JIM HARBAUGH WAS underqualified when he utilized for the College of San Diego’s head teaching job in late 2003 — and the panel interviewing him knew it.
“For almost all of the group, he was not the main candidate,” Dan Yourg, USD’s senior affiliate director of athletics for administration, stated of the committee composed of Toreros directors and gamers.
Harbaugh, then 39, had lately retired after taking part in 15 seasons within the NFL and was in his second season as an assistant quarterbacks coach with the Oakland Raiders. He had by no means been a head coach. Concern about his lack of expertise prevailed.
However Harbaugh impressed the group together with his enthusiasm and an uncommon degree of preparation. He knew all the things about USD extensive receiver Michael Gasperson — a member of the interview panel — from Gasperson’s highschool stats to how he deliberate to make use of him on offense.
“For somebody that had performed on the highest degree … he had a humbleness about him, but additionally a fantastic ardour and plan,” Yourg stated. “And once more, had accomplished his homework.”
However one second from that interview nonetheless stands out to Yourg 20-plus years later. When requested about his aims, Harbaugh instructed them his final aim was to win a Tremendous Bowl.
It was a stunning admission, contemplating Harbaugh was interviewing for a school job the place he could not win a Tremendous Bowl, however Yourg stated it make clear his dedication to profitable. Harbaugh knew step one towards his aim was changing into a head coach.
“He stated that when he was coming all the way down to interview, [Raiders owner] Al Davis stated to him, ‘You are interviewing at USD, not USC,’ which means ‘What are you doing?'” Yourg stated. “And Jim stated, ‘Yeah, that is what I wish to do.'”
Harbaugh’s persona and imaginative and prescient satisfied the committee to rent him at USD. His three seasons with the Toreros included two of probably the most profitable seasons in program historical past.
“Phenomenal expertise. Among the finest occasions of my life,” Harbaugh stated this week of his tenure there.
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Greater than 20 years since his rent, the 60-year-old Harbaugh nonetheless hasn’t fulfilled his final aim of profitable a Tremendous Bowl, however he might have an opportunity this season. Harbaugh has the Los Angeles Chargers (8-6) in playoff competition forward of their matchup with the Denver Broncos on “Thursday Evening Soccer” (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
In some ways, Harbaugh is similar coach he was two-plus many years in the past. However again then, he did not have a observe file of turning round packages, and his demanding teaching type drove away many gamers. Those that stayed, nonetheless, had a front-row seat to Harbaugh’s first step in changing into some of the profitable soccer coaches of his period, a coach the Chargers hope has yet one more organizational turnaround in his profession.
“Tremendous polarizing. Some folks liked him, some folks did not,” stated Phil Bretsch, who performed robust security at USD. “However he had this factor he stated to us the primary week he was there [derived from a famous saying by his college coach at Michigan, Bo Schembechler]: ‘For those who keep, you will be champions.’ After which that is what occurred.”
ALTHOUGH HE HAD WON the job, Harbaugh’s rent wasn’t met with resounding help from Toreros gamers.
In 2003, beneath coach Kevin McGarry, USD started the season 5-1 and was on a five-game profitable streak when the college fired McGarry hours earlier than the crew boarded a airplane to Indiana to face Valparaiso. USD misplaced that sport, however completed the season 8-2. McGarry’s firing (shrouded in thriller on the time however later revealed in courtroom filings to be tied to a collection of alleged interactions on campus that showcased McGarry’s anger) by no means made sense to many gamers.
When USD employed Harbaugh on Dec. 20, 2003, some gamers have been excited a couple of coach with NFL expertise, however others felt loyalty to McGarry and puzzled if Harbaugh can be a very good match.
“I used to be truthfully a little bit skeptical,” stated Ronnie Pentz, who performed linebacker.
Harbaugh’s offseason coaching program within the spring of 2004 shortly turned away some gamers. Harbaugh demanded loads of the crew, together with 5 a.m. exercises through the offseason when gamers have been accustomed to downtime. USD is a non-scholarship program, so gamers weren’t tied to the crew by a monetary dedication. A number of gamers from the 2004 crew stated round 50 folks stop that spring.
“It wasn’t at all times easygoing,” stated Nick Garton, a large receiver at USD. “Lots of guys in the end ended up tapping out … and it left us with a nucleus core of gamers that have been the inspiration for the groups he had a lot success with.”
For some gamers, it was not Harbaugh himself however the teaching workers who received them over. Harbaugh constructed a workers that included ex-Chargers Dave Adolph, Charles Dimry and Reggie Davis, which excited gamers in regards to the crew’s potential. Harbaugh’s father, Jack, who was employed as USD’s assistant head coach after a profitable stretch as head coach at Western Kentucky, linked with the crew as properly. Jack’s presence helped make clear why Jim operated as he did.
“His dad can be backpedaling like proper behind me. The ball can be thrown. He’d be screaming down my ear, chasing after me,” Pentz remembered with a smile. “I could not decelerate for one second, or this outdated man would smash into me. That is the place Jim’s enthusiasm comes from.”
The second of acceptance for some gamers over Jim Harbaugh’s strategies got here throughout a crew exercise. He joined gamers in working a steep hill that took round 60 seconds for many to achieve the highest. They ran it a number of occasions, sufficient that Harbaugh vomited mid-stride whereas working — with out stopping. It is a second many gamers nonetheless discuss.
“We did not know whether or not to be pumped on that, ‘Like this man’s superior,” Garton stated, “or like, ‘What’s flawed with this man? He is obtained a screw free.’
“However that is a part of his appeal, a part of his enchantment. He is a little bit loopy, so guys are like, ‘Dude, I type of like this, however I’m additionally unsure what to make of this.'”
HARBAUGH, WHO RAN the crew’s offense, created an offseason setting that solid the 2 sides of the ball as enemies. The previous NFL quarterback had the ultimate say at follow and this led to lopsided officiating in favor of the offense, which fostered extra rigidity between the offense and protection. Harbaugh additionally hardly ever let follow finish on a defensive cease.
“If the final play the protection received, then we might need to run it once more,” stated Mike Rish, who was then an assistant extensive receivers coach at USD.
Wes Doyle, who performed extensive receiver, remembers Harbaugh chastising him for sitting with defensive gamers within the cafeteria. “He’d say, ‘What might you guys probably have to speak about?'” Doyle stated with a smile. “‘You do not have to be all buddy-buddy with him within the cafeteria, he isn’t your good friend proper now.'”
“It was type of like us versus them in follow and spring ball,” Bretsch stated. “And it was extra intense than loads of video games we performed.”
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The protection was dominating one follow when Harbaugh grew irritated — and took over as quarterback of the first-team offense. Harbaugh threw just a few passes, however the protection knocked them down. Finally, Harbaugh, carrying no pads, sprinted out of the pocket and commenced working downfield. Now Harbaugh was headed towards Bretsch, who was working to make a deal with.
“I am like, ‘OK, I will gentle him up if he is going to do that,'” Bretsch stated. “And it was like taking part in a sport of hen. He put his head all the way down to run me over, and I needed to transfer out of the way in which. On the final minute, he obtained up and threw the ball at me. He was like, ‘You p—y. Hit me. Come on, let’s go.’ I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, this man is insane.'”
Bretsch continued: “Our relationship was, he talked crap to me, and that is the way in which he obtained probably the most out of me. He knew get probably the most out of every individual.”
THE FIRST GAME of that season was towards Azusa Pacific College, then an NAIA faculty outdoors of Los Angeles. The crew took a two-hour bus experience there, anticipating a win to start the Harbaugh period at USD.
As a substitute, the Toreros misplaced 24-17. Azusa Pacific outscored USD 10-0 within the fourth quarter to spoil Harbaugh’s teaching debut.
After the sport, Harbaugh took the crew to Hooters for a deliberate dinner that included a non-public room. When the gamers and coaches entered the room, a big banner learn, “Congratulations, Coach Harbaugh.”
“It was the saddest Hooters expertise in all of our lives,” stated Eric Bakhtiari, who performed defensive finish. “As soon as it did not work out, he took that feeling and all the things after that was ensuring that it might by no means prove just like the Hooters day.”
However the struggles did not finish at Hooters. The Toreros started the season 2-4, together with a 61-14 drubbing by Penn in Harbaugh’s dwelling debut, the place USD allowed eight touchdowns.
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Amid the skid, some started to wonder if Harbaugh was the precise coach for the job.
“It took a little bit little bit of a few of the pleasure away,” former USD cornerback Josh Brisco stated. “We’re working so laborious, a lot has modified from an perspective degree to an funding perspective. Like is it price it? We have been doing high quality earlier than, did we have to change that a lot?”
Nonetheless, Bakhtiari remembered how the dropping streak and particularly the Penn loss “essentially switched” the crew. “It was a name to motion to himself, to his workers, to us as gamers,” he stated.
Harbaugh inspired gamers to proceed to consider in his teaching philosophy. Regardless of the losses, he promised USD was near being the crew he had hoped it might be after probably the most difficult offseason of all his gamers’ school careers.
“It wasn’t like everybody felt dejected and gave up,” Doyle stated. “Or like, ‘This man’s loopy, none of his s— labored.’ It was like ‘purchase in additional, purchase into this system.'”
PLAYERS CITE HARBAUGH’S dedication and persona as a cause they continued believing. He walked the stroll. Harbaugh did pushups through the crew’s every day warmups, attempting so as to add to what number of he might do with out stopping. Gamers keep in mind his face going pink and the veins in his face and neck bulging as he struggled via every rep.
“He obtained to a degree the place he was at 100 pushups that he might do with out stopping,” former USD working again Evan Harney stated, “and it began like 50, after which the subsequent week was at 55.”
Garton remembers Harbaugh changing into a mainstay on the crew’s lifts, usually carrying a sweater tucked into khaki pants. In the future, Harbaugh joined the crew in doing energy cleans — an train the place the athlete pulls a barbell from the bottom as much as their shoulders, catching it in a squat place. Harbaugh had not warmed up, however grabbed the burden anyway and tried the ability clear.
“He ended up on his ass, however he tried it, and we’re all taking a look at him … and he does not get embarrassed, dude,” Garton stated with amusing. “He is simply type of like, ‘Huh. It is heavier than I believed.’ Will get up, walks out. We’re identical to, ‘What the f—?’ I imply, we’re taking a look at one another like, ‘Dude, this man’s totally different.'”
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Past the exercises, Harbaugh elevated the legitimacy of this system. Earlier than Harbaugh, Brisco remembers paying $200 for his crew journey gear and tools. Harbaugh ended that instantly, although, to today, the gamers aren’t positive what strings he pulled. “Now, after I wanted gloves, I might simply go to the tools room,” he stated. “It was small, however it began to really feel like this was an actual program.”
Harbaugh did many issues that first 12 months that saved follow or conferences attention-grabbing, measures the gamers now understand had a deeper which means associated to soccer.
As soon as, throughout a gathering, he instructed gamers to stroll outdoors, the place they watched a visitors controller direct visitors for 10 minutes. Whereas they watched, Harbaugh preached “mind-numbing repetition” — doing one thing sufficient to make it grow to be second nature. He needed his gamers to deal with probably the most mundane particulars even when nobody was watching — the identical as this man directing visitors.
“I get delicate about these tales typically as a result of should you oversimplify him all the way down to a quote, you miss Harbaugh,” Doyle stated. “For those who elevate the covers on many of the one-off quotes and tales, there’s much more there for these of us who know him.”
USD PUMMELED ITS opponents in a five-game profitable streak to finish the 2004 season, profitable by at the very least 21 factors in every sport however one.
Harbaugh usually instructed the gamers in conferences forward of video games that season that they may beat groups and “it did not have to be shut.” In USD’s wins, Harbaugh inspired the crew to maintain scoring. “He at all times instructed us it wasn’t his job to cease his crew from scoring,” Doyle stated. “That was the opposite crew’s job.”
Maybe the most important win of that marketing campaign got here in the one non-blowout through the streak. USD performed Dayton within the season’s penultimate sport, a measuring stick for Harbaugh and a Toreros program that had overwhelmed the Flyers solely as soon as in crew historical past earlier than that season. Dayton was the Pioneer Soccer League’s most dominant crew with a conference-best eight titles.
With 9:18 left within the fourth quarter and USD main 31-28, working again Evan Harney fumbled. Dayton defensive again Casey Klaus returned the miscue 79 yards for a landing that gave Dayton a 35-31 lead.
“I am considering I simply misplaced the sport,” Harney stated. “I by no means had a second like that the place I used to be so helpless on the sector.”
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On the next drive, Toreros quarterback Todd Mortensen remembers a run-pass-option play name on third down, and his alternative was to throw the ball when he ought to have handed it off primarily based on Dayton’s protection. USD was compelled to punt. It was two errors from two of the crew’s greatest gamers, however Harbaugh assured Mortensen when he got here to the sideline that they’d have a shot to win the sport.
Pentz stopped a Dayton fourth-down try on the subsequent drive to provide the offense the ball with 2:40 left within the sport. The Toreros drove down the sector and Harney scored a landing to place them up 38-35. They sealed the win with Bakhtiari’s interception on Dayton’s closing drive.
“The truth that he would have that belief in me to place the ball in my palms was enormous,” Harney stated. “That was an enormous win for us. And I feel it was a giant deal for him, too, however we’ll nonetheless discuss that play collectively after I see him.”
“If I made a mistake, he would coach me as an alternative of chewing me out after which specific his confidence in me,” Mortensen stated. “These sorts of experiences actually made an enormous distinction in my profession.”
USD ended the season with a 35-14 win over Wagner to complete 7-4. In keeping with their file, the Toreros had taken a step again from 2003. And but, the gamers largely felt that that they had discovered a profitable formulation, that they have been on the doorstep of one thing larger.
USD went 22-2 over Harbaugh’s subsequent two seasons, profitable the primary two PFL championships at school historical past. Harbaugh left USD after 2006 for Stanford, the place he spent 4 seasons and led the Cardinal to a 12-1 file and Rose Bowl win in his closing 12 months.
He moved to the NFL in 2011, main the San Francisco 49ers to 3 straight NFC championships and a Tremendous Bowl look in 4 seasons earlier than going again to varsity. Harbaugh returned to his alma mater, the College of Michigan, in 2015, teaching the Wolverines for 9 years, culminating in an undefeated nationwide championship season in 2023.
At every cease, Harbaugh considerably elevated packages from the place they have been when he arrived. Over 20 years and 5 groups, his gamers are unified by that sample of progress, traditions that began for Harbaugh throughout that first season in San Diego.
“There was simply type of a collective swagger,” Doyle stated. “There was positively a sense that type of, no wanting again from right here. We had purchased in and this was our factor.”
