Let Jim Harbaugh tell you why he got into coaching

The relationship of Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh and Nestor pre-dates the arrival his big brother John as the leader of the Baltimore Ravens. Back in 2004, when executive producer Ray Bachman was looking to surprise Nestor with a radio call-in for an anniversary show, he found Captain Comeback to come back to WNST for a spirited chat about his desire to be a coach two decades ago after taking his first gig with the University of San Diego Toreros.

Jim Harbaugh  1:05:37

In December, I took the job as the head football coach at the University of San Diego.

Nestor Aparicio  1:05:42

You know, I knew this. Your name came up last week and Casey said, Where’s Jim Harbaugh? And I said he took a job, a college job, but it wasn’t like a big school, but it wasn’t like division three or anything. I mean, I knew your this is recently, right? Last couple months you

Jim Harbaugh  1:05:58

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did this? Yeah, December, December 29 I assume my duties and responsibilities here. And it’s University of San Diego, one double A. And you can relate to that. Well, you’re

Nestor Aparicio  1:06:08

up the coast a little bit. I mean, I spent a lot of time in San Diego. I mean, imagine you, you were living down in Orlando when you play here, right?

Jim Harbaugh  1:06:14

Yeah, yeah, there and, but you sound.

Nestor Aparicio  1:06:18

You got to go to the sunshine, bro. You know what? I mean, like you all at Michigan, that Chicago, you got to get all that out of your seat. I mean, you paid your dues in these cold places. I mean, it’s time for you to, like, find some sunshine. So San Diego sounds like a good place. It

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Jim Harbaugh  1:06:31

really is. Have you ever spent any time here? I mean, this is one of the finest cities in America,

Nestor Aparicio  1:06:35

right? It is the finest city in America. And if I didn’t own a radio station and have, like, massive roots here every time I get off the plane at Lindbergh. And I, you know, that plane lands over that cliff, and it looks like you’re gonna crash into it, but you don’t. And then you get off the plane, and you cross out of the airport, and I get that first breath of fresh air right after I leave Rubio’s fish tacos. And I say, What the hell am I doing out there when I could be here? You know,

Jim Harbaugh  1:06:58

I know what you mean. I wonder.

Nestor Aparicio  1:07:00

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I wonder. So, how did you get this gig? What was, I mean, you always wanted to be a coach. Your old man’s a coach. Brothers a coach. I mean, you played for a period of time, but this was your calling, right? You want to be an NFL coach, correct?

Jim Harbaugh  1:07:11

Well, I’ve wanted to be a coach ever since I was about six years old. I knew I’d play as long as I could, and then then go into coaching, and it’s probably the next best thing to playing. Don’t think there’s anything is as fun is actually being out there on the field and playing, but this, this really keeps you close to the action, and I’ve enjoyed it. I learned a lot as my two years with the Oakland Raiders and working for Mr. Al Davis, and now I get a chance to be a program, as part of a program, as a head coach. What

Nestor Aparicio  1:07:43

was that all about working for Al and going out and being a part of a team? And, I mean, you coach in a Super Bowl a year and a half ago, I didn’t get a chance to stay loady out there. I don’t think I’ve seen you since you left, maybe, maybe once. I think I saw you in the field. You’re playing for the chargers, or something, maybe, like right after you left here, we saw each other kind of briefly, but, I mean, just kind of catching up with you, and it’s kind of cool and on a mystery basis. I don’t have any questions or anything. I’m shooting from the hip here. But how did you wind up out in Oakland? I mean, your brother was in Philly. And, I mean, obviously a lot of ties in the league. But why there?

Jim Harbaugh  1:08:16

Well, the raiders were looking for quarterback coach and Mike Lombardi, who was at the Eagles when my brother was there, was a director player personnel in Oakland, and brought my name up to Mr. Davis, and he liked the idea, and so I did. I got to see, see how Al Davis puts together a team, how he runs a draft room, and was with the team that went to a Super Bowl one year, and then the next, massive injuries and guys on IR and and, you know, the bottom of the standing so only there two years, but I felt like I was there about 10, and it was just such a great learning experience from learning from one of the great minds in the history of the National Football League and Al Davis, did you spend a lot of time with Al? He really did. He took me under his wing. And there’s a, I don’t know what you say a lot is, but all that, you know, a couple times a week he’d he’d call me over we talk, and he’d ask me questions. And you know, you know, you never really, I never heard him ask too many questions that he didn’t know the answer to so but it was just fun being I really, always, always got a real lot of enthusiasm when I when I would talk to Mr. Davis, I was learning there was something to be gleaned every time I talked to him,

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Nestor Aparicio  1:09:37

with you, dealing with the winning and then the losing so quickly. And obviously it was a veteran team. I mean, it could have gone either way last year, and I guess there were a lot of people that kind of predicted that age will catch up to you in this league. I think everybody knows that it caught up to you as a player, catches up to everybody, right? But for it to kind of catch up as quickly as it did, I mean, I remember when the schedule came out last year in April. So we had you on the schedule, and obviously was a pretty special day that we all shared out in Oakland when the Ravens beat the raiders for the AC championship. We went back out there and you guys stunk, and we were, like, en route to a division championship, and you guys up and just use beat our ass pretty good two weeks before Christmas, and it’s kind of a disappointing trip and a long flight back. But I mean, that was one day when, for whatever reason, Callahan managed to rally the troops.

Jim Harbaugh  1:10:26

Yeah, the team was really probably 18 to 19. Guys were on injured reserve. And you know what that can do to a team, and you know you’re playing with guys that are you just signed maybe a day or two or a week ago. So I thought that was the biggest, the biggest problem with the team was, was all the injuries. But, you know, it’s interesting that Baltimore Oakland game last December, that was, that was the going to, you know, that day before that game, I’m looking at the matchups, and I’m saying, We do not match up against this team. There’s, there’s no way we’re gonna get beat by 30 points, and then just, you know, like the NFL is anything could happen on a Sunday, and

Nestor Aparicio  1:11:09

Oakland ended up winning that game. It was that was, I was, I thought that was the biggest mismatch of the two years that we were, that I coached in Oakland. I told you what can happen. Maybe the interesting thing from your perspective, being around this game your entire life and now running your own ship, so to speak, down in San Diego. By the way, we chat with Jimmy hardball, who’s out in San Diego right now, more than anything, from a learning curve last year to learn how to win and go to a Super Bowl, which you did the year before, and then see the entire thing fall. But you weren’t just a bad team last year. You were a bad team, maybe with the and I a lot of this leaked out into the median. I you know, you never know how accurate it is or unaccurate it is, but that there was a legitimate revolt that went on between the players and the coaching staff there. And so many things were said, and not all of it was pretty and nice, but for you to move out of that situation. What did you learn from that sort of vindictiveness? Because, I mean, from the outside, just watching the team, it looked like players quit. It looked the coach took it out on the players. The players took it out on the coach. It looked like a very, very unhappy place to be for a large portion of time at the end of last year. Well, no question it was. It was really bad. I mean, the single biggest thing I took out of it is

Jim Harbaugh  1:12:48

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I think another thing when you build a team is, I mean, you gotta, you gotta have character across the board. I mean, it’s all about people on the team. And, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s okay, if you got a few guys that aren’t the highest of character, maybe on your football team, but you don’t want to let that number grow so much that they they smother the whole football team, where even the good guys feel like they’re they can’t voice, you know, where they’re coming from. And you know, there’s something I learned from my dad and I saw happen in Oakland this past season, for

Nestor Aparicio  1:13:23

you with that situation, and I guess coming off the back end the Super Bowl. Look, you play how many years, 15 years in the league you played, yes. And to get to that kind of a height where you can be a Super Bowl champion, you come into Chicago, right on the back end of the, you know, one of the most amazing teams of our era to win that championship. You come in there with all that pressure and expectation in Chicago, you go on Indianapolis, here, everywhere you went, there was this expectation to get into a Super Bowl. You get out on the field as a coach that day out in San Diego. And I mean, you were looked to be a favorite in that game, maybe to win that game. And it turns out, your guy, your quarterback, the guy that led you to the first 1819, games of the year, you get the Super Bowl. Just didn’t have a very good day in rich Gannon. The disappointment of losing a Super Bowl is it, does that even 18 months out, does that kind of outweigh the fact that you actually got there? That’s

Jim Harbaugh  1:14:16

That’s a tremendous question, and really good question. I it was, you know, a lot of mixed emotions there, because, you know, rich Gannon had one of the best seasons that quarterback has ever had in the National Football League. So it’s just, you know, so disappointing, just for me as a coach, to watch him have to go through a tough game like that, and to know that we as a team, collectively as a coaching staff, didn’t do everything we could have done, you know, you just, you feel like you’re out coached, you’re out play. But, and, and then, you know, to see a guy that carried us, you know, kind of bear the brunt of that, I think it was, it was, you know, unfair and, and, you know. And I think that that, you know, carried into the office. Season and as an organization, I think when you do have that kind of I think it let us, let it affect us too much as an organization, as players and as coaches, that we got beat in the Super Bowl, but you still, I think you still have to celebrate the fact that you got there and

Nestor Aparicio  1:15:16

but that’s hard to do the morning after a week, after month, after I mean finishing second in losing a Super Bowl especially badly. You might feel better about an eight and eight season or something. I’m sure maybe sometimes you did. I mean, I’m sure that that was a pretty low time for everybody around there. It

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Jim Harbaugh  1:15:32

was. But, you know, the thing I learned was you cannot carry that into the next season. You can’t. I mean, 48 hours later, you got to be you got to be thinking it’s that’s over. You know, we sure. You mean, you can’t be happy about what happened, but you can’t let that affect what happened. You know, past performance predicate what future results are going to be. I mean, you got to put that behind. You got to celebrate. Hey, we had a great season. We had we were a Super Bowl team, and you can’t let that despair over that one game, carry into the carry into the next game, or carry into the next season. And I felt like that happened in a big way. We’re having

Nestor Aparicio  1:16:08

a fun conversation with a mystery guest. Jim Harbaugh, has jumped in here. He’s now coaching San Diego. What’s the team name?

Jim Harbaugh  1:16:16

Terreros? The terreros, yeah, Spanish for bullfighter. Man, you

Nestor Aparicio  1:16:20

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gonna send me a terreros hat? What are you gonna send me, man?

Jim Harbaugh  1:16:23

I’m gonna send you a t shirt and a hat. Is

Nestor Aparicio  1:16:25

it gonna say terreros football on it say USD football? Nice, nice. I want to come out and be a special assistant to you. I mean, if you’ll give me a job in San Diego, I’ll just quit this whole radio thing in Baltimore, and I’m on the first plane out there. I mean, would not be hard to recruit me to San Diego,

Jim Harbaugh  1:16:42

reading coordinator, what

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Nestor Aparicio  1:16:43

kind of coordinator, recruiting coordinator? I could not I could do some recruiting to say I was going to say to you, when you’re in San Diego, how hard can it be to recruit, to get some kid from, you know, the middle I would have come out to San Diego and hang out and play football for you.

Jim Harbaugh  1:16:57

Well, I mean, that’s what I’m talking about. I mean, I’m a Midwest guy. And, I mean, I love the Midwest, I love the East Coast, but it’s a pretty it’s a it’s a chance for some of those Midwest and East Coast kids to see something different. And we really compete against Ivy League type of schools. I mean, it’s a top 100 university in the country.

Nestor Aparicio  1:17:15

Who do you play? You play like Pepperdine and those type of schools

Jim Harbaugh  1:17:18

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we play, we play in the Pioneer League, which is Dayton, Valparaiso, Drake, Butler, we also play this year. We’ll play Princeton, we’ll play Penn, we’ll play Holy Cross.

Nestor Aparicio  1:17:31

Play at Holy Cross. So why is a team in San Diego playing all these East Coast games? I mean, there anybody for you out there to beat some team in Flagstaff or something for you to play?

Jim Harbaugh  1:17:41

You know what? There are not a lot of one double A programs in California like there are on the east coast. It’s it’s an anomaly. A lot of the one double A programs have dropped their drop football and but we got a strong one double A program, and so we were looking to play anybody, anywhere, anytime. And there’s not a lot of California teams to play.

Nestor Aparicio  1:18:03

Well, it seems to me, later schools out again, Dayton. Where else?

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Jim Harbaugh  1:18:07

Date will play Princeton. We’ll play Penn. We’ll play Holy Cross.

Nestor Aparicio  1:18:13

If I can go to Holy Cross, or I can go out to San Diego and play for the great Jim Harbaugh. I mean, I mean, I don’t even have, you know, I’m with you. I’m a Terrero if I get a chance. I mean, this should be kind of a couple years in. You ought to be able to recruit your butt off out there, right? Absolutely.

Jim Harbaugh  1:18:31

We got, we have some East Coast kids. We’d like some more, you know, because I really feel like Midwest kids, East Coast kids are a little saltier and little tougher than and some of the

Nestor Aparicio  1:18:45

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pretty boys out there, yeah, well, you know, a

Jim Harbaugh  1:18:47

lot of our kids are from California. There’s a lot of skill, a lot of I like, you know, maybe a little biased, but I like the East Coast kids and in the Midwest kids. And there’s a student athlete that’s serious about, you know, getting a good, good degree and and graduating and playing a good brand of football. I love you. Give you my number. We can put it out there in the air right now. They can. They can call me any future student athletes in the Baltimore area. There. You get a lot of listeners. People

Nestor Aparicio  1:19:13

love you, man. I mean, like, of all the guys you were here, you were always, like, one of the thoroughly decent, nice people to ever play the game here, and I don’t think anybody’s ever had a cross word about you, but the 98 season obviously didn’t go in the direction you wanted to go. Give me just a couple of thoughts about your time at polter, other than me, you goose and McCrary, you know going to see hooting the blowfish. That was your last week. And it’s impossible to see those guys without thinking of that night we all went out and had a good time ago. Actually wrote about it in my book when I wrote the book on the Ravens team. But for you, 98 in Baltimore, probably just a blip on a 15 year screen. But you mean you were the quarterback when we went into the new stadium and we had a lot of things going on. A lot of that framework of the 2000 year was built with you in 98 you. Play with a lot of guys. He got rings out of that.

Jim Harbaugh  1:20:02

Yeah, no questions. I feel like, you know, I got to Chicago a year or two after the Super Bowl, and I got to Baltimore, it was a year two before the Super Bowl, and I was disappointed. That’s something. I wish I could have played better there. And, you know, don’t make any excuses. We had some great games. Beat the Colts. You beat the

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Nestor Aparicio  1:20:24

Colts. You beat the Colts. That when I was Baltimore, that’s the first thing I was gonna say.

Jim Harbaugh  1:20:29

But, you know, priest Holmes was on that team, and I just wish, I wish it could have been better. You know, that’s I gotta, that’s I got some regret there.

Nestor Aparicio  1:20:39

When you think of though the guys that you played with that are going to go to the Hall of Fame. Mean, Woodson was first year in Shannon hadn’t been here yet. I mean, obviously where we are right now, you got to consider John Ogden and Ray first ballot guys. You know, maybe one day, Peter bolware, if you know, he can get through these injuries and continue to produce, he could be a guy there. I mean, did you see all that? I mean, in 2,001st Where were you the day we won the championship? Do you remember? Were you watching at home on TV? Were you in Tampa the day the Ravens won the championship? Yeah, I watched it from Orlando. And what are you thinking at that point when you know Marvin Lewis so well, you got to know art modell and David Modell and Ray Lewis and the guys that you played with, Mike Flynn, and he’s got me, you knew these guys, and to see them holding that trophy up in a uniform that you wore. I mean, there had to be a little emotion involved, maybe more so than any other year, other than last year, when you were involved in

Jim Harbaugh  1:21:32

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it. No question. You know Bill tessendorf, the trainer. You know, just, just everybody, the equipment guys. I mean, just, you know, just you know what it takes to what’s what you know the emotion is to be, be at that level. And you know, I never, never got there as a player or one as a, as a, you know, a coach, either. So just happy for those, for their success. And it was so so I was thrilled for him little, and for the people Baltimore too little, feeling that maybe you could have been a part of it as a number three quarterback, number two quarterback, the C differ come in and banks come in and be able to do that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, definitely just, you know what, what could have been, you know, you maybe had played a lot, had played better one more games there that year. I mean, definitely had had an opportunity to be on that team. Well, yeah, I mean, just, I don’t care what anybody says when athletes say they their career is complete without winning the Super Bowl, it’s, there’s, there’s this. There’s just no way. I mean these, it’s, there’s a there’s a hole there. For anybody that hasn’t won a championship, you

Nestor Aparicio  1:22:40

feel incomplete.

Jim Harbaugh  1:22:43

Yeah, yeah, you didn’t. You didn’t. You didn’t win the big one. I mean, a little would have wasn’t, wasn’t good enough, wasn’t tough enough, didn’t do something, you know, just was it wasn’t good enough to do that.

Nestor Aparicio  1:22:56

Those guys don’t win. Jim, you know, I mean, I that’s, that’s the heart, I mean, out of the, you know, all the people that have ever played this game, they’re only, you know, 4000 walking around with a Super Bowl ring or whatever it is, you know, yeah, I guess that’s

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Jim Harbaugh  1:23:08

a special thing. It’s, you know, something I respect that people have done. You do that I have, I have great respect for you personally. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  1:23:16

we wish you all the luck in the world at San Diego. I mean, hey, we should come by every six, seven years, I think, and do the show, hang out with us, and we get back to the East Coast, we’ll be watching the terreros. What color scheme do you wear out there? It’s,

Jim Harbaugh  1:23:30

it’s a, it’s a navy blue, a white, and then kind of a Columbia, North Carolina blue, Terrell blue. I

Nestor Aparicio  1:23:37 can wear that guy blue. Yeah, that seemed like on that be a flattering color for me. I mean, looks good on my wife. I mean, everything’s good, but I wish you all the success in the world. As I said, I’ll say it again. You’re one of the thoroughly, really decent guys to ever put on a raven Jersey, and you’re always welcome around here. And I appreciate you being our mystery guest today, my man, appreciate that. Life good for you. Life is phenomenal. Got married last year. Son’s getting older. Radio stations getting better, Orioles are getting worse. Ravens are continuing to get better. Life is good here, man, the sun is shining in Baltimore on a beautiful June day. Jimmy, awesome. God bless you. Great. Talking to you. Take care of yourself. Thanks for your time, Jimmy. Thanks for having me on. You got it? Jim Harbaugh