Replacing Jesse Minter is no small feat for the LA Chargers, but they may have found just the man to do it. Days after losing Minter to the Baltimore Ravens head coaching job, the Chargers have hired former Minter disciple Chris O'Leary as the team's defensive coordinator.
O'Leary's first coaching gig came as a graduate assistant for Georgia State while Minter was the defensive coordinator. After one year coaching the defensive line, Minter moved O'Leary to coach alongside him in the secondary. The two eventually went ondifferent paths, with O'Leary spending multiple years with Notre Dame.
The two reunited on the Chargers in 2024, where O'Leary served as the safeties coach. After another successful season under Minter, O'Leary left to be the Western Michigan defensive coordinator. With Minter now gone, O'Leary is back in LA to take his mentor's place.
O'Leary is a well-respected coach for those who have played under him despite only having one year of NFL experience and one year of defensive coordinator at the college level. In fact, he left such an impression on Tony Jefferson that the veteran safety predicted O'Leary would be a DC long before the masses were familiar with his name.
"He's up there with being my favorite day-to-day coaches," Jefferson told Ari Meirov last year. "I learned so much from a safety standpoint, even though I played it however long. I was taught so much other stuff by him, [like] how to make plays and be in position. Spotlight needs to be on that dude because he's going to be a DC one day and then a head coach."
It's safe to say Tony Jefferson isn't surprised by the Chargers hiring Chris O'Leary
O'Leary is not a very well-known name, so it's understandable that most of the fanbase was left searching for answers when they saw he was hired. And to an extent, O'Leary is an unproven commodity with no coordinator experience at the NFL level.
But Minter had no coordinator experience in the NFL and did just fine. Plus, all fans need to do for solace is listen to how Jefferson talked about O'Leary and look how the players on the roster are reacting.
Cornerback Tarheeb Still reacted in an excited fashion with an all-caps response; Daiyan Henley said the vibes are "up". It's clear that those who shared a locker room with O'Leary love this move, so fans have no reason to criticize it because of a lack of experience.
And while the MAC is much different than the NFL, it is worth recognizing what O'Leary did to Western Michigan's defense in just one season. Western Michigan allowed 17.4 points per game in the regular season, which ranked ninth among all Division I schools last season. The year prior, Western Michigan allowed 31.3 points per game, which ranked 107th.
A turnaround that quick doesn't happen by accident, regardless the level of football. There's clearly something special in the way O'Leary coaches, and now the hope is that it translates to an NFL defensive coordinator role.
Jefferson was right about O'Leary becoming a defensive coordinator. If he's right about O'Leary's trajectory to becoming a head coach, he will follow in Minter's footsteps to give the Chargers one of the most feared defenses in the league.