New Ravens coach Harbaugh learning the ropes

[Azazel]

INDIANAPOLIS - There's a house for sale in Newtown Square, if anyone out there is interested. Motivated seller?

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh says the price is "less than T.O.'s. We've got a nicer lawn, too."

A few other priorities have taken precedence for Harbaugh, since he was hired back on Jan. 18 for his first head-coaching job at any level, after a decade as an Eagles assistant. There are a lot of players to get to know. And the Ravens, 5-11 despite a talent base that had led many observers to predict they would make the playoffs last season, have to decide where to go with their most important position, quarterback, as they head into free agency and look toward the April entry draft, in which they'll pick eighth overall.

Harbaugh, interviewed over the weekend at the NFL Scouting Combine, his first media session since the weekend he was hired, left little doubt that he is a fan of Penn Charter product Matt Ryan. The Boston College quarterback is expected to be the first QB drafted. But chances might not be all that good of Ryan falling past the Falcons at third overall.

"I saw him grow up as a quarterback, in Philadelphia," Harbaugh said. "We read about him all the time when he was in high school."

NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said during the combine that he thought Ryan's work ethic and competitive hunger might set him apart from recent high-profile college quarterbacks who seemed to have all the tools but didn't prosper in the NFL. Harbaugh concurred.

"He's an incredible competitor . . . he competes in everything he's done," Harbaugh said. "He's going to be a success wherever he ends up. As far as how that plays out, that's what televisions are for. You can watch."

Asked what he's looking for in a quarterback, Harbaugh said: "I want a leader, a competitor, a winner, who can throw it, who can run around a little bit, if necessary."

Harbaugh said the big difference in coming to the combine for the first time as a head coach was that as an assistant, "you move through the lobby a little more quickly" - fewer people want a word with you. Harbaugh said he has gotten "a few words of wisdom, a few warnings" as he settles into his dream job at age 45. He said he still talks to Eagles coach Andy Reid a couple of times a week.

Harbaugh spent nine of his 10 Eagles seasons as a special-teams coordinator, trying several times to land a head-coaching job. At one point in the 2006 offseason, he acknowledged, he was close to taking a defensive coordinator's job at Stanford, where his brother, Jim, had just been named head coach. But after 1 year coaching the Birds' secondary, mag

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