Denver Broncos also want Jim Harbaugh
League sources say that the Denver Broncos are also trying to schedule a meeting with Stanford Cardinals head coach Jim Harbaugh.
The San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins have both interviewed Harbaugh and he met with officials from Stanford on Thursday including President John Hennessey.
Even though the Broncos want to acquire Harbaugh, there is no interview scheduled as of yet.
Harbaugh met with Stephen Ross, owner of the Dolphins, on Thursday after he and a couple of other Dolphins front office staff flew out to the Bay Area to meet with him. He met with Harbaugh’s agent David Dunn later on Thursday to discuss his offer.
Ross wants to be clear with his intentions for Harbaugh. He came to California hoping Harbaugh would take up his offer to and accept the coaching job. He hoped for Harbaugh to fly with Ross to Miami in his private jet and to publicly introduce Harbaugh as
his new head coach by this weekend.
Harbaugh also met with Niners officials and conducted talks for five hours on Wednesday. He came back to the Bay Area on Tuesday after winning the Orange Bowl over Virginia Tech 40-12, on Wednesday. The Cardinals ended their season 12-1; which is the best
record in the college football league this season.
The Broncos are also interviewing their own interim head coach Eric Studesville and New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, both of whom fulfilled the league’s Rooney Rule.
Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey was also scheduled to be interviewed by the Broncos on Friday but cancelled saying that he did not want to miss any time in preparing for the Falcons’ playoff game next week.
John Elway, Denver’s legendary quarterback, has been hired as the team’s new executive vice president of football operations. He is in charge of the search for a new head coach to replace Josh McDaniels, who was fired in early December.
Elway says that he wants a coach who is already experienced as a head coach, preferably an NFL coach. Both Fewell and Studesville have been interim head coaches.
"I don't believe anybody that's not had that NFL experience can make that jump -- other than Harbaugh. There's nobody [else] in the college ranks that we're interested in talking to," Elway said. "And preferably we'd like to have some head coaching background
in the NFL, but it's not a must. If there's a guy who's a coordinator that's up and coming and shows that he can be the head coach and understands that, then he'll be the guy."
The Niners, Dolphins, and Broncos all hope to have a head coach in place by next week so that they can begin preparing for the 2011 season.
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