McCoy to return to Chargers despite 4-12 finish

SAN DIEGO (AP) Mike McCoy will return as coach of the Chargers despite a 4-12 record this season.

The next big question is whether he'll be coaching them in San Diego or Los Angeles.

''I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be back,'' McCoy said Monday, a day after the Chargers lost at Denver to go winless in the AFC West for the first time since 1984, the year Alex Spanos bought the team.

Alex Spanos' son, Dean, the team's chairman, wants to move the Chargers to the Los Angeles area. The team was expected to file for relocation Monday, along with the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams. NFL owners could decide next week whether any of the teams move to Los Angeles next season.

Dean Spanos wants to partner with the division rival Oakland Raiders to build a stadium in Carson. Rams owner Stan Kroenke wants to build a stadium in Inglewood.

Asked if he's the right guy to lead the Chargers into the nation's second-biggest market, McCoy said: ''Without a doubt. I can't wait for the opportunity. We're all ready to roll.''

Then, he added: ''I'm ready to be the coach wherever it is. I'm excited just to be the head football coach of the Chargers. It's all speculation up to this point in time what's going to happen. In a couple of weeks we'll figure out what we're going to do.''

McCoy is 23-27 in three seasons, including a playoff win and loss in his first season, 2013. He has one year left on his contract.

The Chargers failed to beat a team with a winning record in posting their worst record since also going 4-12 in 2003. Overall, they've lost 18 of their last 26 games under McCoy.

The Spanos family has a history of making curious coaching decisions. They kept Mike Riley after he went 1-15 in 2001 and fired Marty Schottenheimer after he led the Chargers to a 14-2 record and the AFC's top seed in the playoffs, where they were upset at home by the New England Patriots. Dean Spanos sided with then-general manager A.J. Smith, who had a power struggle with Schottenheimer.

Dean Spanos' son John, the president of football operations, said in a statement that he has ''utmost confidence'' in McCoy and general manager Tom Telesco.

Telesco received a contract extension during the summer but the team tried to keep it secret. Word of that deal leaked out in December.

Neither John Spanos nor Telesco returned messages seeking comment about McCoy.

San Diego has missed the playoffs five times in six seasons. Even with Philip Rivers at quarterback, the Chargers have lost eight straight and 10 of their last 12 games against AFC West rivals.

Rivers said bringing back McCoy was the right thing to do.

''As the quarterback I was certainly supportive of that, hoped that was going to be the case,'' Rivers said. ''We know and Mike knows, everybody in this building knows, it wasn't good enough this year, any of us. I wasn't good enough, Mike, none of us were. I don't think starting over with wholesale change was going to be the answer. You see teams that have done that around this league and they never win.''