There’s light finally shedding on the San Francisco 49ers head coaching search. The team interviewed former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase for approximately eight hours on Tuesday. Questions would obviously pop up about what an older defensive coordinator would think of having a younger guy at the helm picked above him. If the 49ers want to keep any continuity from recent seasons, it needs to retain its most important piece on the coaching staff.
Mike Silver of NFL Network reported that DC Vic Fangio would want out if Gase gets the job. More specifically, he would be out if the team didn’t hire either himself (obviously) or Mike Shanahan.
I'm told word in coaching circles is 49ers DC Vic Fangio now wants out of SF unless he gets HC job... or Mike Shanahan does.
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) January 13, 2015
The news of Gase getting a follow-up interview is significant as it’s the first coach publicly known to get one with the 49ers. San Francisco interviewed Shanahan nearly two weeks ago, but there’s been no word since. His name may be on a backburner, but Gase looks as strong of a candidate as anyone else since the coaching search began.
An interesting nugget to Gase is Broncos owner John Elway will consider both the former offensive coordinator and former defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio to be the new head coach. They planned an interview after Gase met with the 49ers. Denver wiped out their entire coaching staff on Monday, so it’s hard to imagine there’s a healthy relationship between Elway and Gase.
Considering the 49ers are notorious for letting these leaks out, I’d believe that Fangio would want out if Gase was hired. If the 49ers didn’t want Fangio as their head coach, the worst thing they could do is hire a younger guy outside of the organization with zero head coaching experience. Jim Harbaugh is a few years younger (51) than Fangio (56), but he joined the 49ers under Harbaugh. Now that he’s an actual head coach candidate, having to revert back to a DC and be under a young gun that hasn’t fired any bullets would make any work environment uncomfortable. Gase is 20 years younger than Fangio.
The 49ers losing Fangio would also be a huge loss for the franchise. Most fans didn’t like the firing of Harbaugh, but at least some support the decision to move on because of questionable offensive production. Every fan is behind Fangio and he’s become one of the hottest coordinator names in recent years with how successful the 49ers defense has been. Losing him would completely alienate the fanbase.
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