Has Jim Harbaugh ever won a national championship as coach or player?

For as great of a head coach as Jim Harbaugh has been for nearly two decades now, one thing has unfortunately evaded him. To date, he has never won a national championship, or a Super Bowl for that matter. Harbaugh has either coached or played in a ton of big games in his four-decade-long football career, but he has never tasted sweet, sweet victory of being a champion before in his life.

Harbaugh is the son of a former college coach. Jack Harbaugh held many jobs in his coaching career, including stints as the head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky. He won a national title during his final year leading the Hilltoppers in 2002. Harbaugh's older brother John beat him in the Super Bowl to finish the 2012 NFL season. The Baltimore Ravens outlasted the San Francisco 49ers.

And although Harbaugh has coached great teams in college at San Diego, Stanford and Michigan, as well as his four-year run in the NFL with the 49ers, he has never coached a champion before. As far as Harbaugh's nearly two-decade long playing career, college or pro, he never won a national title at Michigan, nor was he part of a Super Bowl team on any of six stops as a professional quarterback.

This is no slight on Harbaugh, as being a champion is incredibly difficult for anyone to accomplish.

Jim Harbaugh could win his first-ever national title on Monday night

As far as what is more surprising, the fact Harbaugh has not won a national championship or a Super Bowl as a coach is a bit more shocking than him never winning one as a player. You would think some of those Bo Schembechler teams in the 1980s could have won one, but the best team he played on professionally was probably that overachieving 1995 Indianapolis Colts team that lost to Pittsburgh.

As a coach, he has been to Super Bowls. The first was in his first year as a coach on Bill Callahan's Oakland Raiders staff in 2002. The Silver and Black lost to Jon Gruden's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in San Diego. Outside of the Super Bowl loss to his older brother in 2012, Harbaugh coached a few high-end teams at Stanford, as well as the talented Michigan teams over the last three seasons.

While you may try to claim some semblance of a national title at the FCS level during his two years with the San Diego Toreros, it is not as legitimate as the one his father won leading Western Kentucky in 2002. Of all the coaches in college football who have never won a national championship, you could easily argue that Harbaugh is the best to have not done it. Maybe this all changes on Monday?

Even with a distinct lack of hardware, anyone would be foolish to say Harbaugh is not an elite coach.