EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — He wore the khaki pants on the practice field, apparently for the first time as Los Angeles Chargers coach, so you know Jim Harbaugh was deadly serious on this toasty Monday. You could see it right away: This was Prime Harbaugh, full of fire, hiss and vinegar.
Then he started speaking quite loudly to individual players. Even some yelling, as loud as I ever heard him express himself during a 49ers or Stanford practice back in the old days. He stalked around the field, bending down with his hands on his knees and grimacing theatrically when he was especially perturbed by what he was seeing. Finally, Harbaugh finished up by booming through a fire-and-brimstone speech to the team and then doing multiple sets of push-ups with a group of players doing post-practice conditioning drills.
And oh yeah, after that came a mild earthquake, which was felt throughout much of Southern California and definitely in the Chargers’ building next to the practice field, but not by Harbaugh, who said he only learned about the 4.4 magnitude shaker when others told him. Forces of nature do not acknowledge each other, I guess.
Harbaugh is always singularly focused and difficult to distract. But on this day, at 60, in his first season as the Charger coach, just seven months after winning the national championship with Michigan, Harbaugh was of a mindset that seemed extra streamlined. He clearly wasn’t thrilled with the Chargers’ performance in their 16-3 loss to Seattle in the exhibition opener last weekend. He won’t have Justin Herbert (plantar fascia) back on the field for a while. He’s in the same division as Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs.
It was time for a Harbaugh Jump-Start. I’ve seen versions of this before. I knew what was coming when I talked to him after practice; I’ve experienced it quite often. At times, usually in the offseason, Harbaugh has been nothing but chatty and all expansive in our discussions over the years. Not so much on Monday and definitely not when I asked him if the Michigan championship has changed him or made him feel more contented going into this new job and season.
“No,” Harbaugh said quickly. “Now you got to go do it again. Contentment would never be a word I would associate with football, or football playing or coaching.”
Did winning that title at least solidify things you know about yourself?
“No, now it’s just … you’re right back at it,” Harbaugh said. “Any job you do, it’d be like digging a hole. That’s the only job I can think of where you start on top.”
So what are you doing now?
“Just attacking. Just attacking it with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.’ ”
Yes, we’ve heard that colorful phrase before, dating to when he was hired at Stanford in 2007. I was at the news conference. Harbaugh was 43 then. I was at the news conference four years later when he was hired by the 49ers. He has the same look in his eyes now. The same edge. The same stubbornness. The same single-mindedness. Yes, he has more gray hair. He has used reading glasses since about midway through his 49ers tenure (same for me). But if you expect this guy to act any differently or any more relaxed now in this job, you don’t know Jim Harbaugh.
Wearing the same pants, too.
“When it comes to fashion,” Harbaugh said, “as long as my zipper’s up, that’s about as far as I take the fashion, as you know.”
So what was all the energy and noise about on the field on Monday?
“Just describing what the opportunity is and where we’re at and this opportunity leading up to the second preseason game,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, we want to make progress. Now we know where we’re at. Going from Week 1 to Week 2, that’s your biggest opportunity to make strides. It’s the most you’ll make in all of training camp. Just want guys to be aware of it and embrace it. And then go to the best of their God-given ability because … you can strike when the iron’s hot right now.”
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When he was asked in the news conference whether the Chargers are where he wants them to be right now, a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Harbaugh had a lot of interesting things to say about this topic and a lot of things that he might’ve already said to his players.
“Where I want to be? I always want more,” Harbaugh said. “If I were to answer that no matter where we were at. Want more. Want guys that want it. Want guys to have the urgency. And that could be extra. That could be extra conditioning. They’ve gotta get themselves into that competitive … I never call it life or death. It’s not life or death, playing this game or somebody’s football career. But your lifestyle’s at stake. That’s the way I used to look at it. My lifestyle’s at stake. I’ve gotta compete like my lifestyle’s at stake. Trying to instill that into as many as possible.”
Harbaugh’s mood probably has not been lightened recently by his continuing NCAA issues, of course. Last week, Harbaugh received a one-year suspension and four-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for illegal contact recruiting violations during the pandemic — which would only be relevant if he takes a college coaching job again. Of course, he almost certainly won’t. And the sign-stealing allegations involving Connor Stalions are still being investigated and could bring about more penalties, although likely not directed at Harbaugh.
Harbaugh’s response last week: “Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams I’ve coached. No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right. Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate. I was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for me, it’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”
Harbaugh once told me he respected Urban Meyer as a consistent winner in college but noted that “controversy always follows where he’s been.” I asked Harbaugh on Monday if, after being embroiled in these investigations himself, he now better understands what Meyer or any other coach who’s been under NCAA scrutiny went through.
Nope, Harbaugh wasn’t going anywhere near an NCAA question.
“You can probably tell, I mean, I am so focused on this job and this team, that’s it,” Harbaugh said. “All other thoughts, all other thoughts of anything else than this team and … I have two great loves. Two great loves. My family at home and this family at work and …”
And what?
“And to quote Porky Pig, ‘That’s all, folks,’ ” Harbaugh said.
I think Harbaugh had a glint of a smile when he said that, but maybe not. I know I smiled, at least.
He was cheerier when I asked about the emotions he felt after he chartered a flight out with several of his old 49ers players recently to attend Patrick Willis’ Hall of Fame induction in Canton, Ohio.
“I felt love,” Harbaugh said. “I felt the love that we all had for Patrick, that he had for his teammates, his teammates have for him. The love that Patrick had for the game was always so evident, the way he played the game … that was the biggest feeling.”
So do you get nostalgic for those old 49ers days?
“Yeah, absolutely — memories I’m going to remember until they throw dirt over top of me,” Harbaugh said. “You talk about friendships that are long and trusting. Just wonderful to see a teammate reach the pinnacle, be honored at the pinnacle of all that have ever played the game. That’s powerful. That’s moving.”
Then, at the end of our conversation, I told Harbaugh that I’ve always seen him as an NFL guy. That he’s a natural NFL coach. He’s where he should be now. Yes, it was a leading question when I asked if he agrees with this conclusion, and yes, Harbaugh doesn’t go along with leading questions.
But the answer was more Prime Harbaugh because, as always, he is exactly where he ought to be: “I am here. So this is where my feet are. And this is where all my focus is. On my two great loves — my love at home and my love at work. My total focus is on my two great loves.”
(Photo: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
