Can Jim Harbaugh be the Los Angeles Chargers’ savior? His head coaching track record says so. But he hasn’t been a serial winner as far as the Championships are concerned. But Harbaugh turned Stanford around, right? What about the time when took the Niners to a Super Bowl? What about Michigan winning the championship? All those things are true, but it took the Chargers head coach 13 years to win two championships. Nick Wright thinks there are two reasons the Chargers might fail this year. The first one is Justin Herbert’s recent plantar fascia injury and the second is Harbaugh’s inconsistent record.

“In his last three stops, what’s the only one he didn’t compete for a championship in? Because he competed for it with San Francisco, he won it with Michigan. The answer is Stanford and why? Because as great as they were, they were never consistently the best in their own conference. Well, the Chargers are not going to be the best team in their division,” said Wright on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.

Let’s talk about Justin Herbert’s injury first. His plantar fascia injury has put him in the walking boots. Analysts think that it might be a lingering issue for a while. Combine that with his season-ending finger injury from last year, it’s double trouble. For Harbaugh to achieve what he wants; he needs the quarterback to be healthy.

Most would argue that the Chargers can rely on Rahsawn Slater (LT) and Joe Alt (RT) to protect their quarterback, but Herbert has to be healthy enough for Harbaugh’s schemes to work. The example of this goes back to his Stanford days, you’ll understand the pattern as we go along.

Jim Harbaugh’s time at Stanford

Harbaugh didn’t win a championship with Stanford but improved their record as time progressed. He coached the 49ers after that and turned them into an overnight success story and took them to the Super Bowl. He coached Michigan for 9 years and finally won a championship. But what’s the reason behind this conditional success?

Let’s start with his time at Stanford. Harbaugh’s first two seasons at Stanford were losing seasons, as he had Tavita Pritchard at QB. Pritchard, at his best, completed the season with a 57.9% completion rate. Things changed when Andrew Luck joined the Stanford band. In 2010, Harbaugh’s final season with Stanford, Luck came out with a 70.7% pass completion rate and 32 TDs with 8 interceptions.

When Harbaugh joined the 49ers, he had Alex Smith with him. The famous Harbaugh Bowl happened within his second year of coaching the 49ers, although they lost. Again, Alex Smith had exemplary moments here and there.

But after 4 seasons of coaching the 49ers, Harbaugh thought it was time to go back to college again. He went to join Michigan in 2015 and only had one losing season. However, for the first eight years, he didn’t reach a championship game. Things were pretty inconsistent until JJ McCarthy showed up in 2021 and Michigan started having winning seasons with high margins again. It was McCarthy’s third year when the team won a CFP Championship.

As Nick Wright said earlier, Harbaugh had winning seasons but needed the right talent to succeed. And even when he had the right talent, there was no guarantee that he could take the team to a playoff. It took McCarthy 3 years to reach the CFP Championship. How long will it take Justin Herbert to reach the playoffs with Harbaugh?

Now, he has divisional rivals like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders. Both these teams are a tough bunch to beat and hence, Harbaugh might falter in the first season. Do you think that the Chargers can reach the playoffs and top the division this year?