National Football League

Can Jim Harbaugh turn the Chargers into winners? He’s done it everywhere else

Published May. 1, 2024 10:11 a.m. ET

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Jim Harbaugh sleeping in a souped-up RV on Huntington Beach next to the Pacific Ocean came as no surprise to J.T. Rogan.

"That's par for the course," said Rogan, who played running back for Harbaugh at his first coaching stop at San Diego, then later joined his staffs at Stanford and Michigan. "He's about efficiency. What more do you need, right? You've got your bed. You've got your bathroom.

"At Michigan, he just wore all the team-issued stuff — khakis and whatever top he wanted to put on with a Michigan logo. He doesn't want or need much. He doesn't have any hobbies or recreation of any sort. It just felt so on brand."

Harbaugh appears to be thoroughly enjoying his first few months with the Los Angeles Chargers. It started with the $80 million head coach living in an RV before his family joined him from Michigan. It included a trip to Home Depot with strength coach Ben Herbert to purchase a Shop-Vac for the team's training facility. And, oh yes, Harbaugh has also been working closely with franchise quarterback Justin Herbert to help him grow as a player.

Harbaugh spent two months at the waterfront RV park, camped not far from offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who Harbaugh said has a rig "like the rock bands go around in." Harbaugh came up with the RV idea from his favorite TV show of the 1970s, "The Rockford Files" starring James Garner. The title character, private detective Jim Rockford, lived in a beat-up trailer on Malibu Beach.

"It's a good place to think," Harbaugh said about his time in the RV. "A time for some solitude. Plus, I just go to bed early. Watch a Rockford CD and go to bed."

With Harbaugh having moved into a house with his family, the time for solitude might be over. But that won't stop him from relentlessly focusing on turning around a franchise that has won only one playoff game since moving to Los Angeles in 2017. That's why the Chargers hired him. He's a pro at reclamation projects, turning struggling programs into winners at every stop as a head coach, including San Diego, Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers and most recently Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to a 15-0 record and the national championship in his final season.

Harbaugh has the tattoo to prove it, which he promised his players he would get if the team won the national title.

How has Harbaugh turned so many programs around?

"The hardest practices, the hardest working conditions, universally," said Rogan, who became San Diego's all-time leading rusher playing for Harbaugh. "Everyone you talk to, they say it's going to be the most difficult experience. But the rewards are going to be immense."

Big-time competitors welcome

During his time with the Chargers from 1999 to 2001, Mike Riley coached Harbaugh and later coached against him when Riley was at Oregon State and Harbaugh was at Stanford. So Riley got an up-close view of Harbaugh's intensity as both a player and as a coach.

"I don't think anyone has ever done a better coaching job than Jim did at Stanford," Riley told FOX Sports. "They were not a very good team. And he transformed them into a physical, precision-based outfit, and they ended up being so good. He just kept building that team until they were one of the best in the country. And I just thought that was one of the really great examples of transforming a program."

In 1999, the Chargers acquired the 36-year-old Harbaugh to be the backup quarterback to first-round pick Ryan Leaf. But when Leaf suffered a shoulder injury in training camp, Harbaugh became the starter. The Chargers started 4-7, but with Harbaugh under center and a strong defense anchored by Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison, they won four of their last five games and fell just short of the playoffs.

The turning point of the season may have been a halftime dust-up between Harbaugh and Chargers safety Mike Dumas during a road game against the Oakland Raiders. It was because of the team's underperforming offense.

"He wasn't ever going to back down from anything," Riley said of his QB. "Something happened right before halftime and Mike said something. And Jim and Mike were jawing on their way off the field. And they waited until they got off the field and out of sight of the fans, and then they went at it. And then they got separated and we went out and played the second half."

That Harbaugh intensity has never wavered. Eric Bakhtiari, the older brother of longtime Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari, played defensive end for Harbaugh at San Diego and with the 49ers.

"It was so special having him, the way he pushed us and celebrated us," Bakhtiari said. "What we had there was so unique.

"Even when he was at San Francisco, he really elevated everyone in the right way, but he was a lot more open to player feedback than when he was in San Diego. He knew that he knew best when we were in San Diego. And he knew that it would be best to have more of collaborative approach with professionals."

Bakhtiari was part of the hiring committee when San Diego interviewed Harbaugh in 2004. He recalls a recently retired player who was an intensely committed coach willing to lead by example, showing players how to compete at an elite level.

"We expected to go to San Diego and live at the beach," Bakhtiari said. "Some of the guys wanted to surf, play football and get a good education. So, Harbaugh's first day, he goes, ‘Look, if you came here to live at the beach, surf, be a student and play football on the side, this team is no longer for you.'

"And everyone was kind of like, ‘Wait, what?'"

Harbaugh would do push-ups while the players stretched at the start of practice, groaning and grunting in his khakis as he worked his way up to 100.

"So it was 25, then it was 36," Bakhtiari said. "Then it was 52, then it was 73, and then it was 83. "And he'd get up and announce, ‘Eighty-three, men, getting closer and better every day. This is what it's all about.'"

The ultra-competitive head coach also wasn't shy about jumping back into action during practice.

"If the scout team wasn't giving the defense the look that we felt we needed, he would be like, 'Get out, I'm going in,'" Bakhtiari said. "He would flip his hat around backwards and go in at quarterback. He would go in there, drop back, and if I got pressure he would scramble out at full speed. I remember one time I was in hot pursuit and he stopped, turned on a dime, and he made me sprain my ankle. And he just looked back and laughed at me and threw the ball downfield.

"He would throw these rockets — perfect placement. And it would hit their hands and drop. And he'd be like, ‘Aaah, all good until the ball got there.'"

Nobody has it better than Harbaugh

Yes, the Harbaughisms are a thing.

His most popular, of course, is: "Who's got it better than us? Nobody."

Others gleaned from Harbaugh's father, Jack Harbaugh, who was a longtime high school and college football coach, include:

"Attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind."

"Better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today."

"Attitude is gratitude."

And we can already add a few new ones from this year's press conferences with the Chargers:

"Fat is the enemy of speed."

"Offensive linemen we look at as weapons."

"Don't let the Powder Blues fool you."

"Big-time competitor. Competitors welcomed."

Jim Harbaugh wants "multiple championships" for Chargers

While perhaps the Ted Lasso, made-for-TV quips can come off to Gen Z players as a little corny, Rogan says they are effective ways for Harbaugh to communicate his message.

"It's the receipts, right?" Rogan said. "I think the tendency could be, yeah, it's played out or whatever. But is winning played out? No, OK so maybe that's the price you have to pay in order to get the wins?

"It's a recipe. Maybe not all the ingredients in a recipe taste great. I don't eat basil leaves or oregano raw, but they sure are nice complements to great Italian dishes."

According to former Michigan linebacker Junior Colson, recently drafted by Harbaugh to play for the Chargers, it's all a recipe for success.

"He's the best coach out there," Colson said. "He's the best coach to play for, that I believe in. He's a winner. That's something that you always want to follow. You want to follow a winner. You want to be with winners. I believe that I'm with a winner right now."

Rogan added a twist to Harbaugh's most famous motto:

"The great one is ‘Who's got it better than us? Nobody.'" Rogan said. "It's not well known, but one time he was like, ‘Future us has it better than us right now.' And you can't really make that a saying, but that's the 2.0 version. ‘Who's got it better than us? Nobody — except possibly the future us.'"

Can it really work in Los Angeles?

New Chargers GM Joe Hortiz met Jim Harbaugh before John Harbaugh.

Jim Harbaugh was traded to the Baltimore Ravens in 1998, which happened to be the beginning of Hortiz's 26-year run with the team. And Harbaugh invited Hortiz to play racquetball with him and backup quarterback Eric Zeier.

"I was 22 years old," Hortiz said. "I'm a kid. It's the coolest thing in the world. I'm getting ready to go play with a starting NFL quarterback and his backup. I'm going to show them that I'm an athlete. I'm going to show them that I can hang."

The racquetball game, however, didn't exactly go according to plan for Hortiz.

"I swear to you, I'm so blessed to be here today that I got out of that room," he joked. "I was getting thrown around. I'm getting ready to hit a ball off of the wall, Jim comes in and just chucks me into the middle of the court. I realized that I was there just to give them a break."

Hortiz saw firsthand the competitive zeal that has driven Harbaugh all his life, and that competitiveness is the reason why many NFL observers believe he will succeed with the Chargers. Hortiz sees that commonality between the two Harbaugh brothers.

"It's their passion for the game, their love of the game, their commitment to the organization and the team," Hortiz said. "They're obviously committed to winning. They're highly competitive and great leaders. They're very, very similar in that regard. I loved working with John for 16 years, and I absolutely love working with Jim."

Jim Harbaugh lays out blueprint for Justin Herbert, Chargers

With his family still making the transition from Baltimore, Hortiz is sharing his home with assistant general manager Chad Alexander and director of player personnel Corey Krawiec.

"What you do is you never leave the conversation at the office," Hortiz told FOX Sports. "With Chad and Corey, I may not see them all day because we're each doing our own thing. And then when we get together, it's like a staff meeting at night."

But when working with Jim Harbaugh, there's no such thing as too much preparation.

"His preparation was unparalleled," Riley said of Harbaugh the player. "His physical preparation prior to the season and then during the season, his hard work at practices. And then his diligence in knowing what we're doing and studying for the game, knowing the game plan and just being prepared in every way, physically and mentally. And then he was such a competitor during the games.

"Because of everything he put into it, nobody wanted to win more than Jim did."

And that obviously hasn't changed during his 22-year coaching career, which now lacks only one accomplishment. When the Chargers hired him, the 60-year-old Harbaugh explained that he left his alma mater for the chance to win a Super Bowl.

"There’s no Lombardi Trophy in college football," he said. "And I got so many sands left in the hourglass. And I wanna take a crack at that."

If he pulls it off, it will be a first in the history of the Chargers franchise. But no one who has played for or worked with Harbaugh would bet against him.

"He says make your goals so audacious that people laugh at them. And it's worked for him at every level, including as a player," Rogan said. "So at some point, is it radical or is your thinking just too small?

"That's what he introduces to his players. When he instills and invigorates that radical belief, and now he can say, ‘Yeah, I took a team from 6-10 to 13-3 and the NFC Championship. Yeah, we're doing that here.' He's got the receipts.

"And he's been doing that even before he had the receipts."

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]