Swanson: Hopes are high as Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh era takes hold
EL SEGUNDO — The Chargers got one up on the Lakers, anyway – the football team landed its reigning national championship-winning coaching candidate.
Dan Hurley might have decided the L.A. life wasn’t for him, returning to UConn to try to win a third consecutive NCAA men’s basketball championship, but Jim Harbaugh found what he was looking for, signing up to lead the other NFL team here in the entertainment capital of the world.
A veteran coach and former NFL quarterback with the big personality who just led Michigan to a national title? He fits right in, a star in a constellation of recognizable sports figures.
A newsmaker if not a rule-breaker, as Harbaugh insisted he isn’t Monday. Neither a liar nor a cheat nor a thief, he proclaimed in post-practice press conference, pounding on a lectern for emphasis.
He’d been asked for comment about an ESPN report that seven members of Harbaugh’s former Michigan program were accused of violating NCAA rules, and of course there would be no no-comment from Harbaugh.
No way.
“Yeah, I do have a comment on that,” Harbaugh said, wading right in. “Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams that I have coached. No one is perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right.
“Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So, it’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”
Talk about unapologetically him, this football obsessive and competitor’s competitor, whose guilt or innocence in the matter actually matters between zip and zilch for Chargers fans who cheered roundly when he was hired to replace Brandon Staley.
Many of those folks have been filling the stands set up to watch all 11 training camp practices so far at The Bolt, the team’s shiny new training facility, eager to see their team start to take on Harbaugh’s football image. This offseason, the Chargers let go of star receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and drafted Joe Alt, a 6-foot-8 offensive lineman, No. 5 overall out of Notre Dame, a sign of a shift toward Harbaugh’s brand of smart, smashmouth play.
New digs, new coach, new identity – not that Harbaugh is hiding.
The most high-profile coach in Chargers franchise history was the most obvious person out there amidst a sea of humanity Monday.
Players in pads and coaches in running shoes – and star quarterback Justin Herbert out there in a boot due to a plantar fascia injury – all moving in packs, with purpose, directed by the 60-year-old coach in a long-sleeved sweatshirt and cleats.
The 6-3 coach seemed always to be in the middle of the action, hands on his hips or his knees, striking the pose you’d have seen on Michigan’s sideline any given Saturday – or Sundays before that, when he was the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach for fives season. The first three years resulted in NFC championship game berths and then, at the end of the 2012 season, there was a Super Bowl appearance against his brother, John, and his Baltimore Ravens team.
San Francisco hadn’t even made the playoffs the eight seasons before Harbaugh’s arrival.
Now the Chargers – whom, except for a monumental collapse in a wild-card loss to Jacksonville in 2022, haven’t been to the postseason since 2018 – are banking on more of the same from Harbaugh, who signed a five-year contract reportedly worth $16 million annually.
He’s won at every level, every stop. Leading the University of San Diego to consecutive Pioneer League titles, Stanford to two bowl berths in four years, including the 2011 Orange Bowl. And, most recently, Michigan to three consecutive Big Ten Conference crowns, with berths in the 2021 and 2022 College Football Playoffs before winning last season’s national title.
How has he done it?
The Chargers hope to find out.
So far, veteran linebacker Bud Dupree said he’s been impressed with how open Harbaugh is to receiving feedback: “Everyone’s opinion matters. He asks questions along the way. He doesn’t try to be the my-way-or-the-highway type of guy. He enforces his rules, obviously, but he’s not on the scene like there’s no other way to do it.”
(And, because we’re talking rules, Dupree also made note of Harbaugh’s emphasis on the NFL’s new tackling policies: “Taking pride on the safety and the rules within the game … on the new rules. Making sure we can still play fast, and play our best within the schemes but also within the rules of the NFL.”)
jim gettin’ those reps pic.twitter.com/ASs8gyBQq4
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) August 5, 2024
The rookie Alt said he appreciates Harbaugh’s head-to-toe approach, which includes flinging passes or jumping in during strength drills: “I’ve never had a coach who wears cleats on the field. It just shows how much he’s committed to us … and wants us to succeed and is willing to do anything to see that happen.”
Well, maybe not anything …? What it is, if you listen to Harbaugh hold court, is a matter of attacking the work with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
That, at once, seems like an exhausting and unrealistic standard – and also a thrilling goal to maintain: You shoot for the stars, you’re liable to land one. And the Chargers have.