OWINGS MILLS -- One year ago, John Harbaugh was an unproven rookie head coach best known for his work as a special-teams guru and as the older brother of former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh.

And quarterback Joe Flacco was a relatively unknown former University of Delaware star who excelled at the Division I-AA level and was being thrust into the starting lineup immediately.

Now, Harbaugh launches his second NFL season today in a season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium after leading the Baltimore Ravens to 13 victories last season and an AFC championship game appearance against the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

And Flacco, who became the first rookie quarterback to ever win two playoff games, is established under center as a commanding, strong-armed presence.

With those two pivotal building blocks, the Ravens are confident that they have a strong foundation for the present and the future.

What's different about the coach-quarterback tandem?

In Harbaugh's case, any changes appear to be extremely subtle. The man who signaled his hard-nosed intentions with a rugged Camp Hardball last year is even more willing to listen to player input.

And the players have responded by buying into his intense approach.

"Coach is a straightforward shooter, he isn't ever going to shoot you wrong," All-Pro middle linebacker Ray Lewis said. "And the bottom-line fact is he's a good guy. I think from the first year to the second year he's definitely more of a players' coach. Probably in his first year, he had to lay a foundation.

“Now, we have more conversations about just life and about the totality of the team and what's best for the team. That's kind of his greatest strength, going to the players to really get our feedback and things like that. I think if you look at any big change, that's probably it for him."

Harbaugh puts in some extremely long hours, arriving at the Ravens' training complex shortly after daybreak and staying late to study film and conduct game-planning sessions.

Complacency isn't in his vocabulary.

"He talks about the relentless pursuit of improvement," offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said. "The great thing for all of us is that he doesn't just talk to our staff about that, he doesn't talk to our team about that. He does that. Philosophically, we all believe in the saying that, 'You get better or you get worse, you don't stay the same.'

"He has always been a great football coach. There's no doubt in my mind that he's already a great head coach. He's a great guy to work for, and he's going to get better and better and better."

Cameron has known Harbaugh for 28 years.

He coached Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and hired John Harbaugh as an assistant at Indiana, so he's well-qualified to comment on Harbaugh's development as a coach.

"I have maybe a little different view since I've known him so long," Cameron said. "He is the same guy I met when we were both graduate assistant coaches working summer college camps, trying to do the best job we can do every day.

"I think that's obviously a trap that some guys can fall into. They become a head coach and try to be somebody they aren't, and he's staying true to who he is, what he believes and he's not compromising. He doesn't compromise anything he believes in."

Last year, Harbaugh engineered a major turnaround following a 5-11 season that cost Brian Billick his job.

The Ravens chose him as their coach after initially offering the job to Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and interviewing popular Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, among others.

As owner Steve Bisciotti said at the time of the hire, he liked the idea of Harbaugh building his resume in Baltimore.

"They went out on a limb a little bit and chose to hire an unproven coach," Harbaugh said in August. "There's no, 'I told you so,' that I'd admit to. But, by the same token, from the beginning, my goal personally was to prove them right."

Attention to detail is at the heart of Harbaugh's success.

"Playing for coach Harbaugh sort of sets you up for more than just football because of the way he disciplines his team," running back Ray Rice said. "He treats it like a world-class business. The little things matter to him, just as simple as us being behind a line in a drill. Playing for him will set you up for life."

As one of the four new head coaches in the NFL last season, including Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith, Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano and Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn, Harbaugh wound up winning the most games.

He tied the NFL record for the biggest turnaround since 1978. And he became only the fifth rookie coach to win his first two playoff games.

"Plenty of people are going to say we'll find out this year," Harbaugh said. "Well, 10 years from now they'll be saying the same thing. They talk about Andy Reid that way: Can he still do it? Does he still have it? I want to be talking 10 or 12 years from now about whether I can still do it.

"You don't prove anything in this league. You just have to move forward. .. People tell you they don’t get nervous, everybody gets nervous. All of us get nervous when we’re doing something we’ve worked hard to get ready for, so we’ll all have the butterflies in our stomach before it starts.”

With Flacco, moving forward will mean improving after a strong first season where he delivered 13 touchdowns and five interceptions with a 90.2 quarterback rating over the Ravens' final 11 games while compiling a 9-2 record over that span.

During an eight-game stretch, he threw at least one touchdown per game. During the Ravens' final six road games, he threw nine touchdown passes with just two interceptions for a 101.8 rating.

Most importantly, the New Jersey native never seemed to get rattled or intimidated.

After an 11-5 regular season last year and going undefeated in the preseason, Flacco's confidence has grown.

And that could spell a rough debut for new Chiefs coach Todd Haley, who's trying to overhaul a 2-14 team that went 0-4 in the preseason as he fired offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and replaced him with himself as the play-caller.

"I don't think it's a good way to begin it," said Flacco referring to the Chiefs’ prospects. "We're going to play well, and I don't think they're really going to want to play us by the end of the game."

Aaron Wilson covers the Baltimore Ravens for the Carroll County Times and the Annapolis Capital.