{"id":714793,"date":"2026-01-29T20:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714793\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T20:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:37:15","slug":"los-angeles-chargers-coaching-hire-brings-back-wmu-standout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714793\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Chargers Coaching Hire Brings Back WMU Standout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every time the football season ends, the off-season becomes what many call the “coaching carousel,” as coaching positions need to be filled amid openings and firings. This NFL offseason has been especially crazy<\/a>, with\u00a0nine head coaching positions\u00a0available.<\/p>\n

\"97.9<\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0teams most affected by these openings has been the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers,\u00a0which needed to hire both a new offensive and defensive coordinator as both have been hired as head coaches. Mike McDaniels filled the offensive position, and now a familiar name in West Michigan has been hired fresh off their MAC championship as the defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Chris O’Leary’s Standout Season In West Michigan<\/p>\n

Chris O’Leary joined the Western Michigan Broncos this past season and made an immediate impact. He turned a mediocre defense into\u00a0the ninth-best\u00a0<\/a>in college football,<\/a> helping lead the Broncos to their\u00a0fourth conference title in program history. Whenever a team performs this well, it puts it on a bigger program’s radar.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0The Biggest Michigan Sports Success Stories of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

In this case, it was a\u00a0former employer.\u00a0O’Leary’s hiring by the Los Angeles Chargers\u00a0is a return, as he served as the Chargers’ safeties coach in 2024.<\/a> Returning to the Bolts on the defensive front after proving his abilities as a defensive coordinator at WMU, coupled with experience at Notre Dame, makes him a perfect fit at LAC.<\/p>\n

He’ll have big shoes to fill, but he is arguably the best choice. It’s just a shame it’s coming at the cost of a stellar Broncos team. But all the best to him as he heads back west<\/p>\n

It’s not all bad news for the Broncos, however. After winning the MAC Championship and Coach of the Year, head coach Lance Taylor signed a contract extension<\/a> that will keep him in Kalamazoo until 2030 at the least.<\/p>\n

Players In The Super Bowl With Michigan Ties<\/p>\n

The Seahawks and the Patriots will duke it out on February 8th to try and win the Lombardi Trophy. These are the players with Michigan connections you’ll see in the Big Game.<\/p>\n

Stats come from ESPN<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Tommy McNeill<\/a><\/p>\n

Michigan State Men’s Basketball BIG 10 Champs 2024-2025<\/p>\n

After an up-and-down 2023-2024 season, this Spartan squad is playing some excellent basketball with a deep bench and key transfers.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Tommy McNeill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every time the football season ends, the off-season becomes what many call the “coaching carousel,” as coaching positions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,18956,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-714793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-grand-rapids-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangeleschargers","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115980313923122405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}