New coach Jim Harbaugh will have the Chargers in a Super Bowl sooner than you think
It was 2014 when once, after a game against Seattle, the coach of the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh, spoke briefly to me one-on-one. It was clear that he was headed to Michigan but Harbaugh wasn't talking about it. "I'm thinking about turning this team around, nothing else," he told me. "I'm coaching this team."
He was gone soon after that. But what was also clear was that he'd be back. Harbaugh loved his alma mater but he also loved the NFL. One of the resounding sentiments, and I mean from everyone around Harbaugh who knew him well, was that he'd be back one day coaching in the NFL, and here he is.
He's coach of the Chargers now and this is what he's going to do with them. Take all of this to the bank: online, offshore, checking account, any bank you want. It's going to happen.
He'll meet with the team and from the beginning the players will know exactly where he stands. There is no mincing of words with Harbaugh. He's as subtle as Godzilla in a metro downtown. Harbaugh will talk about discipline and aggression and passion. He will give a lot of himself and he will demand a lot of others.
Players will be inspired by his work ethic. When practices start, they will be tough but efficient. When the season begins, everyone, including players, will be stunned by how quickly things turn around. The sloppiness will be cut down. The penalties will be lower. The on-field decision making will be smarter. He will be so much better than the last coach, who was so far over his head he was coaching from a submarine, it will look like the Chargers are being coached by Don Shula.
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No, Harbaugh won't win a Super Bowl in his first year (I don't think) but it won't be long after that. The Chargers could win one though in two to three years. Go ahead and take this column and throw it back at me if it doesn't happen. Cool. I'm fine with that. But that's how good I think Harbaugh is.
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He will bring physicality and smarts and aggression to the Chargers. (Hopefully, he won't bring spies.) Harbaugh is one of those types of coaches that wherever he goes, he wins. This has been a constant of Harbaugh. Let me repeat that. Wherever he goes, he wins. The University of San Diego. Stanford. Michigan. The 49ers. That will not change now. In fact, if anything, after what he did at Michigan, he's only gotten better.
I once predicted Harbaugh would win multiple national titles at Michigan. I was wrong about the number but he did win one. He's going to win at least that with Los Angeles. That's a lock. That's one of those locks that is so easy to predict it feels like cheating to predict it.
Why? It's not just that he's won at every level. It's that he's won in the NFL before in a huge way.
It's because he's a football savant. The few times I spoke with him one-on-one he could be gruff but introspective, and if you caught him at the right time, he'd give you a peek at his football brain, and I'm telling you, it's impressive.
It's how he was able to take the 49ers, switch them, almost on the fly, from Alex Smith at quarterback, to Colin Kaepernick, and ride that wave to a Super Bowl. Few coaches could, or would, do that. Harbaugh doesn't care about how he wins, just as long as he does.
I recently reached out to Kaepernick to ask about the possibility of Harbaugh coming back to the NFL.
"Harbaugh is the one coach you call," Kaepernick said in a direct message on X, formerly Twitter, "when you want to compete for a championship. Period."
Emphatic, direct and accurate.
It won't always be pretty. Harbaugh won't spare feelings but as the wins rack up it won't matter. He'll slowly ingratiate himself and soon the locker room will respect him. They may not love him, but they will respect him.
A new era has started for the Chargers and they are about to go places they haven't in decades. Good places. Great places. Take that to your local financial institution and deposit it.
Bring me the receipt.