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, mentioned of the committee composed of Toreros directors and gamers.
Harbaugh, then 39, had just 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 every part about USD vast 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 in addition an amazing ardour and plan,” Yourg mentioned. “And once more, had executed his homework.”
However one second from that interview nonetheless stands out to Yourg 20-plus years later. When requested about his targets, Harbaugh instructed them his final aim was to win a Tremendous Bowl.
It was a stunning admission, contemplating Harbaugh was interviewing for a university job the place he could not win a Tremendous Bowl, however Yourg mentioned it make clear his dedication to profitable. Harbaugh knew step one towards his aim was changing into a head coach.
“He mentioned that when he was coming all the way down to interview, [Raiders owner] Al Davis mentioned to him, ‘You are interviewing at USD, not USC,’ that means ‘What are you doing?'” Yourg mentioned. “And Jim mentioned, ‘Yeah, that is what I wish to do.'”
Harbaugh’s character 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 best instances of my life,” Harbaugh mentioned this week of his tenure there.
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 rivalry forward of their matchup with the Denver Broncos on “Thursday Night time Soccer” (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
In some ways, Harbaugh is identical coach he was two-plus a long time in the past. However again then, he did not have a monitor report of turning round applications, and his demanding teaching model drove away many gamers. Those that stayed, nonetheless, had a front-row seat to Harbaugh’s first step in changing into probably the most profitable soccer coaches of his period, a coach the Chargers hope has yet one more organizational turnaround in his profession.
“Tremendous polarizing. Some individuals liked him, some individuals did not,” mentioned Phil Bretsch, who performed sturdy security at USD. “However he had this factor he mentioned 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 assist 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 group boarded a aircraft 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 sequence 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 had been excited a few coach with NFL expertise, however others felt loyalty to McGarry and questioned if Harbaugh could be an excellent match.
“I used to be actually somewhat skeptical,” mentioned Ronnie Pentz, who performed linebacker.
Harbaugh’s offseason coaching program within the spring of 2004 rapidly turned away some gamers. Harbaugh demanded numerous the group, together with 5 a.m. exercises throughout the offseason when gamers had been accustomed to downtime. USD is a non-scholarship program, so gamers weren’t tied to the group by a monetary dedication. A number of gamers from the 2004 group mentioned round 50 individuals stop that spring.
“It wasn’t all the time easygoing,” mentioned Nick Garton, a large receiver at USD. “Loads of guys in the end ended up tapping out … and it left us with a nucleus core of gamers that had 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 gained them over. Harbaugh constructed a workers that included ex-Chargers Dave Adolph, Charles Dimry and Reggie Davis, which excited gamers in regards to the group’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 group as nicely. Jack’s presence helped make clear why Jim operated as he did.
“His dad could be backpedaling like proper behind me. The ball could 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 group exercise. He joined gamers in working a steep hill that took round 60 seconds for many to succeed in the highest. They ran it a number of instances, 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 mentioned, “or like, ‘What’s flawed with this man? He is bought a screw unfastened.’
“However that is a part of his attraction, a part of his enchantment. He is somewhat 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 group’s offense, created an offseason atmosphere 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 gained, then we might should run it once more,” mentioned Mike Rish, who was then an assistant vast receivers coach at USD.
Wes Doyle, who performed vast 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 mentioned with a smile. “‘You do not have to be all buddy-buddy with him within the cafeteria, he is not your buddy proper now.'”
“It was type of like us versus them in follow and spring ball,” Bretsch mentioned. “And it was extra intense than numerous video games we performed.”
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. Ultimately, Harbaugh, sporting 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 mentioned. “And it was like taking part in a sport of rooster. 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 bought 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 bought probably the most out of me. He knew how one can get probably the most out of every particular person.”
THE FIRST GAME of that season was towards Azusa Pacific College, then an NAIA college outdoors of Los Angeles. The group took a two-hour bus journey 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 group to Hooters for a deliberate dinner that included a personal 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,” mentioned Eric Bakhtiari, who performed defensive finish. “As soon as it did not work out, he took that feeling and every part after that was ensuring that it might by no means end up 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 residence debut, the place USD allowed eight touchdowns.
Amid the skid, some started to wonder if Harbaugh was the proper coach for the job.
“It took somewhat little bit of among the pleasure away,” former USD cornerback Josh Brisco mentioned. “We’re working so laborious, a lot has modified from an angle degree to an funding perspective. Like is it value it? We had been doing nice earlier than, did we have to change that a lot?”
Nonetheless, Bakhtiari remembered how the dropping streak and particularly the Penn loss “basically switched” the group. “It was a name to motion to himself, to his workers, to us as gamers,” he mentioned.
Harbaugh inspired gamers to proceed to consider in his teaching philosophy. Regardless of the losses, he promised USD was near being the group 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 mentioned. “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 character as a purpose they continued believing. He walked the stroll. Harbaugh did pushups throughout the group’s each 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 by way of every rep.
“He bought to some extent the place he was at 100 pushups that he might do with out stopping,” former USD working again Evan Harney mentioned, “and it began like 50, after which the following week was at 55.”
Garton remembers Harbaugh changing into a mainstay on the group’s lifts, typically sporting a sweater tucked into khaki pants. At some point, Harbaugh joined the group 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 load anyway and tried the ability clear.
“He ended up on his ass, however he tried it, and we’re all him … and he does not get embarrassed, dude,” Garton mentioned with amusing. “He is simply type of like, ‘Huh. It is heavier than I believed.’ Will get up, walks out. We’re similar to, ‘What the f—?’ I imply, we’re one another like, ‘Dude, this man’s completely different.'”
Past the exercises, Harbaugh elevated the legitimacy of this system. Earlier than Harbaugh, Brisco remembers paying $200 for his group journey gear and gear. Harbaugh ended that instantly, although, to today, the gamers aren’t certain what strings he pulled. “Now, after I wanted gloves, I might simply go to the gear room,” he mentioned. “It was small, but it surely 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 notice had a deeper that 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 wished 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 in case you oversimplify him all the way down to a quote, you miss Harbaugh,” Doyle mentioned. “For those who elevate the covers on a lot 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 typically instructed the gamers in conferences forward of video games that season that they might beat groups and “it did not have to be shut.” In USD’s wins, Harbaugh inspired the group to maintain scoring. “He all the time instructed us it wasn’t his job to cease his group from scoring,” Doyle mentioned. “That was the opposite group’s job.”
Maybe the most important win of that marketing campaign got here in the one non-blowout throughout 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 group historical past earlier than that season. Dayton was the Pioneer Soccer League’s most dominant group 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 pondering I simply misplaced the sport,” Harney mentioned. “I by no means had a second like that the place I used to be so helpless on the sphere.”
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 pressured to punt. It was two errors from two of the group’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 following drive to provide the offense the ball with 2:40 left within the sport. The Toreros drove down the sphere 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 arms was large,” Harney mentioned. “That was an enormous win for us. And I believe 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 a substitute of chewing me out after which categorical his confidence in me,” Mortensen mentioned. “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 report, the Toreros had taken a step again from 2003. And but, the gamers largely felt that that they had discovered a profitable method, that they had 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 report and Rose Bowl win in his closing 12 months.
He moved to the NFL in 2011, main the San Francisco 49ers to a few 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 applications from the place they had 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 mentioned. “There was positively a sense that type of, no wanting again from right here. We had purchased in and this was our factor.”
