LOS ANGELES — The Chargers announced Monday that they interviewed Jim Harbaugh for their vacant head coaching job.

The 60-year-old is coming off winning a national championship season with his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and is flirting with the NFL as he has in the past.

In 2022, he met with the Minnesota Vikings. 

Last season, he met with the Denver Broncos.

Harbaugh has won at the University of San Diego 29-6, with 11-1 being his best season. He went 29-21 at Stanford with a 12-1 season. At Michigan, his record is 89-25 with a championship.

He also won in the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers head coach, having a combined 44-19-1 record. In 2012, they went 11-4-1 and reached the Super Bowl, which he lost to his brother, John’s Ravens.

They have also interviewed 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, and Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

They interviewed two in-house candidates: interim head coach/outside linebacker coach Giff Smith and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. 

The team also met with former NFL head coach Leslie Frazier last Sunday, who was last with the Buffalo Bills as their defensive coordinator.

The Chargers still have interviews scheduled with other candidates, such as Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, and others.

Regardless of whom the Chargers choose to hire, they will only be able to hire them once they fulfill the Rooney Rule.

They must interview at least two external minority candidates to be interviewed in person. The league’s new hiring guidelines forbid face-to-face meetings with someone employed by some other NFL team until Jan. 22, so next Monday.

Dean Spanos and company are doing their homework on numerous candidates.

Things will start to heat up as in-person meetings begin next Monday, but as far as Harbaugh, it will be interesting to see if Spanos turns to their former quarterback as their next head coach.