Jim Harbaugh was introduced as head coach of the Chargers: Five things I learned from the press conference
Thursday was the official day that the Los Angeles Chargers named Jim Harbaugh their new head coach. Harbaugh’s first press conference wasn’t like other events.
Most of the time, the Chargers hold their press conferences at the temporary team facility in Costa Mesa.
But Harbaugh’s return to professional football right after Michigan won the college football national championship shocked everyone in the football world.
It was only right that the Chargers held Harbaugh’s first press conference in the YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium, which is about 40 miles north of their temporary squad headquarters.
It was finally over: Jim Harbaugh quit Michigan last week to become head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. For three years, Harbaugh had been flirting with the NFL every year but failed all the way.
Yesterday, in Ann Arbor, he held the same sort of press conference to start his new job. On Thursday, in Southern California, he did the same thing. He got there as a savior-to-be and turned out to be one.
In Harbaugh’s first six seasons as coach, Michigan came back from two losing seasons under his predecessors.
However, the coach failed to win the game that Michigan supporters cared about the most, which was against Ohio State after November.
He has changed things in the last three years, though. Three times he beat Ohio State and just this month he won a national championship.
Before this last win, he was suspended twice in his last season, once by the NCAA and once by the Big Ten.
Altogether, the year showed what makes Harbaugh a unique figure in college football. He became that way because he caused a mass psychosis among both his fans and his haters. Fans of Ohio State think he lies and cheats.
About half of the people in Michigan think of him as the Messiah. Both of them might be true.
If the first option is chosen, any sign-stealing penalties Michigan gets won’t be Harbaugh’s fault.
The Wolverines kicked enough in the last few minutes to make it clear that they were the best team in the sport.
Harbaugh is going to be a different person in the NFL. He is going to be less significant to begin with. Coaches are the most important part of college sports, and the whole operation takes on the personality of the person in charge.
Teams in the NFL are built within quarterbacks, and Justin Herbert, the Chargers’ quarterback, will be the most important person in the building. Herbert’s growth will determine whether Harbaugh earns the Super Bowl ring he wants.
It doesn’t matter how good Harbaugh is at recruiting in the NFL. It also doesn’t matter how well he can talk to his team’s fans.
The coach had a supernatural understanding of the team’s collective mind because he spent his childhood and college career in Michigan’s program.
Fans of the Chargers could be mean to Harbaugh, but they probably won’t stop giving him the boosts he takes to do what he does. Harbaugh led the whole country at Michigan. Harbaugh will be a hard worker in Los Angeles.
Quinn, 53, has served as the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys in 2021. From 2015 to 2020, he was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, which was his only job in the NFL.
It took parts of six seasons for the team to make the playoffs twice and win the National Football Conference’s South division once.
Quinn was dismissed after the 2020 season got off to a 0-5 start. The NFL named Quinn its Assistant Coach Player of the Year for 2021. He will take over for Ron Rivera, who was fired on January 8 after four years in charge.
Adam Peters is the new general manager of the Commanders. This is his first big move. The Seattle Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald on Wednesday, which means that all head coaching jobs in the NFL have been filled.
Right now, there are no more head coaching jobs in the NFL. People like Bill Belichick, Mike Vrabel, and Pete Carroll will have to wait a while before they can look for another job.
Raheem Morris (Atlanta Falcons) as well as Jim Harbaugh (Los Angeles Chargers) are the two most well-known hires this cycle. Several news sources say that the Washington Commanders will hire Dan Quinn as their new head coach.
The Falcons chose Morris, which came as a bit of a surprise after interviewing former Bill Belichick, the head coach of the Patriots, several times and an extensive list of other well-known candidates for the job.
Morris has worked with the team before, though. In 2020, he was the defensive coordinator and, for the last 11 games of the season, the interim head coach.
From 2015 to 2019, he also worked as an offensive assistant coach in Atlanta in some different roles.