Today, both coaches are trying to survive a series of devastating injuries, while trying to keep their teams from slumping into mediocrity. The Vikings are 3-3, and McCarthy has been healthy enough to play only two games. The Chargers won their first three games. In their last four games, they have beaten only the woeful, dysfunctional Miami Dolphins, and they won that game by only two points.
By late Thursday night, only one of these teams will be above .500.
There is no reason to reexamine the process that led to the Vikings hiring O’Connell. In the two seasons in which O’Connell has had a healthy quarterback, he has won a combined 27 regular-season games.
But Harbaugh will always be one of the most intriguing figures in the history of high-level football coaching. Only three coaches have won a college national title and a Super Bowl: Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer (who won the Super Bowl with Johnson’s team) and Pete Carroll.
Harbaugh won a national title at Michigan with McCarthy, and he came within one last-second pass into the end zone of winning a Super Bowl against his brother, when John’s Baltimore Ravens defeated Jim’s San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.
Harbaugh has won as a head coach at the University of San Diego, Stanford, with the 49ers and at Michigan, and his record with the previously underachieving Chargers is 15-9.