Jim Harbaugh to Coach Stanford

[amare32]

Here's a blast from the past, especially for fans of the Wolverines and Bears. Congrats and best wishes to Harbaugh.

Harbaugh to become Stanford coach

By Josh Dubow

AP Sports Writer

Dec. 18, 2006 10:15 PM

Stanford hired former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh on Monday to take over its struggling football program.

Harbaugh had spent the last three years as head coach at the University of San Diego, a non-scholarship Division I-AA program. He led the Toreros to a 29-6 record, winning 27 of his final 29 games at San Diego.

The school planned to formally introduce Harbaugh at a news conference Tuesday. Phone messages left for Harbaugh were not immediately returned.

Harbaugh has the tough task of turning around the Cardinal, who set a school record for losses in a 1-11 season this year that led to the firing of coach Walt Harris.

Stanford has won just 16 games in the past five seasons under Harris and Buddy Teevens, and have to struggled to compete in the Pac-10 since Tyrone Willingham left for Notre Dame following the 2001 season.

The first challenge for Harbaugh will be recruiting talented players who can meet Stanford's stringent academic requirements. Harris and Teevens both struggled in that aspect of the job.

Harbaugh was a star in college at Michigan, finishing third in the voting for the 1986 Heisman Trophy award. But he does have ties to Stanford, where his father, Jack, served as defensive coordinator in 1980-81. Harbaugh spent his final two years as a prep player at Palo Alto High School before going to Michigan.

Harbaugh worked as a volunteer assistant for his father at Western Kentucky during his NFL career. He was an assistant with the Oakland Raiders before taking the job at San Diego.

This was the first major hiring by athletic director Bob Bowlsby, who came to Stanford from Iowa in July. Bowlsby fired Harris two days after the Cardinal finished the season with a 26-17 loss to California in the Big Game.

He accomplished his goal of completing his search in two weeks. Other candidates included former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel, Montana coach Bobby Hauck and San Diego Chargers assistant James Lofton.

Harbaugh was a first-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 1987 and played 15 seasons in the NFL, leading the Indianapolis Colts to the 1995 AFC championship game. He was second in the MVP voting that season, leading the NFL with a 100.7 quarterback rating.

"The only thing I've heard is he's done a great job there and he would be a good guy to fill the position," said quarterback Kellen Kiilsgaard, Stanford's top recruit for next season. "He was a great quarterback while he was playing. That always helps to have a coach who played quarterback to relate to."

Kiilsgaard, who is from Auburn, Wash., committed to Stanford when Harris was coach but said in a phone interview that he would still sign a letter of intent with the school in February.

Harris finished his two-year stint with a 6-17 record, the shortest tenure of any Stanford coach since Rod Dowhower left after one season in 1979 with a 5-5-1 record.

The Cardinal finished this season with their worst record since going 0-10 in 1960. They went winless in five games at their renovated stadium, which was often half-empty as fans were apathetic during the team's struggles.

Motivating the fan base was important to Bowlsby. Stanford has success in almost every other sport, but Bowlsby said that in order to have a topflight athletic program a school must succeed in football.

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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.

[CZzyzx41]

While I'm mainly a BYU fan, I do support local schools and it was amazing watching the Toreros the last 3 years. It'll be sad to see Jim go but he deserves the promotion to the next level.

[pcgd]

Possibly the last decent Bears QB ever...

Ok...he wasn't all that great. But those are some of my first Memories of bears football. Jim Harbaugh to Tom Waddle....handing off to Neal Anderson....good times.

Congrats to Jim!

[OB33]

Captain Comeback

Is Back.

I think I have a new favorite Pac-10 team. Not that I really had one to start with.

[Seadragon76]

Man, the other Pac-10 schools have some lame coaches, man.

Stanford got a man who has no clue how to compete in the I-A level because he's been stuck in that dump that is USD.

Have fun enjoying a possible 0-12 season next year, Cardinal fans!

[NJTank]

He played at Michigan played in the NFL I think he will be a good D-1A Coach

[jkrdevil]

Man, the other Pac-10 schools have some lame coaches, man.

Stanford got a man who has no clue how to compete in the I-A level because he's been stuck in that dump that is USD.

Have fun enjoying a possible 0-12 season next year, Cardinal fans!

No he only went 29-6 at a team that couldn't award scholarships. Plus he is a name that people have heard of which will help immensely and is a key to college coaching. I think Harbaugh will do fine.

[amare32]

Man, the other Pac-10 schools have some lame coaches, man.

Stanford got a man who has no clue how to compete in the I-A level because he's been stuck in that dump that is USD.

Have fun enjoying a possible 0-12 season next year, Cardinal fans!

Sour young man, kindly confine your commentary to Wazzu-UW. No one else can be bothered to pay attention to your Huskies.

[Seadragon76]

Really funny, amare. That was worth a chuckle.

In all seriousness, I wonder if this would work. You're talking about a coach who is making the leap from the non-scholly Pioneer League in I-AA to the Pac-10 in I-A. The difference is night and day.

Now, you see why Iowa State passed on Harbaugh themselves.

[whitedawg22]

I think he'll as well as anyone could do at Stanford. He was always among the smartest NFL QBs and he has successful small-college experience, which often can translate to larger success (Jim Tressel, anyone?). Not to mention that his dad was a coach, and Jim often helped with the recruiting... he'll do fine.

[Luigi74]

Any coach is a step up from Walt Harris, who is the worst coach I have ever seen in college football, the man punted on 3rd down twice in the same game.

[jkrdevil]

Any coach is a step up from Walt Harris, who is the worst coach I have ever seen in college football, the man punted on 3rd down twice in the same game.

Hey give him a break he thought he was coaching in the CFL.