The San Francisco 49ers finally hired their new head coach with Jim Tomsula. They picked another Jim and stuck in-house by promoting the defensive line coach. Did the 49ers make the right move? After initial reaction through press conferences and public interviews, the jury is still definitely out.
Tomsula was introduced by both owner Jed York and general manager Trent Baalke in a press conference back on Thursday. There were two obvious notes to take away from the hour-long show. Baalke finally has his wish of complete control, and the breakup between Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers was all but mutual.
Baalke threw his weight around by cutting into some of Tomsula’s answers. He was sitting there making sure that Tomsula was saying all the right things, and if there was ever a question that would sway in their mind of not acceptable, the GM would butt in to say they weren’t going there. Even on a question that talked about what we can expect on the field, Baalke had to stop Tomsula and say that “running” could be involved.
Anything on Harbaugh? The closest Tomsula came to that subject when he wasn’t stopped by the head honchos was answering why he was the new head coach (via SF Gate).
"“One statement that comes to mind is the difference between confidence and arrogance is ignorance,” Tomsula said. “The way you carry yourself. There’s a fine line of crossing from confident to arrogant. Sometimes we teeter on that.”"
Interesting. By not saying Harbaugh’s name, they essentially said that he was arrogant at times. A guy that screams and yells on the sideline at times can be arrogant? No way!
Is that really a bad quality for a coach to have? At least Harbaugh showed fire and always backed his players. It’s pretty clear that the Harbaugh exit was more based on his decisions on who to play on Sunday, dating back to 2013 with Aldon Smith, than anything else.
Looking at this four-minute interview with Yahoo! Sports Talk Live on CSN Bay Area, you can see why York and Baalke went with Tomsula. Like them in press conferences, he’s not going to offer anything of value for the public to dissect.
It’s uncomfortable watching the interview. Tomsula is as muted as it gets. A complete 180 from Harbaugh who was always active on the sideline and in his conferences. Harbaugh didn’t give everything to the public either, but at least gave reporters something to chew on. Tomsula has been thrown into a new situation and hopefully gets more comfortable with the media, but first impressions are pretty low.
For a team that’s considered to be retooling, it’s sure looking like a rebuilding project. There’s only a few members of the coaching staff coming back, and the loss of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio — the guy who was the architect behind a top five defense in the NFL for four years — was pushed aside.
There certainly won’t be a power struggle in the near future between Tomsula and the real coaches of this team, York and Baalke. Now the long road for the powerful duo to win back the fans begins.