Jim Harbaugh was a midwesterner and did just fine recently at Stanford.
This is true but not the whole story. Harbaugh spent a few years learning to coach and building his network at University of San Diego before jumping to Stanford. In fact Harbaugh brought his team to Des Moines to play Drake and they steamrolled the Bulldogs (I was at that game, their QB was Johnson who is still in the NFL with the Jets).