I think the trips to Rome are irrelevant. I don't think the results are reltated to them, positive or negative, at all.
I think what Harbaugh was a genius at was attracting media attention. But as all things that attract media attention, we can't wait for them to fail. So once he got that, he had to deliver, and the fact that he's underachieving, now that same media that fed into him, as he intended, has turned against him. It's Big Ten title or bust in 2018.