When the 3-3 Vikings play the 4-3 Chargers in Los Angeles on Thursday night Minnesota will compete against a legend who might have been their head coach. Jim Harbaugh, now in his second season leading the Chargers, will face the Vikings for the first time in his return to the NFL after nine seasons at the University of Michigan.
It was February of 2022 when Vikings ownership and new general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah were seriously considering Harbaugh for the head coach opening after firing Mike Zimmer. In Harbaugh’s first tenure as an NFL head coach, he led the 49ers for four seasons and taken his teams to three NFC Championship games. In San Francisco he had an overall record of 49-22-1 and was 5-3 in the postseason including a 2013 Super Bowl loss to his brother John Harbaugh of the Ravens.
Not only did Harbaugh have a flashy resume, but it was clear going into an early February interview in Minnesota that he had a serious interest in the Vikings job. He reportedly told recruits and people back at Michigan that a change for him could be coming.
Harbaugh’s relationship with Michigan athletic director Warde Manual may have been less than ideal. Back in 2021 Manual had cut Harbaugh’s $8 million salary in half after some struggles including Michigan’s disappointing 2-4 record in COVID year 2020.
Sources reported Harbaugh was confident about getting the Vikings job. Not only did he have the impressive resume, but he had worked with Adofo-Mensah with the 49ers. And at age 58 Harbaugh was still young enough to guide the Vikings for a decade or more. For whatever reason that may never be known unless the Wilf family writes a tell-all-book, an offer to coach the Vikings reportedly was never made.
Harbaugh can be an aggressive personality, a stern leader, with a no surrender approach. Maybe the Vikings interviewers found Harbaugh’s demeanor too crusty and unpredictable for their liking. After all, they had just fired Zim who was known for his fiery and old-school temperament.
A former front office executive with NFL teams was asked via text if he had insights about what fell apart. “I don’t know specifics of negotiations with Harbaugh but perhaps they preferred (the) younger (Kevin) O’Connell coming from (the) popular (Mike) Shanahan/(Sean) McVay coaching tree. I think Jim Harbaugh is a great coach. …I’d rather have O’Connell at this stage of their respective careers.”
Now 61, Harbaugh has won everywhere he has been starting with the collegiate San Diego Toreros and going on from there to Stanford. The Cardinal was 1-11 before Harbaugh arrived. In his fourth and final season Stanford finished 12-1 including an Orange Bowl win.
After things didn’t materialize with the Vikings, Harbaugh went back to Michigan for two more seasons including his 15-0 team that won the 2023 national championship after advancing through the College Football Playoffs.
In 2024, his first season with Chargers, there was more Harbaugh magic. He took a team that was 5-12 the previous season and went 11-6 including a spot in the playoffs.
O’Connell’s pleasant demeanor could get him a job as a friendly neighbor on a TV sitcom. He’s also a terrific quarterback developer, offensive schemer and play caller who is admired leader by his players for the culture he has created in three-plus seasons with the Vikings.
In his fourth season O’Connell has the highest winning percentage among all head coaches in franchise history, including playoff games. His 37-22 overall record and .627 percentage tops Bud Grant’s overall win percentage (.607) from 1967-83 and 1985. He became the fastest Vikings head coach to record 35 wins, achieving that in the opening game of the season against the Bears.
Despite all the success in four seasons, including twice winning 13 regular-season games or more, the 40-year-old O’Connell has yet to deliver a playoff win. He is 0-2 after the 2022 and 2024 regular seasons. The Vikings are his first head coaching job at any level.
So, who would the Vikings have been better off hitching their coaching future to back in the winter of 2022? If you’re talking about a five-to-eight-year horizon, the logic dictates Harbaugh. He has a vast edge over O’Connell in experience and success. Part of that experience includes judging personnel and evaluating it. You can be assured that while Harbaugh would have had the title of coach with the Vikings, his voice and authority regarding personnel, including drafting, would have been loud and authoritative enough to cut through a heavy San Francisco fog.
Fleck’s Tenure, Culture & Thoughts for Iowa Week
With the recent dismissal of James Franklin at Penn State, the Gophers’ P.J. Fleck, at age 44, is now the second longest tenured head football coach at his Big Ten school. Franklin was in his 12th season; Fleck is in his ninth while Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is in his 27th.
The Gophers, 5-2, and Iowa, also 5-2, play in Iowa City Saturday before a national TV audience on CBS. The Hawkeyes have been one of the most successful programs in the Big Ten under Ferentz. His way of doing things has not only produced nationally ranked teams and Big Ten titles, but he is the all-time winningest coach in conference history with 209 victories.
When Fleck took the Minnesota job in 2017, he spent the early years talking a lot about culture and was an admirer of Ferentz’s long tenure at Iowa and the benefits of stability to a program. Fkeck was asked yesterday about the payoff from cultural sustainability.
When expectations and familiarity are in place it helps significantly to deal with challenges, he said. If coaches and players have been together for a period of time, the coach said, you know how they’re going to respond. “…Cultures are all about connecting people,” he explained. “That’s how I define culture.”
Fleck said dating back to his first season of 2017 he’s had the same defense. The offense, although adjusted over time, is similar, too. “We know what works here, what type of person works here. If (on the other hand) all those roles are constantly changing then you kind of have a hodge podge and it’s really hard to connect all those people (to have success, face adversity and try to get through it).”
Part of that cultural sustainability, too, is athletic director Mark Coyle who was hired in 2016. He hired Fleck. “I have a boss who allows me to be me,” said Fleck who wants his players to be themselves—authentic and accountable.
“We all have to answer to the culture, including me,” said Fleck. “I am no bigger than the culture I create.”
Systems may change and people, too, but not the culture that makes up a formula “where everybody knows what to expect.”
The culture has been successful for Fleck who is the fifth longest tenured coach in Gopher football history. He is fifth in overall wins with a 104 and his seven victories over top 25 nationally ranked teams is a career school coaching record. His 63-41 record and winning percentage of .605 is third best at Minnesota among coaches with at least 45 games.
Iowa is more than a touchdown favorite to win Saturday against a Gophers team that played its best game of the season last Friday night in dominating then No. 25 ranked Nebraska. The Gophers won that game 24-6 but lost to so-so California and 42-3 against No. 1 ranked Ohio State.
The Hawkeyes have a three-point loss to a solid Iowa State team and a five-point loss to No. 2 ranked Indiana. They also have the advantage of playing at home on Saturday in front of perhaps the Big Ten’s most rabid fan base.
Fleck has long regarded Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium as the “hardest” place in the conference to play. The Gophers will do everything possible in practice this week to replicate the chaotic environment they will face Saturday afternoon. That includes music, crowd noise and even derogatory comments like the Kinnick faithful may utter.
“…Football is a game of emotion, and we want our players to play with incredible emotion,” Fleck said. “We just never want you to cross the line to emotional (letting outside things dictate behavior). …”
Fleck is 1-7 against Iowa, with the only win coming two years ago in Kinnick Stadium. A controversial but correct fair catch ruling that went against Iowa helped Minnesota escape with a 12-10 victory. Incensed fans threw objects on the field in the tradition of Hawkeyes patrons dating back to at least the 1930s when whiskey bottles were a favored projectile.
A wit might say that’s cultural sustainability, too.