Who executes a turnaround better than Jim Harbaugh? Nobody.

Harbaugh has done it again. In his first season as head coach of Los Angeles Chargers, Harbaugh has officially brought the Chargers back to the postseason with a dominant 40-7 win over the New England Patriots on Saturday. He has taken a team that finished last in the AFC West a season ago with a 5-12 record and a top-five draft pick to a 10-6 squad that is playoff bound.

Harbaugh has become known for engineering turnarounds. In his last NFL head coaching gig with the San Francisco 49ers, Harbaugh turned the 49ers from a 6-10 team to a 13-3 division winner in his first year with the team.

With the Chargers now clinching a spot in the postseason in his first year with Los Angeles, Harbaugh becomes the first coach to take two separate teams with losing records to the postseason in his first year with the team.

Even beyond the NFL level, Harbaugh has transformed three separate college programs—USD, Stanford, and Michigan—into winners.

Despite all of his success turning around every team he coaches, Harbaugh deflected credit for the Chargers’ return to the postseason.

"This had very little to do with me," Harbaugh said after the Chargers clinched. "If it goes right, it's our players. They've been doing a great job ... I've been drinking the kool-aid here from day one."

Harbaugh specifically credited Derwin James, Justin Herbert and several others for their leadership on the team.

"There's no coach that could have it better than to be coaching these players. Maybe, the only one is future us could have it better than us." Harbaugh said.

The Chargers do have a talented core of players, and while they did revamp the roster during free agency and the draft, much of the team was part of the 2023 squad that went 5-12 a year ago. It's clear that Harbaugh and his staff's culture and coaching significantly helped the Chargers already win five more games this season.

Harbaugh might not have taken credit, but his quarterback, Justin Herbert, praised him for what he's done for the team after the win.

"He's been everything," Herbert said of Harbaugh. "Those guys in that locker room respect him so much. They just wanna make right by him and make him proud ... it's the way that everyone fights for him, wants to play for him, and respects him."

More of the Latest Around the NFL


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jim Harbaugh Humbly Deflects Credit After Leading Chargers Back To Postseason.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate