List of Los Angeles Chargers head coaches

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The

Greater Los Angeles Area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Their stadium is located in Inglewood, California. There have been 18 coaches in San Diego and Los Angeles franchise history, including Sid Gillman, who coached the Los Angeles Chargers' first and only season in 1960 before the team's move to San Diego, California in 1961. The current head coach is Jim Harbaugh, who was hired on January 24, 2024. Harbaugh replaced Giff Smith, who served as interim head coach after the firing of Brandon Staley in the 2023 season
.

History

Sid Gillman coached the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers to five Western Division titles and one league championship in the first six years of the league's existence.

His greatest coaching success came after he was persuaded by Barron Hilton, then the Chargers' majority owner, to become the head coach of the American Football League franchise he planned to operate in Los Angeles. When the team's general manager, Frank Leahy, became ill during the Chargers' founding season, Gillman took on additional responsibilities as general manager.

As the first coach of the Chargers, Gillman gave the team a personality that matched his own. Gillman's concepts formed the foundation of the so-called "West Coast offense" that pro football teams are still using.[1][2] He coached the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers to five Western Division titles and one league championship in the first six years of the league's existence.

He played

Paul Zimmerman (or "Dr. Z"). Originally the term referred to the "Air Coryell" system used by two west coast teams beginning in the 1970s, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. However, a reporter mistakenly applied Kosar's quote about the Air Coryell system to the 1980s-era attack of Walsh's San Francisco 49ers.[4]
Initially, Walsh resisted having the term misapplied to his own distinct system, but the moniker stuck. Now the term is also commonly used to refer to pass-offenses that may not be closely related to either the Air Coryell system or Walsh's pass-strategy.

Don Coryell coached the

"Air Coryell". However, the Charger offense lacked the ability to control the clock, resulting in their defense spending too much time on the field. As a result, they fell short of getting to the Super Bowl. He was inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame in 1986. Coryell is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame
. He did not use a playbook.

Al Saunders was the coach for the Chargers from 1986 to 1988 and became a citizen of the United States in 1960, one of the four foreign-born coaches in the NFL. In college played Defensive back and Wide receiver for the Spartans of San Jose State University (SJSU) from 1966 to 1968 where he was a three-year starter, team captain, and an Academic All-American.

In the 1970s, Al Saunders joined the coaching staff at

Head Coach Don Coryell. Saunders would go with Coryell to NFL when Coryell became the head coach of the San Diego Chargers
. Statistics correct as of December 30, 2007, after the end of the 2007 NFL season.

AFL-NFL merger, an award was also given to the most outstanding coach from the AFL. When the leagues merged in 1970, separate awards were given to the best coaches from the AFC and NFC conferences. The UPI
discontinued the awards after 1996.

The

2007, bringing his playoff record to 5–13. Schottenheimer was abruptly fired by San Diego on February 12, 2007. Schottenheimer was fired because of a strained relationship with general manager A. J. Smith, which reached a breaking point when four assistants (Cam Cameron, Wade Phillips, Rob Chudzinski and Greg Manusky) left for positions with other teams.[5]

There have only been four coaches to lead the team into the playoffs.[6] Bobby Ross holds the best record percentage wise in the playoffs. Norv Turner holds the best regular season coaching record, with 0.640, followed by Hall of Famer Sid Gillman with 0.608. Ron Waller holds the worst regular season record, winning just one out of the six games he coached.

Key

# Number of coaches
GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
00 Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach
00 Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player
00* Spent entire NFL head coaching career with the Chargers

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2023 NFL season.

# Image Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards Reference
GC W L T Win% GC W L
Los Angeles Chargers
1 Sid Gillman 1960 14 10 4 0 .714 1 0 1 [7]
San Diego Chargers
Sid Gillman 19611969, 1971 131 76 49 6 .603 4 1 3 [7]
2 Charlie Waller* 19691970* 19 9 7 3 .553 [8]
3 Harland Svare 19711973 26 7 17 2 .308 [9]
4 Ron Waller* 1973* 6 1 5 0 .167 [10]
5 Tommy Prothro 19741978 60 21 39 0 .350 [11]
6 Don Coryell 19781986 125 69 56 0 .552 7 3 4 [12]
7 Al Saunders* 19861988* 39 17 22 0 .436 [13]
8 Dan Henning 19891991 48 16 32 0 .333 [14]
9 Bobby Ross 19921996 80 47 33 0 .588 6 3 3
Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year
(1992)

Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year
(1992)
UPI NFL Coach of the Year
(1992)

[15]
10 Kevin Gilbride* 19971998* 22 6 16 0 .273 [16]
11 June Jones 1998 10 3 7 0 .300 [17]
12 Mike Riley* 19992001* 48 14 34 0 .292 [18]
13 Marty Schottenheimer 20022006 80 47 33 0 .588 2 0 2 [19]
14 Norv Turner 20072012 96 56 40 0 .583 6 3 3 [20]
15 Mike McCoy* 20132016 64 27 37 0 .422 2 1 1 [21]
Los Angeles Chargers
16 Anthony Lynn 20172020 64 33 31 0 .516 2 1 1 [22]
17 Brandon Staley* 20212023 48 24 24 0 .500 1 0 1 [23][24]
18 Giff Smith* 2023 3 0 3 0 .000 [25]
19 Jim Harbaugh 2024–present 0 0 0 0 [26] [27]

References

  1. ^ "Gillman helped engineer West Coast offense". Associated Press. 2003-01-07. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  2. ^ Zimmerman, Paul (1999-10-29). "The real West Coast offense". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  3. ^ Peterson, Bill (2006-08-16). "Cincinnati's Connection to Football's "West Coast Offense"". City Beat. Archived from the original on 2007-01-28. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  4. ^ 1999 SportsIllustrated.com article. Retrieved 20 May 2005.
  5. ^ a b "Chargers head coach Schottenheimer fired". ESPN. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  6. ^ "Coaches". San Diego Chargers. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  7. ^ a b "Sid Gillman". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  8. ^ "Charlie Waller". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  9. ^ "Harland Svare". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  10. ^ "Ron Waller". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  11. ^ "Tommy Prothro". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  12. ^ "Don Coryell". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  13. ^ "Al Saunders". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-30. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  14. ^ "Dan Henning". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-06. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  15. ^ "Bobby Ross". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  16. ^ "Kevin Gilbride". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  17. ^ "June Jones". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  18. ^ "Mike Riley". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  19. ^ "Marty Schottenheimer". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  20. ^ "Norv Turner". databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-06. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  21. ^ "Mike McCoy Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  22. ^ "Anthony Lynn Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  23. ^ "Brandon Staley Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  24. ^ "Insight into new Chargers Head Coach Brandon Staley..." www.chargers.com. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  25. ^ "Chargers name Giff Smith interim HC, JoJo Wooden interim G.M." NBC Sports. 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  26. ^ "Los Angeles Chargers Name Jim Harbaugh as Head Coach". chargers.com. January 24, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  27. ^ "Jim Harbaugh Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks". Pro Football Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 25, 2024.