42-13 last season. Meyer pounded Harbaugh’s rebuilding team into oblivion and it really wasn’t close. Ohio State has blown out Michigan twice in a row, the Buckeyes have won four in a row and 11 of the last 12 in this series.

Lots of people want Meyer to have some comeuppance in this matchup. Harbaugh has already clearly remade the Wolverines into national powers. Beating Meyer on Saturday afternoon would affirm that truth even more.