Ladd McConkey goes from playing for UGA football's Kirby Smart to Chargers' Jim Harbaugh

When Ladd McConkey got word that the Los Angeles Chargers were going to take him in the second round of the NFL Draft Friday night, the wide receiver from Georgia football thought of the club’s new head coach who just arrived from the college game.

“Coach Harbaugh is there,” McConkey said of former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh when talking to reporters who cover the team. “They have a great offense, great quarterback (Justin Herbert). Just excited to get up there and meet all of the guys and get to work, honestly. I've been waiting, I feel like it's been so long, just trying to figure out where I'm going to be at. Now that it's here, it's time to get to work."

Harbaugh was on the other sideline in the Orange Bowl in a national semifinal in the 2021 season when McConkey had a pair of catches for 14 yards and an 8-yard run. McConkey entered the game coming off touchdown catches in each of his previous two games in his first season after redshirting.

He went on to win back-to-back national championships and became the No. 34 overall pick in the draft after being one of the key offensive players during the Bulldogs last three seasons.

When Harbaugh took the phone after the Chargers told McConkey he was their pick, he said in his trademark phrase, according to a clip posted on Chargers' social media: "Nobody's got it better than us!

"Yes, sir," McConkey said. "Hey, you came and got a Georgia player!"

"Yes, we did," Harbaugh said.

McConkey was asked by reporters if Harbaugh recruited him out of North Murray High in Chatsworth.

 "No, sir,” he said. “Not too many people did, though, so it's all good, no hard feelings.”

McConkey recounted that his five official visits included Tennessee-Chattanooga, Jacksonville State, Army, Vanderbilt and of course Georgia.

“Georgia came in late,” he said. “When I went and visited, I thought that it was a little bit nicer, a little bit better than all of the other places. So, I was like, 'Alright, let's give it a shot.'"

McConkey said he didn’t have much interaction with Harbaugh leading up to the draft but his parents bumped into him at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.

Harbaugh told reporters that McConkey can be an outside receiver or play in the slot.

"Love the speed, 4.38 [40-yard dash], but he plays to it," Harbaugh said. "He plays to that 4.38 every single play, you can see it in the way that he rages off of the ball, and once he has the ball in his hands. Me and [general manager] Joe [Hortiz] were talking about him, he's very Brock Bowers-like with the way that he gets yards after the catch. Competitor, big-time.

McConkey said he grew up wanting to be a draft pick, one that went high.

“I knew that I could do it, and I knew that I had a good support staff around me that believed in me,” he said. “When I got to Georgia, got the opportunity, was out there playing in the SEC against the best competition week in and week out, I was like, 'Alright, I can do this, I just need a shot.' It's something that I've always wanted to do, and then it started to come to life a little bit in the last couple of years."