Harbaugh heads off to Hollywood
Jim Harbaugh is heading back to the NFL.
Harbaugh, 60, accepted a job with the Chargers and will leave Michigan after leading the program to a national championship this year, the NFL team announced Wednesday evening.
The deal between Harbaugh and the Chargers, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, is for five years.
The hiring ends a whirlwind of speculation surrounding the highly coveted coach who had been weighing his options between job opportunities in the NFL and returning to coach the Wolverines. But in the end, Harbaugh opted to give it another go on an NFL sideline for the first time since a four-year reign with the 49ers that ended in 2014, and the Chargers managed to get the man they clearly had wanted for their vacant headcoaching job.
“Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward,” team owner Dean Spanos told the team website.
Los Angeles interviewed a leaguehigh 15 candidates after the dismissal of Brandon Staley, but Harbaugh had been the team’s top choice from the get-go.
Harbaugh takes over a team that struggled under Staley, who was fired after an embarrassing 63-21 loss to the Raiders on Dec. 14, but does have a franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert already in place.
Now they add a head coach who has won just about everywhere he’s been and gives the organization its most experienced head coaching hire since Norv Turner in 2007.
The hiring also sets up a brotherversus-brother matchup next season when the John Harbaugh-led Ravens face the Jim Harbaugh-led Chargers at SoFi Stadium. The two famously went head-to-head when Jim’s 49ers lost to John’s Ravens, 34-31, in Super Bowl XLVII following the 2012 season.
One of the top coaching candidates on the market, Harbaugh arrives in Los Angeles after nine years in Ann Arbor, where he led the Wolverines to three Big Ten titles and this month got the program its first national championship since 1997.
“My love for Michigan, playing there and coming back to coach there, leaves a lasting impact. I’ll always be a loyal Wolverine,” Harbaugh said, according to chargers.com. “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.”
In all, he went 89-25 and had eight bowl game appearances at Michigan, but the 2023 season was marred at times by a sign-stealing scandal involving a former football staffer and led the Big Ten to suspend Harbaugh for three games.
He compiled a similar level of success in four seasons coaching the 49ers, who went 44-19-1 under his guidance while making three consecutive NFC Championship game appearances, winning one.
Now with Harbaugh in the fold, Chargers ownership will need to turn its focus toward the vacant general manager position. Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown was in Los Angeles for a second interview Wednesday.