“After spending one hour talking to him last year: Players respond to him, great teacher, makes everyone accountable.” Adam Caplan on Jim Tomsula
What a difference a year makes. One year ago today I was counting the minutes until my flight to Seattle for the NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. Today, I am counting the coaches the non-playoff 49ers interviewed to replace Jim Harbaugh (who, by my count, was doing rather well and should not have been fired. But, that’s a done deal and I have to get over it).
Yesterday, the 49ers announced that Defensive Line coach Jim Tomsula would be the new head coach of the 49ers. And 49ers fans everywhere erupted with criticism, disbelief, and doubt in the decision. We all knew that this meant Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio wouldn’t be back, which is very upsetting for 49ers fans and a huge loss to the team. Then came the NFL on Fox report that the only assistant who would be retained is running backs coach Tom Rathman (at least that’s one good decision. Rathman is a former 49er great whose presence may very well guarantee that Frank Gore finishes his career in SF). ESPN’s Adam Caplan heaped praise on Tomsula, as did former 49ers’ head coach Steve Mariucci. A few players came out in support of their new head coach, with TE Vernon Davis promising to actually show up for offseason workouts. He’s clearly a popular and charismatic guy.
This fan doesn’t know what to think, and as I write this, I’m having a hard time getting my thoughts together. It feels like the front office is going out of its way to destroy this team, but I know, and have to believe, that’s not true. I have to believe they are not just looking for a head coach they can control and who will bow to whatever they want. I have to believe that they really see Jim Tomsula as the best man for the job. Other than Mike Shanahan and Rex Ryan, every candidate San Francisco interviewed was untested as a head coach. Tomsula is at least 1-0 as an NFL HC from his one game stint as interim coach for the Niners the last game of the 2010 season. Whose to say any one of the other candidates would have been better? Though the idea of Mike Shanahan as HC, Fangio as DC and Kyle Shanahan as OC is a good one – but like Harbaugh, it’s gone.
So it’s onward and upward Niner fans, because what choice do we have? We will see who is hired to run the offense and the defense. And we will see what happens next season, because we really won’t know until then.
In the immortal words of one Taylor Swift: “t’s gonna be forever; Or it’s gonna go down in flames”. Let’s see where we are in a year 49ers fans, because if we’re not in the playoffs, well, I got a blank space, baby, and it will have one name.