49ers Close To Landing Former Bear Harbaugh

Hearing 5 years for $25 million... seems about just enough to move to San Fran.

The San Francisco 49ers finally landed Jim Harbaugh after a week of speculation, a source close to the coach told NFL Network insider Michael Lombardi.

NFL Network insider Michael Lombardi reports that the San Francisco 49ers have hired former Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.

The 49ers have scheduled a 6:30 p.m. ET news conference at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The team wouldn't say what will be announced.

Harbaugh, at Stanford since 2007, is set to coach a 49ers team that tumbled to a 6-10 record this season. His five-year contract will average $5 million per season, a league source told NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora.

This season, Harbaugh, 47, led the Cardinal to a program-best 12-1 record and an Orange Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

Harbaugh is 58-27 overall as a college coach and 29-21 in four seasons at Stanford. He took over a 1-11 Cardinal team when he was hired in December 2006 and quickly turned the program into a winner and bowl contender.

Harbaugh, who played 15 seasons in the NFL, was the Oakland Raiders' quarterbacks coach from 2002 to 2003 before spending three seasons as head coach at the University of San Diego.

Harbaugh's brother, John, is the coach of the Baltimore Ravens, who are in the playoffs as a wild-card team this season.

The 49ers were seeking a new coach after they fired Mike Singletary the week before the season finale. Jim Tomsula, the defensive line coach, was promoted to interim coach for the one game, a 38-7 home victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. He shoulda stayed in college. I really wanted to see him get Stanford a Championship, but oh well. I'm sure he's gonna be smarter than singletary (which is weird, one chicago bear replacing another chicago bear as a coach of the team that beat them senseless most of the time in the 80s) and get himself a QB..I hope he does well

Too bad the brother's won't go head to head too often.

I saw this one coming for over a week. Michigan football fans were wanting to lure Harbaugh away to Ann Arbor in the worst way possible since he play for Michigan. However, his incendiary remarks alluding to lack of academic integrity occuring at UM probably left a bitter taste in the mouths of Michigan alumni, as well as it made apparent that Harbaugh was not interested in the Michigan job.

I think he likes the Bay Area out in California, and will thus be very comfortable coaching the Niners. If anybody can get that offense to return to respectability, it's him. I just hate like hell that another, greater Chicago Bear (Singletary) lost his job due to poor front office management.

the 1st thing Harbaugh needs to do is get himself a new QB, no disrespect but the Niners are'nt going anywhere with any of the QB's they currently have