Jim Harbaugh

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh says he left Michigan after nine seasons to pursue his goal of coaching football at "the highest level."

"This is the highest level. I wanna see if I measure up, if I can come into this tremendous organization and add value," Harbaugh said Tuesday on the Dan Patrick Show (1:30 mark.)

Harbaugh continued: "I love the challenge. And this league, as you know, you've heard a million people say it, it's really hard to get a win, and it's really special to win a championship. I haven't done it."

Harbaugh previously coached the San Francisco 49ers for four seasons between 2011 and 2014, leading the Niners to a Super Bowl loss against the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans in 2012.

He compared his feelings about returning to the NFL this season to to Burt Lancaster's role as Dr. "Moonlight" Graham in Field of Dreams.

"When Burt Lancaster, he's talking about his playing days, and he walked off that field thinking there would be other days, but there were no other days," Harbaugh said. "I walked off that Super Bowl field in New Orleans thinking there would be another day, there'll be another day. You don't know if there is going to be another day.

"So to have that opportunity, to be back in position... I'm sure going to attack it with an enthusiasm known to mankind."

When asked by Patrick, Harbaugh denied that the rising popularity of NIL deals and the future of revenue sharing with athletes influenced his decision to leave the NCAA.

"I always looked at that as real positive change that needed to be made," Harbaugh.

The Chargers won Harbaugh's Los Angeles debut thanks to a 16-point second half in a season-opening 22-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The team will return to action on Sunday with a road game against the Carolina Panthers.

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh was proud of his team after earning a hard-fought Week 1 win over the Las Vegas Raiders by the final score of 22-10.

"They're hard to get," Harbaugh said, via Grant Gordon of NFL.com. "These are hard to get. Everybody in that locker room knows it, as do I, that it is really hard to win a game in the NFL. I just take my hat off to, really, everybody in the organization, especially those that have been here doing the dirty work."

Harbaugh earned his first win as an NFL head coach since he was with the San Francisco 49ers in 2014. He was given a game ball in the locker room after the victory.

Harbaugh's 49ers teams routinely started seasons off strong, as he won all five of his Week 1 games with the organization.

The Chargers weren't able to accomplish the feat in 2023, losing their season-opening game and eventually dropping four of their first six contests before finishing the year with a 5-12 record. This led to the hiring of Harbaugh on Jan. 24, who just wrapped up an undefeated season as well as a national title with Michigan at the time.

Los Angeles wasn't particularly dominant against its division rival on Sunday. However, the Chargers were able to capitalize on three Raiders turnovers and put the game away with a touchdown by rookie wide receiver Ladd McConkey in the fourth quarter.

Harbaugh's team will look to keep the momentum going and attempt to help secure the organization's first 2-0 start since 2012.

Jim Harbaugh led the Los Angeles Chargers to victory in his return to the NFL sideline.

Harbaugh and the Chargers opened the season on Sunday with a 22-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

The game marked Harbaugh's return to the NFL after spending 2015 to 2023 coaching Michigan.

The veteran coach came to Los Angeles on a five-year deal after coaching the Wolverines to a national title in 2023.

Harbaugh previously spent four seasons working as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, where he made his NFL head coaching debut in 2011.

The Raiders defense for the most part stifled Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman until the Chargers' run game finally broke through in the fourth quarter.

J.K. Dobbins scored the first touchdown of the Chargers' 2024 season with a 12-yard run to start off the quarter.

Dobbins finished his Chargers debut with 10 carries for 135 yards and the touchdown.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert then recorded his first touchdown pass of the season with a 10-yard throw to Ladd McConkey to seal the win.

Herbert finished his season debut having gone 17-of-26 for 144 yards and the touchdown, while taking one sack.

The Chargers overall ran for 176 yards while adding 140 yards through the air.

The defense meanwhile held Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew to 25-of-33 passing for 257 yards and one touchdown, while forcing four sacks and an interception.

Harbaugh and the Chargers will look to open the season with two straight wins when the team returns to action next Sunday against the Carolina Panthers on the road.

It didn't take long for Michigan fans to start missing longtime head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Fans lamented his departure for the NFL as No. 10 Michigan lost 31-12 to No. 3 Texas in head coach Sherrone Moore's second game since succeeding Harbaugh.

The loss snapped Michigan's 16-game overall winning streak and 29-game regular-season winning streak.

Harbaugh is meanwhile set to make his Los Angeles Chargers head coaching debut against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

Moore stepped up to coach four victorious games for the Wolverines last season in Harbaugh's absence.

He also led Michigan to a 30-10 win over Fresno State in last week's season opener in Ann Arbor, despite a Bulldogs effort that saw the visitors come within six points of tying the game in the fourth quarter.

Michigan fans were still left unimpressed by his Week 2 coaching against Michigan's first top-ten opponent of the season.

Harbaugh wasn't the only member of the undefeated 2023 team to depart after helping Michigan claim the 12th national championship in program history.

The Wolverines set a school record with 13 players from last year's team selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, including starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and cornerback Mike Sainristil.

Michigan replaced McCarthy with Davis Warren, who has made nine appearances for the Wolverines in three seasons with the program. The former backup to McCarthy went 22-of-33 for 204 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions against the Longhorns.

On the other side of the ball Michigan's defense struggled to contain Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, who went 24-of-36 for 246 yards and three touchdowns in his season debut.

Moore will look to lead the Wolverines to their second win of the post-Harbaugh era when Michigan returns to the Big House next Saturday to take on visiting AR State.

Sorry, fantasy football players—it's going to be a bit tough projecting Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins on a weekly basis, with the Los Angeles Chargers likely to utilize both running backs this season in a true timeshare.

"We don't overthink that," offensive coordinator Greg Roman told reporters on Thursday. "They're both going to play. Whoever has got the hot hand, as I always tell them, has got the hot hand. So, we're going to go with the hot hand. They know that, and they get that. It's really nothing scientific."

The two were paired together on the Baltimore Ravens between the 2020-23 seasons, and when Dobbins was healthy he often earned starting honors. The problem was that he was rarely healthy—he's only played 24 games in his NFL career, and 15 of them came in his rookie season, when he rushed for 805 yards and nine scores.

Edwards was far more reliable in the availability department, but less so in the productivity department. Even last year—when he set career highs in rushing yards (810) and rushing scores (13)—he still finished 25th at the running back position in PPR leagues.

The saving grace for both players is that a Jim Harbaugh offense is going to run the ball, and a lot. But it may be tough to predict which weeks will be fruitful for either Dobbins or Edwards. Given the former's injury history, Edwards remains the safer bet for your fantasy team.

Jim Harbaugh might be in the NFL now, but the Los Angeles Chargers head coach won't pass up an opportunity to take a shot at the NCAA.

"They've been keeping money away from players for decades," he said to ESPN's Kris Rhim. They just got hit with a $2.7 billion lawsuit. They have no credibility. That's the truth."

In August, the NCAA handed Harbaugh a four-year show-cause penalty after he was found to have "violated recruiting and inducement rules, engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations."

NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions said Harbaugh met with a prospective recruit and the recruit's father at a diner in February 2021 and did the same with another recruiting target that March. At the time, coaches were prohibited to meet with recruits due to a dead period amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NCAA also said Harbaugh denied having met with the student-athletes despite the presence of overwhelming evidence supporting the claim.

The organization subsequently issued a notice of allegations to Michigan in connection to the sign-stealing scandal that saw Harbaugh suspended by the Big Ten for three games.

Harbaugh remained defiant when addressing the NCAA's findings. He told reporters he was taught to "never lie," "never cheat" and "never steal" along with being accountable when he does wrong. To that end, he said, "I do not apologize," while maintaining his innocence.

For now, the 60-year-old looks like a clear victor in his long-running battle with the NCAA. He left Michigan on a high after guiding the Wolverines to a national championship in the 2023 season, and his departure means he's no longer subject to the NCAA's rules and discipline.

Even the show-cause penalty is unlikely to affect Harbaugh. His Chargers contract reportedly runs for five years at $16 million annually. It's doubtful he'll be looking for a job within the next four years, and if he does get fired by Los Angeles before then, he can simply wait out the remainder of his show-cause order.

Based on Harbaugh's comments to Rhim, he might become an even louder critic of the NCAA thanks to his new distance from college football.

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh pushed back on the idea his demeanor can be off-putting to those around him as he embarks on his NFL comeback.

"The narrative that I'm hard to get along with or whatever other narrative out there is, that's just people's narrative," he said to ESPN's Kris Rhim. "Nobody's ever doubted where my heart is every single time: what's in the best interest of the team that I am on."

Harbaugh guided the San Francisco 49ers to an NFC title in his second season in 2012. By the 2015 offseason, he was out of a job. His dismissal came amid prolonged discord with general manager Trent Baalke and what sounded like a strained relationship with the locker room.

"I think he just pushed guys too far," said former Niners offensive tackle Alex Boone in a 2015 interview with HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. "He wanted too much, demanded too much, expected too much. You know, 'We gotta go out and do this. We gotta go out and do this. We gotta go out and do this.' And you'd be like, 'This guy might be clinically insane. He's crazy.'"

Joe Staley, another former 49ers tackle, offered a similar perspective when speaking to Mojobreak Media in June 2023 (via Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area).

"Obviously, his personality rubs people [the wrong way], he's hard to get along with consistently," Staley said. If you're a Harbaugh guy, you're in his camp and if you're not, you're very against him."

He added the drama between Harbaugh and Baalke was "building" for two years prior to coming to a head in 2014.

"Just looking back on that era of 49ers football, I had never had so many conversations with ownership, with general management, with head coaches about stuff that did not apply to football. It was just like, 'Why am I talking about this? Keep it about football.' That was the situation we were in."

Moving down to the college ranks meant Harbaugh could turn the roster over every few years, thus ensuring things were less likely to reach a breaking point with his players. But his Michigan tenure wasn't without controversy or clashes with the school's administration, the latter of which mirrored his time in the Bay Area.

For now, Harbaugh and the Chargers are in their honeymoon period and history indicates he'll make Los Angeles a winning team before too long.

However, the way things ended at his last two stops raise concerns about the staying power of the partnership.

For Harbaugh, taking the Chargers job is an opportunity to show he has evolved as a coach and that his old reputation no longer applies.

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel is pushing back on the notion that he had a rift with former head football coach Jim Harbaugh.

Per ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, Manuel told Sam Webb of WTKA that it's a "ridiculous" sentiment that he clashed with Harbaugh and didn't want him to return to coach the Wolverines. Manuel added that Michigan made an effort to retain Harbaugh before he ultimately decided to return to the NFL as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

CBS Sports' John Talty released an excerpt of the book he co-authored with Armen Keteyian, The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos, and it revealed details about Harbaugh's relationship with Manuel. It was stated that Harbaugh told a friend that he had a desire to remain at Michigan but felt that "Manuel—no matter his public pronouncements—was not the advocate he needed in his corner."

Harbaugh ended his tenure in Ann Arbor by leading the Wolverines to a national championship last season. However, his run at Michigan wasn't without controversy.

An NCAA investigation into recruiting violations and coaching activities by noncoaching staff members fostered an air of uncertainty surrounding the football program. Talty indicated that Harbaugh felt like he didn't receive enough support from Manuel in front of the NCAA Board of Regents.

When Harbaugh accepted the position with the Chargers and chose to depart the Wolverines, Manuel told Talty that he wished him well.

"I don't want to use the word surprised," he said. "This was the third year Jim had spoken to NFL teams. I can see where people would be interested. As I told Jim, 'I'm sad for us, happy for you if that's what you want to do.'"

Only Harbaugh and Manuel know the true nature of their relationship, but it appears that any buzz about tension may have been overblown.

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh lauded the leadership of quarterback Justin Herbert, who was among "11 or 12" players stuck in an elevator for a few hours at the team hotel in downtown Dallas on Friday.

"'Justin Herbert's a leader. He was a rock. Kept everybody calm,'" Harbaugh said, per the Associated Press. "And everybody kept their poise."

The Chargers were in town for a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, which ended in a 26-19 Bolts win on Saturday.

Everyone ultimately escaped after Dallas Fire-Rescue lifted all the players as well as Jeri Fouts, the wife of franchise legend and Chargers TV analyst Dan Fouts, through the ceiling panels and into another elevator.

Harbaugh saw everyone being rescued and took notice of Herbert.

"And it was hot," Harbaugh said. "As each person came off the elevator, sweating and some had the shirt off. Justin Herbert, his hair was a little wet. But his shirt was completely dry. That was another thing that blew me away."

He also spoke about the difficulty of the situation.

"You get in those situations, and it's a test of wills," Harbaugh said. "I was proud of each of the guys and the two women that were on that elevator. That's a win. You feel good about yourself. You were challenged. It was a test of will, and you pull it down, or pull it in."

Harbaugh is in his first year as the Chargers' head coach after nine seasons at Michigan. He ended his career with a 15-0 record and national championship in his final campaign with the Wolverines.

The Harbaugh era officially begins Sept. 8 when the team plays the Las Vegas Raiders.