The San Francisco 49ers didn’t look far for their next head coach. In fact, they didn’t even leave the building. Jim Tomsula, the 49ers’ defensive line coach since 2007, has been promoted to replace Jim Harbaugh as the franchise’s next head coach.
This is technically Tomsula’s second stint as the 49ers head man. Tomsula was interim coach when San Francisco fired Mike Singletary in 2010 with a record of 1-0 in a season-finale win over the Arizona Cardinals. The last time Tomsula was a non-interim head coach it was with the Berlin Rhein Fire in NFL Europe in 2006.
Tomsula is the exact opposite of the departed Harbaugh, who left San Francisco to take the job at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. Harbaugh notably butted heads with general manager Trent Baalke and team owner John York as he built a winning franchise that made a Super Bowl and three consecutive NFC Championship games. Tomsula seems to be what some would call a apple-polisher for the Yorks and benefits from an “exhaustive” 10-day coaching search that saw the owner and GM barely step out of their offices and randomly point at whoever happened to be in the facility.
The promotion of Tomsula will likely present a problem in retaining defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Fangio will probably walk and be a hot prospect to join most NFL staffs. In addition to having to replace Fangio, Tomsula and Baalke will need to find a new offensive coordinator as well, since offensive coordinator Greg Roman joined Rex Ryan’s staff with the Buffalo Bills.
So if you’re keeping track, three weeks ago the 49ers were without a head coach. Now they’re without an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator and arguably, still don’t have a head coach. Certainly there should be a real worry that the long Northern California nightmare of playing winning, competitive football is over.
