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Eric Williams
NFC West Writer
Right place, right time.
Everything needed to line up, and it did. Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos secured one of the top head coaches available in a very active offseason, hiring Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh just won a national championship at his alma mater in Michigan. NCAA violations forced Harbaugh to miss several games last season, and more violations have been alleged. Despite that, Michigan reportedly offered Harbaugh a lucrative extension to stay, which he turned down to join the Chargers.
Harbaugh has ties to the Bolts from his NFL playing days, playing the last two seasons of his 14-year pro career with the team. He also served as head coach at the University of San Diego when the Chargers still resided there.
But the most important enticement for Harbaugh: a franchise quarterback capable of leading them to a Super Bowl in Justin Herbert.
“Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward,” Spanos said in a prepared 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?”
It will be up to Harbaugh to change the culture in the building and create an environment of sustainable championship success for a team that has not won the AFC West since 2009, has two playoffs wins in 14 seasons and has cycled through six head coaches since 2012.
It’s an arduous task, but Harbaugh appears up to the challenge. He will likely lean on his experience as a head coach for the San Francisco 49ers, where he finished 44-19-1 in four seasons and led them to a Super Bowl appearance after the 2012 season.
Harbaugh can look to his brother, Baltimore Ravens head…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/chargers-win-big-by-hiring-jim-harbaugh-but-the-next-steps-wont-be-easy
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Publish date : 2024-01-25 05:00:58
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