Harbaugh to the 49'ers

Harbaugh will still be coaching in California, but a
different team awaits his coaching.

The San Fransisco 49'ers have just gotten a new head coach. Today, the Niners signed a 5 year $25 million deal with former Stanford Cardinal head coach Jim Harbaugh.

After a 12-1 season at Stanford this year, including a whopping 42-12 win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, Harbaugh has been on the head coaching list of many teams in the NFL and NCAAF.

During his time at Stanford, Harbaugh has posted a 29-21 record during his 4 years at Stanford, and in the last 2 years is 20-6. Also at Stanford, Harbaugh evolved quarterback Andrew Luck, into one of the most talented players in the nation. He would have been the #1 pick in the NFL Draft, but has opted to stay in school for his junior year. Nonetheless, Harbaugh helped bring back Stanford to the top of the Pac 10, a place it had not been to since Plunkett and Elway were playing quarterback.

Harbaugh grew up in Palo Alto, and is the son of former coach Jack Harbaugh, and brother of current Baltimore Ravens coach, John Harbaugh. He played quarterback for Palo Alto High School, and then for the Michigan Wolverines. He lead them to the Fiesta and Rose Bowls and also was on the All Big Ten team. In addition, he was the conference's Player of the Year, and also was on the all-academic team.

In the NFL he wasn't the most successful player and soon quit to start a new career in coaching.

He started off at Western Kentucky as an assistant coach and then became the head coach of the University of San Diego. In 3 years he had a 29-6 record and was soon hired to coach at Stanford. Overall he was 58-27 during his College Football coaching days.


At Stanford he helped make the team not only a conference power house but in all of college football. In the last 2 years he has had 2 players been announced as top 5 Heisman candidates, last year running back Toby Gerhart led the nation in rushing, and this year Andrew Luck pretty much did the same, but for passing.

Harbaugh is known for his high powered offenses and hard hitting defenses. Their offense ranked 9th in scoring and defense ranked 10th in points allowed. The team averaged a 23 point victory, due to averaging 40 points and only giving up 17.

After meeting with the Dolphins earlier this week, Harbaugh met with the 49'ers and decided to coach the team next year.

He could have coached at Stanford this year, and everything would have clicked. He had most of his team back including Stepfan Taylor and Andrew Luck. They would most likely have been able to contend for the Pac 10 title, and the National Championship, but still Harbaugh chose the NFL.

This disappoints the Broncos, Dolphins, Stanford, and Michigan immensely.

Harbaugh has said he did want to coach in the NFL but also demanded a lot of money as well. He also said he wanted to stay in California with his family. He will have a new conference at 6:15 ET or 3:15 PT.