Just a few weeks after he led Michigan to its first undisputed college football national title in 75 years, Jim Harbaugh is headed back to the NFL.
Harbaugh has agreed to a deal that brings him back to professional football and to the West Coast as the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers the team announced Wednesday.
“Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement. “The son of a coach, brother of a coach and father of a coach who himself was coached by names like Schembechler and Ditka, for the past two decades Jim has led hundreds of men to success everywhere he’s been — as their coach. And today, Jim Harbaugh returns to the Chargers, this time as our coach. Who has it better than us?”
Harbaugh will be the first former Chargers player to return to the team as head coach. He played for the Bolts in 1999-2000 before retiring following the 2001 season.
Harbaugh is the first coach in 26 seasons to win a national title and not return to the school the following season. Nebraska’s Tom Osborne retired following the 1997 season after the Cornhuskers split the national title with Michigan.
Los Angeles was looking for a new coach and general manager after Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco were fired on Dec. 15, a day after a 63-21 loss in Las Vegas to the Raiders.
Harbaugh first met with the Chargers on Jan. 15. He was the eighth of 15 coaching candidates to interview with the Spanos family. He was the only one to get a second interview.
The Atlanta Falcons also talked to Harbaugh on Jan. 16 and had booked a second interview before he decided to accept the Chargers job.
NFL Media reported Tuesday that Harbaugh and the Chargers were meeting in the Los Angeles area and the two sides were within “striking distance” of finalizing a deal.
This is the third straight head-coaching cycle in which Harbaugh interviewed with NFL teams. He interviewed for the Minnesota Vikings…
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Publish date : 2024-01-25 01:28:18
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