Raiders targeting another big name in head coaching search

The Las Vegas Raiders are looking towards a huge name in the NCAA and NFL to fill their vacant head coaching position

Despite being the first team to fire their head coach this season, the Las Vegas Raiders seem to just now be getting serious about searching for their next head coach.

Rich Bisaccia has been handling business well enough and could still become the permanent replacement, but the Raiders’ front office appears to be looking for another big name to take over the head coaching office instead.

According to Ian Rapoport, the Las Vegas Raiders and Jim Harbaugh appear to have a mutual interest in each other going into the off-season. Las Vegas is set to have an actual search process with a panel and interviews, but the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines appears to be the first name to come up in that search process.

Jim Harbaugh is likely to have a better return to the NFL than Jon Gruden did

Jim Harbaugh has been the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines since 2015 and is 61-24 in his tenure there. Harbaugh’s head coaching career actually began at Stanford, where he was the head coach from 2007-10. He was 29-21 in that stint, bringing his total college head coaching record to an impressive 90-45.

However, between those two coaching gigs, Harbaugh actually spent four years coaching in the NFL with the San Fransisco 49ers.

Under Harbaugh, the 49ers went to three consecutive NFC Championship Games, even making it to the Super Bowl in 2012. Including the playoffs, Harbaugh won 49 games in only four seasons, an accomplishment for most coaches to do in any four-season stretch, let alone their first four seasons in the NFL.

Jim Harbaugh even earned himself a coach of the year award in 2011, further making his return to the NFL even more exciting.