The Los Angeles Chargers have their guy. After striking out with the bungled decisions of Brandon Staley, they’re turning to an established winner; reigning College Football Playoff national champion Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh’s journey at the University of Michigan ended with a prestigious institution regaining its status as a blue blood among the football populace. He won’t face quite the same expectations in L.A. Where the Wolverines have 12 claimed national titles, the Chargers have one Super Bowl appearance and 24 postseason wins in 64 years.
That’s a slight change, but Harbaugh’s history suggests he’s the right man for the job. Since entering the head coaching ranks at the University of San Diego two decades ago, all he’s done is win — whether that’s at the FCS, Power Five or professional levels.
Let’s talk about that success, stop by stop, starting where it all began on the West Coast.
1
2004-2006: University of San Diego Toreros
San Diego presents a unique challenge for any Division I head coach. As a member of the Pioneer Football League, they don’t award athletic scholarships. That makes the scattered group of somewhat well-known schools (Butler, Valparaiso, Davidson) a unique lineup of teams who, nowadays, serve as an easy out for an overpowered opponent in the first round of the FCS playoffs.
There was no viable path to the postseason for the Toreros in Harbaugh’s three seasons there, but he took a team that was 8-2 in 2003 through a minor step backward to 7-4 in his debut. Over the next two years he went 22-2, going undefeated against PFL opponents and pushing San Diego into the top 16 of the (then Division I-AA) rankings.
2
2007-2010: Stanford Cardinal
Stanford offered Harbaugh a low-risk opportunity. He could not have made the Cardinal significantly worse.
The once proud program had bottomed out to a 1-11 record in 2006, prompting the firing of two-year head coach Walt Harris. This left a daunting rebuild, but Harbaugh got big returns from holdovers like Toby Gerhart and Richard Sherman while adding studs like Andrew Luck and Coby Fleener to the roster. A stunning upset over then No. 2 USC in 2007 set the stage for the improvements to come.
Here’s how the Cardinal did in each of their four seasons under Harbaugh
- 2007: 4-8 (3-6 in Pac-10 play)
- 2008: 5-7 (4-5)
- 2009: 8-5 (6-3)
- 2010: 12-1 (8-1)
Only a loss to Oregon in 2010 kept that team from playing for a national championship. Stanford went to the Orange Bowl instead and beat the brakes off Virginia Tech, 40-12.
3
2011-2014: San Francisco 49ers
Like Stanford, the 49ers were another tarnished Bay Area insitution that had fallen on hard times. Former linebacker Mike Singletary couldn’t coax anything more than mediocrity from the team. That left Harbaugh with a 6-10 roster helmed by a former No. 1 overall pick incapable of playing like one.
The turnaround was instantaneous. San Francisco made it to the NFC championship game each of the next three seasons, winning 36 regular season games in the process. The 49ers swapped out Alex Smith for second round pick Colin Kaepernick at quarterback without losing a beat, emerging as one of the conference’s top teams. But a slight downturn to 8-8 and rumored power struggles behind the scenes led to reports Harbaugh wouldn’t return for 2015.
Rather than stick around to find out what came next, he departed for his alma mater that winter.
4
2015-2023: Michigan Wolverines
Michigan had become the kind of distressed asset for which Harbaugh earned the reputation of fixing. The two coaches that followed Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, spent seven years at the helm with one good season between them. Hoke’s 5-7 record in 2014 doomed him, leading the Wolverines to look west.
Harbaugh’s reign in Ann Arbor was one of sustained success, even if it didn’t reach the lofty heights Michigan boosters had hoped at first. He went 47-18 his first five years on the job but never finished higher than sixth in the final rankings. More importantly, he failed to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes — the Wolverines’ mortal enemy.
A 2-4 record in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season put Harbaugh on the hot seat. He responded. In the three years since, he’s gone 40-3. He’s won three Big Ten titles, made the College Football Playoff twice and, vitally, ruined the Buckeyes’ national title hopes in three straight years.
This, of course, came with caveats. He got wrapped up in on-field scandals ranging from improper recruiting practices to clandestinely taping opponents’ signals. There still may be pending fallout from NCAA investigations related to the Harbaugh tenure, but like Pete Carroll before him he’s leaving for the safe harbor of the NFL with the comfort of a national championship to soothe him.
