UPDATED at 6:45 p.m.
It's FINALLY official...
John Harbaugh will be named coach of the Baltimore Ravens at a noon press conference tomorrow. Harbaugh issued no statement and immediately left The Bellagio and headed back to Philadelphia to retrieve his family.
Senior V.P. Kevin Byrne addressed the media very briefly.
Harbaugh will not attend the Senior Bowl. Instead, he will start to put his staff together immediately.
WNST's Casey Willett is reporting that current Philadelphia Eagles quarterback coach Pat Shurmur could be approached as the offensive coordinator. Cam Cameron's name could also surface. It is also believed that Rex Ryan could be asked to stay as the Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator. Ryan and Harbaugh know each other very well from their days at the University of Cincinnati and are friends.
No terms for the deal were released, but it is believed that Harbaugh would receive in excess of $2 million per year (but no more than $3 million), and that a 4-year deal would be industry standard.
It is believed that no assistants or potential candidates have been contacted as of yet. Byrne joked that "John might be calling people on his ride back to Philadelphia."
Art Modell was the first to know. Steve Bisciotti called Art to tell him before telling anyone outside the room.
But before that, Bisciotti gathered the guys on the search committee and just simply said, “Well, we’re all in agreement that he’s our guy!”
They brought John Harbaugh into the room and told him, “You’re our guy.”
But before that, Harbaugh gave a final speech before the search committee and talked about how he could make it successful, how it could work for him here and how much it meant for him to be the coach of the Ravens.
Bisciotti interrupted Harbaugh and simply said, “Well, that's great because we want you to be our head coach.” There was a group hug and Byrne told WBAL, “It was almost teary-eyed. There was a man hug. It was very exciting.”
His father is a 41-year football coach and is currently the Associate Athletic Director at Marquette, which happens to be the alma mater of Byrne. The Ravens will fly in Harbaugh’s family to see the press conference in the morning.
I think it's an exciting new beginning for the Baltimore Ravens.
Chapter 3 began at 6 p.m. tonight!
More details to come very soon...
Feel free to comment below...we'll launch 'em all...
Whattya think?