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Should the San Francisco 49ers hire another college coach?

By Brian Spaen

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After the San Francisco 49ers went through their trio of disastrous head coaches at the turn of the millennium, the organization got its best head coach since the George Seifert era from the college ranks. Jim Harbaugh was plucked from Stanford and, despite multiple great college minds that took the leap, he was one of the few that thrived. Should the 49ers cast a line to the universities again?

As Jed York and Trent Baalke expand their coaching search, two head coaches in college have been seen in the rumor mill: Auburn coach Gus Malzahn and UCLA coach Jim Mora Jr. While initial reaction is to be curious on Malzahn and take the next flight out as far away as possible from Mora, both coaches present positive and negatives for the 49ers.

Gus Malzahn

One problem that fans and even some sports media outlets have is generalizing too much. Saying that Malzahn has no shot in the NFL because he runs a spread offense couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, with how the 49ers are set up, he could thrive with the combination of their personnel and his offensive mindset.

Malzahn has combined an old Delaware Wing-T formation, made to fake out defenses by moving offensive linemen around, along with a hurry-up spread offense. Colin Kaepernick looked terrible in a spread offense last year, but Malzahn’s version is geared toward mobile quarterbacks. If the 49ers keep Frank Gore and rotate him around a healthy Kendall Hunter (if he too returns) and Carlos Hyde to get two players in the backfield, Malzahn’s deadly combination of power offense and spread formations could mesh perfectly together.

The question surrounding this method is the offensive line. If it wants to run on all cylinders, it can’t let Kaepernick get sacked a league-high 52 games in a season. They’ll have to play much better as a unit, and patching that up along with how Kaepernick improves in the offseason would be the biggest questions toward Malzahn’s success.

Jim Mora Jr.

Oct 18, 2014; Berkeley, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora Jr. stands on the field before the start of the game against the California Golden Bears at Memorial Stadium. Should the San Francisco 49ers look into him? Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

If there’s a team’s fanbase that doesn’t care what anyone thinks about their head coach, it’s the 49ers. Harbaugh was ripped for his cheap Wal-Mart khaki pants, throwing tantrums on the sideline, and acting like a sore loser in press conferences. Mora provides the same fire and takes the same type of criticism, but it’s in a different way.

Where Harbaugh always took a higher road, Mora’s a guy that has no problems being snarky and getting under people’s skin. Recently, Mora received criticism for snubbing Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder after a bowl game because one of the Wildcat players leaped over the line in an attempt to force a fumble. Instead, it looked like that defender was just trying to pound the Bruins quarterback. Whether or not you agree with what Mora did, you would never see Harbaugh do something like that.

Mora is more of a Pete Carroll type. In the rivalry between San Francisco and Seattle, you saw the Seahawks get into the 49ers’ heads, and it would result in harder hits on the field. With Mora at the helm, there would be more mind games on both sides.

The questions surrounding a hire like this is it doesn’t fit York’s criteria. Mora doesn’t seem to be a teacher, and he wouldn’t be winning games with any “better class” than Harbaugh did. Another problem is he wasn’t that good as an NFL head coach. He went 26-22 with the Atlanta Falcons and just 5-11 in his only season with the Seahawks.

Are these, if any, college candidates really are on the 49ers list? If it involves these two, Malzahn would be a better hire — probably even better if he’d agree to be the offensive mind as Vic Fangio gets promoted (and also highly unlikely). Malzahn fits the “Bill Walsh teacher quality” that York apparently is hard-pressed on getting, and his offensive scheme could be a dream come true for a 49ers offense that needs some reimagining.

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