Vic Fangio returns to the NFL this season after a successful one-year stint with Jim Harbaugh at Stanford. Family ties, old coaching friends and new faces surround Fangio, who has spent much of his 25-year NFL career building franchises from the ground up. The no-nonsense defensive coordinator from Pennsylvania has is looking forward to the 2011 season, as he tries to help lead the 49ers back to the pinnacle of football. Click here to watch Fangio's interview.
THE ZIP code may have changed and his office may be different, but Vic Fangio wasn’t exactly jumping into uncharted waters when he signed on to become the 49ers defensive coordinator this offseason. For starters, Fangio has a quarter century of NFL experience to look back on. With stints in New Orleans, Carolina, Indianapolis, Houston and Baltimore, Fangio knows a thing or two about winning in this league. Consider his existing relationships with several members of the 49ers coaching staff, and Fangio is merely jumping back on the horse.
“I knew coming here would be a nice challenge to try and get this franchise back to where it was,” Fangio says. “I think they’ve lost their tradition or mystique that they once had. … I just looked at it as another challenge, like it seems all my stops have been.” Fangio is just one piece of this year’s revamped coaching staff under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. Like Bill Walsh before him, Harbaugh is trying to make the leap from Stanford to the 49ers. His mission: turn around a 49ers team that hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2002.
Fangio took a brief hiatus from the pro game last year, when he took over as Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator on ‘The Farm.’ All they did was guide Stanford to a 12-1 record, an Orange Bowl victory and a No. 4 team ranking in the final polls. But when Harbaugh took the job with San Francisco, Fangio couldn’t resist the opportunity to coach in the NFL again.
WHILE LAST year was their first together on the sidelines, the paths of Fangio and Harbaugh crossed many moons ago. During Fangio’s days as a linebackers coach at New Orleans, he overlooked the “Dome Patrol,” – one of the greatest linebackers units in NFL history. He also coached against Harbaugh a couple of times, splitting the series. But Harbaugh knows how tough Fangio can be as an opposing defensive coordinator. In two starts against Fangio as a quarterback during his career, Harbaugh came up winless with some less-than-stellar performances.
While they may have game-planned against each other in decades past, Fangio and Harbaugh were formally introduced to each other within the past few years. The broker of their relationship turns out to be Harbaugh’s brother, John, currently the coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Fangio spent two seasons as an assistant for John Harbaugh, who would occasionally host his brother in Baltimore to watch a game and spend time together. Fangio and Jim Harbaugh got to know each other a bit, so when Jim needed a defensive coordinator with Stanford last year, his brother had just the guy. “It had been four years since I was a coordinator and the circumstances were right,” Fangio says. “I always felt like I missed something by not coaching college so that was good to get a taste of college football, too. I enjoyed my year at Stanford. Obviously, when you win, you’re always going to enjoy it.”
With coaching roots as long as Fangio’s, perhaps it comes as no surprise he has another long-term connection with another member of the 49ers staff. Turns out, Fangio was instrumental in propelling the career of current San Francisco offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Initially, Roman was part of Carolina’s weight room and training staff during the franchise’s inaugural 1995 season, when Fangio coordinated the defense for head coach Dom Capers. But Fangio gave Roman some more responsibilities as a defensive assistant and quality control coach and so began Roman’s NFL coaching career.
“He expressed to me one time that he did have a desire to be a coach, so I just started putting him to work,” Fangio says. “He did a great job for me in those areas and from there he moved on to the offensive side of the ball in our third year together. He’s really been a great coach and had a great coaching career since.”
IT’S SUBTLE, but one can detect a slice of an East Coast accent when Fangio speaks. He got his coaching feet wet at his alma mater Dunmore High School near Scranton in 1979, under the tutelage of national hall of fame high school coach Jack Henzes. “His enthusiasm and love for the game was kind of infectious and it was something that I caught,” says Fangio, who was voted into the Northeastern Pennsylvania Hall of Fame in 1993. “I knew I wanted to be a coach from that point going forward.”
From there, Fangio moved on to a prep school in Connecticut before securing his first college gig as a graduate assistant at North Carolina. He would work at Chapel Hill for one season before joining Jim Mora for two years with the USFL, a prelude to Fangio’s vaunted NFL coaching career. Not only did Fangio work with Mora in the USFL, but he shared game plans with current Green Bay defensive coordinator Dom Capers. Both Capers and Fangio jumped ship with Mora to New Orleans before the 1986 season, where they would be on the same staff for six years.
Fangio and Capers reunited in Carolina in 1995, when Capers took over as the franchise’s first coach. Fangio’s system was paramount to the team’s instant success, as the stingy Panthers defense guided the team to the NFC Championship game in the franchise’s second season. That year, Fangio’s unit – spearheaded by All-Pro linebackers Mills, Lamar Lathon and Kevin Greene – only gave up 56 second-half points all season, a mark that still stands as the best in NFL history.
Fangio lucked out with his first NFL gig as linebackers coach with the Saints, holding the reins on Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson and Pat Swilling – otherwise known as the “Dome Patrol.” For seven seasons the feared quartet stayed together, en route to being named the top linebackers unit in NFL history by NFL network. In 1987, the Saints would reach the playoffs for the first time in 21 years as a franchise.
WHILE THE 49ers may not have a group of “Dome Patrol” proportions, Fangio says he’s enjoyed working with linebackers like Pro Bowler 
When the 49ers host the Texans at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Fangio will be countering another one of his former teams. Capers took over as the head coach of the expansion Houston franchise in 2002, calling upon Fangio to guide his defense once again. To this day, Fangio and Capers maintain a close relationship, talking scheme and strategy about the league.
“We know each other well and know how each other thinks,” Fangio says. “I have a lot of respect for Dom and what he’s accomplished. To this day, he’s a good friend and we remain in contact.” In fact, Fangio says the 49ers have dissected all 20 games of Green Bay’s championship run last year, as Fangio shares much of Capers’ principles on defense. Fangio has even called the defense a 3-4-3, as it can morph into a unit that moves like a 4-3.
SINCE COMING back to the NFL this season, Fangio says he’s enjoyed getting to see familiar faces and get to know the new personalities on his coaching staff. Fangio had glowing reviews of all members of Harbaugh’s supporting cast, too. Outside of football, Fangio likes to visit his son, Christian, and daughter, Cassie, on the East Coast whenever he can. Otherwise, you can find him at 49ers headquarters or on the links.
“I love to play golf,” Fangio says. “Although, it’s funny – I moved from Baltimore in the Northeast out here to California and I’ve played way less golf here in 16 months than I would have in Baltimore. Go figure.”