Jim Harbaugh's departure to the NFL is a win for Oregon in more ways than one

Justin Herbert had three different head coaches in college while at Oregon — Mark Helfrich, Willie Taggart, and Mario Cristobal — not to mention the different offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches who rolled through his life. At the NFL ranks, he’s had three more head coaches — Anthony Lynn, Brandon Staley, and interim Giff Smith — during his four seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, once again, not to mention the numerous offensive coordinators and connected offensive schemes he’s had to learn.

Finally, it feels like some stability has been introduced.

Regardless of your opinions on Jim Harbaugh as a person, or as a coach, it’s hard to argue against the fact that he has won wherever he’s been. At Stanford, he won the Orange Bowl with Andrew Luck at QB in 2010. As the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he went to the Super Bowl with Colin Kaepernick at QB in 2013. He most recently won the national championship at Michigan in 2023, having led the Wolverines to a top-10 season in five of the last nine seasons.

I think it’s safe to say that he is a good coach.

Who knows how long he will be in Los Angeles, and who knows how successful that tenure will end up being. But for Oregon Duck fans who have desperately wanted to see Herbert, their prodigal son, succeed at the next level, it feels like giving him a proven winner of a coach like Harbaugh is more likely to produce satisfactory results than another year under Brandon Staley, or Anthony Lynn.