Jim Tomsula: Failure Unknown to Mankind?
Jim Tomsula's press conference was not reassuring to 49er fans
When Jim Harbaugh became head coach of the 49ers in January 2011 he uttered a famous line during his opening press conference. He said his team will "attack the day with enthusiasm unknown to mankind". The line epitomized how the team would compete during his tenure as the Niners outplayed and out muscled many teams and managed to win 49 games over four years. After that press conference, you just knew that the Niners were going to be a good team.
Whose got it better than us? NOBODY!
As Jim Tomsula delivered his opening speech during his press conference, all I could think of was that we could see "failure unknown to mankind" under Tomusla. How is he going to lead this team to victory? He can barely put together a cohesive sentence. We have begun the "Jim Tomsulery" era as the Bay Area Sports Guy cleverly coined it.
I think most 49er fans are left shaking their heads over the events that have unfolded over the last couple months. From a football perspective none of the decisions made by Trent Baalke or Jed York seem to make any sense. They fired the winning-est football coach in team history and replaced him with a defensive line coach with no head coaching experience and apparently no public speaking experience either. It's safe to say that Tomsula's press conference was an absolute disaster and it didn't exactly quell any of the frustrations or fears of 49er fans. In fact, it only re-insured exactly what we were thinking, that it was a total mistake to fire Harbaugh.
During the press conference, Tomsula spent more time talking about obscure things like his kids spending time in elevators and Joan in payroll than how he was going to be the guy to win the sixth Super Bowl for the franchise. What is his defensive philosophy going to be? How will he get the offense back on track? None of the important questions were answered. Trent Baalke even had to answer for Tomsula, saying that "we're going to run the ball". When have we heard that before? Oh yeah, Mike Singletary. That worked out well.
It's almost as if the Harbaugh era was a short dream where the Niners were lifted to a fantasy state and now we've woken up back in reality. And the reality is that this is Jed York's team. In our dreams it was Harbaugh's team.
Jed York's first major decision as CEO of the Niners was hiring Mike Singletary as head coach. Everyone liked Singletary. Everyone wanted him to succeed. He was a passionate guy, who played with enthusiasm and coached with enthusiasm. But unfortunately, that only got him so far as he never had the expertise to lead the offense. When the Niners fired Singletary after two under achieving seasons, Jed York single-handily replaced him with interim head coach, Jim Tomsula for the last game of the season. And what were the main attributes of Tomsula ascribed to him at the time? He's a passionate guy, everyone likes him and he coaches with enthusiasm. Sounds familiar. And it leads me to believe that he'll also have no idea what to do on offense.
It's clear that Jed York has an ideal coach in his mind, one that is passionate and he gets along with on a personal level, which seems to be more important than finding an intelligent, strong-willed leader that commands attention and respect. The problem is that Jed York's ideal coach is a failure at the NFL level. We've seen it before and we're going to see it again. Unless, we get lucky. Just like we got lucky when Harbaugh landed in our laps in the first place. One thing you can say about Baalke and York is that they do have a vision. They wanted a head coach who would be submissive to their commands. They wanted a puppy dog to obey their orders and do as they say. Tomsula even had to ask if he could sit down when he first came on stage for the press conference. Are you kidding me? Well, Baalke and York have found their guy. They knew he was the perfect fit all along.
The only problem with this vision is that while Tomsula will follow orders during the week, he will be in control on game day. Tomsula will have to make the call when to go for it on 4th down, when to challenge a bad call, when to call timeout, how to manage the clock, how to make adjustments at halftime. Is he prepared to do all that? Or is Baalke going to be holding him with his leash and be in his ear the whole time running things behind the scenes? I guess we'll find out.
However bad it looks now, the bottom line will be, can the 49ers win under Tomsula? I actually think the Niners can succeed in spite of him. There is enough talent on the roster to contend for the playoffs next year, even with some turnover. If Kaepernick gets his confidence back and the defense remains strong with the return of Willis and Bowman, the Niners could put up wins often. But the key for Jim Tomsula will be the offense. Since he is a defensive coach who has been successful coaching the defensive line, it's reasonable to expect the defense will remain elite, despite the loss of successful defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio. But with no offensive experience he's going to have to rely on the offensive coordinator to run the show. Which makes the hiring of the offensive coordinator the lynchpin to his success. If he finds the right guy, the Niners can win. If he doesn't, the Niners could be spending the playoffs at the dog park.
The right guy for offensive coordinator is someone who is going to find a way to utilize the strengths of Colin Kaepernick. If they emphasize the read option, allow him to use his instincts, he will regain his confidence and once again deliver his bullet passes with accuracy. We know what Kaepernick is capable of, he can win a Super Bowl, he just needs to have someone who can help him realize his potential. Someone who won't force him to be a pocket passer.
Surprisingly, two of the candidates rumored for the role may actually have the right resume to help Kaepernick regain his form. The lead candidate is Rob Chudzinski, special offensive assistant to the Colts and former offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, where he helped lead another dual-threat QB, Cam Newton, who had success his first two seasons. He knows how to run the read option effectively and has direct experience of developing a dual-threat QB. The other candidate rumored for the role is Mike Shanahan, former two-time Super Bowl winning coach with the Broncos and also former coach of Robert Griffin III at Washington. The thing to like about Shanahan is that he loves to run the ball, as he seemed to make every RB he's ever coached into a 1,000 yard rusher. He also coached RGIII to an unbelievably successful first year where the read option was almost unstoppable. While it's uncertain if Shanahan would actually take a back-up role to a rookie head coach, it could be a great fit for him. Shanahan loves coaching football and loves control. The chance to run the offense with little oversight from Tomsula would be ideal. Plus, he'd get to work with a talented QB and if he was successful, he'd be in line to be a head coach of another NFL team in no time.
I would be fine with either of those options at offensive coordinator. As of today, it sounds like the Niners are waiting for Chudzinski's contract to end with the Colts next week and then they'll interview him for the role and likely offer him the position. Tomsula actually hinted at this when he said they didn't want to tamper with any rules of the hiring process during the playoffs. That would certainly explain Chudzinski's situation. Shanahan would be in command of the offense and would give some respectability to the coaching staff. The problem is that he might be too big of a presence for a rookie head coach. I think the Niners will go with Chudzinski, let's just hope it's not Lane Kiffin. That would guarantee failure, leaving all 49er fans asking, whose got it better than us? EVERYBODY!
