L.A. Chargers Hire Jim Harbaugh As New Head Coach

Just 16 days after winning the national championship on a perfect 15-0 season with the Michigan Wolverines, Jim Harbaugh signed to become the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

L.A. fired their previous head coach, Brandon Staley, after a disappointing 5-12 season with quarterback Justin Herbert.

Harbaugh led Michigan to an 86-25 record since his arrival in 2015, but his latest season was marked with two three-game suspensions, one self-imposed and the other coming directly from the NCAA. And with winning the college football national championship and sitting on top of the mountain, Harbaugh looks to start fresh, this time in the professional realm.

“The only job you start at the top is digging a hole, so we know we’ve got to earn our way,” Harbaugh said. “This organization is putting in the work — investing capital, building infrastructure and doing everything within its power to win. Great effort equals great results, and we’re just getting started.”

Before at Michigan, however, Harbaugh was head coach with the San Fransisco 49ers, leading them to a 49-22-1 record while reaching the Super Bowl in 2012. In his time in the Bay Area, Harbaugh made three NFC championship games in four years, while also winning NFL Coach of the Year in 2011. With his current NFL coaching record, Harbaugh ranks fifth in all-time coaching win percentage with a minimum of 50 games, right behind legends such as John Madden and Vince Lombardi.

After playing quarterback at Michigan from 1983-86, Harbaugh jumped around the league playing with teams such as the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. Though his first time coaching the Chargers, Harbaugh also played for the team from 1999-2000 as quarterback, going 6-11 in games he started and threw for 4,177 yards, 18 touchdowns and 34 interceptions in that span.

Though he didn’t set Hall of Fame level stats as a quarterback, Harbaugh’s time as a player helped jump-start his coaching career from 2004 on. Since his move to coaching, beginning with the University of San Diego 20 years ago, Harbaugh has an all-time head coaching record of 182-72-1 in college football and the NFL.

“You don’t build a résumé like Jim’s by accident, and you don’t do it by yourself,” Chargers president John Spanos said. “You need a team. And nobody has built a team more successfully, and repeatedly, in recent history than Jim Harbaugh. His former players swear by him, and his opponents swear at him. Jim is one of one.”

With the Chargers hiring Harbaugh, Herbert and the team look to make a playoff run next year. Michigan, on the other hand, now has some decisions to make. They will surely see many players leave through the transfer portal as well as the NFL draft, and have to do a bit of a restart after winning the national championship.

Most importantly, they need a new head coach and someone who can confidently take the reigns after Harbaugh. Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore coached the team in four of the six games Harbaugh was suspended for, winning all of them and putting himself in a strong spot to land the job. Other notable names still on the table for Michigan to hire are Kansas head coach Lance Leipold and Baltimore Ravens coordinators Todd Monken and Mike Mcdonald.