There are many things Jim Harbaugh has become known for throughout his lengthy career as a college football and NFL coach—wearing khakis, his extreme love of football and his love of Judge Judy, among others. Yet, nothing separates Harbaugh more than his natural gift of delivering unusual and hilarious quotes time and time again.

Harbaugh is entering his second season as the Chargers' head coach. To kick off training camp this year, he delivered another classic "Harbaughism" by telling reporters, "I'll see if I can't get through the whole day [without] being emotionally hijacked. It's emotional in a great way."

Before the 2025 season gets underway, and Harbaugh embarks upon his second season at the helm in L.A., here's a look at the top 10 best quotes from Harbaugh throughout his first year and a half with the Chargers, in no particular order.

1. Waking up one night motivated to get Justin Herbert to Hall of Fame

There are few things that motivate Jim Harbaugh these days more than being a great coach for quarterback Justin Herbert. Harbaugh is so intent on making Herbert great that he even woke up in the middle of one night this offseason and realized he must do what it takes to get Herbert to the Hall of Fame.

"I woke up the other day and said, 'Gotta get Justin Herbert to the Hall of Fame. Must get Justin Herbert to the Hall of Fame,'" Harbaugh told Rich Eisen in May. "It's just one of those things where you wake up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning, and sometimes that's when your best ideas come. You kinda process that, that would mean winning a couple Super Bowls. A lot of people would benefit from that. That's a worthy goal. I think it's necessary that we get him surrounded with as many good football players to his level as possible."

"Justin is all about the team," Harbaugh added. "He's not into any accolades for himself. He would kick me in the shins if I said that to him, but that's the challenge that I'm attacking."

2. Start of training camp feels like "coming out of the womb"

Harbaugh set the tone for his first season with the Chargers last year by comparing training camp to "coming out of the womb."

"It's like New Year's Day. It feels like being born. It feels like coming out of the womb," he said. "You're in there. It's comfortable and safe, and now you're out. You're born. Lights are on, it's bright, chaos, people looking at you, people talking at you, and it just feels good to have it happen."

3. "Future us"

Harbaugh has regularly turned to his signature catchprase, "Who's got it better than us? Nobody!" throughout his career. However, after the Chargers clinched a spot in the postseason last year, Harbaugh did come up with one group that might "have it better than us."

"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, even bringing himself to laugh.

4. His "favorite rule in football"

Last December, Harbaugh turned to a seldom used rule in the Chargers' win over the Broncos—the free kick. Following an interference penalty from the Broncos on a fair catch by the Chargers, Harbaugh decided to attempt a fair catch free kick—his favorite rule—and the Chargers ended up recording the first successful one in nearly half a century.

"Great football game," Harbaugh said after the game. "Let’s talk about Cam Dicker and the free kick. It’s my favorite rule in football. I have been trying to get one in every game. When Cameron Dicker made it, it got the momentum back. This was our chance. This was our moment [to try it]."

5. Justin Herbert is "field corn"

Harbaugh has used a myriad of ways to describe Herbert over their year and a half together. He's compared Herbert to a human computer chip, started calling him "Beast" last season, and called him "special" in numerous ways, but perhaps his oddest moment was comparing Herbert to field corn.

"He's a complete stud, stalwart. Research what that means, it's tough, loyal, strong," Harbaugh said. "He's the opposite of a house plant. He is field corn.

"Just like field corn, doesn't need to be talked to in a certain way, doesn't need conditions to be perfect, sunlight, shade, water content, soil content," Harbaugh added. "Field corn, it'll borough down for any energy that it can find and it will rise up and start producing. That's Justin Herbert. So no, I do not need to have any conversations."

6. On coaching against his brother, John Harbaugh

For the third time in their careers, Jim got to go up against his brother John as head coaches in an NFL game. Though John and the Ravens would go on to win the game, Jim perfectly summed up his feelings on facing his brother with one line before the game.

"I'd lay down my life for my brother, but I wouldn't let him win a football game." - Jim Harbaugh

7. Wanting to "trade" for Justin Herbert's genes

May everyone find someone that talks about them the way Jim Harbaugh talks about Justin Herbert.

"I want to be best friends with him," Harbaugh said last September. "And really, I can't imagine anybody, I cannot imagine anybody— If you don't love Justin Herbert, then there's something wrong with you."

Later in the presser, Harbaugh added, "There's not one gene in his body I wouldn't, like, immediately trade [for]."

8. "You need to have your own back sometimes"

Jim Harbaugh gave his players a fews gifts during his first season with the Chargers, including lunch pails with the word "stalwart" on them and personalized back scratchers with each player's name and number.

"You need to have your own back sometimes,” Harbaugh said after gifting the team back scratchers, via Daniel Popper of The Athletic. “You need to count on yourself. Make sure you get done what you need to get done. There’s not always going to be somebody there to scratch your back for you, so you do it yourself.”

9. "Easter ham" approach to rookie minicamp

When asked about his decision to change his approach to rookie minicamp, Harbaugh turned to an anecdote from his mom about his family's tradition of making Easter ham to explain.

“Her mom would always cut off one-third of the Easter ham every Easter and bake it that way,” Harbaugh said in May. “So my mom asked her mom, ‘Why did you do it that way?’ And her mom said, ‘Well, that’s the way my mom always did it.’ So my grandmother asked her mom, ‘Why do you cut off a third of the Easter ham every year?’ And my great-grandma said, ‘Because the oven wasn’t big enough to fit the full ham into the oven.’ It just goes to the point, to the analogy, just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t make it the right way.”

10. "Heart of an athlete"

Last October during the Chargers' game against the Broncos, Harbaugh briefly had to leave the game after he experienced a flare-up of atrial flutter, a form of arrhythmia that caused his heart to beat at an unusually high rate. A few days later, Harbaugh shared at his presser that he got good news back from his cardiologist, and even flexed to the reporters in attendance.

“Just talked to my cardiologist before I came in here," Harbaugh said. "Got some test results back. ‘The heart of an athlete’ was a direct quote by the cardiologist. That made me feel good, stress test was really good too. I think he used the word incredible, that my stamina was incredible and got stronger as it got more stressed."

Honorable mention: Jim Harbaugh remembers the day he was born

Last January, Herbert was asked when the first time he realized Harbaugh was different, and he immediately replied when Harbaugh said he remembered the day he was born. Since Harbaugh didn't directly state this quote/story publicly, this lands as an honorable mention.

"I think when he talked about remembering the day he was born," Herbert recalled. "Was probably the first day that––he kind of told us the whole story, and how he remembered looking out the window, and I think it was a cold, snowy day. I really hope he does remember that, that would be pretty cool," said Herbert. 

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Top 10 Best Quotes From Jim Harbaugh's First Season With Chargers.

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