49ers Have Their Man...New Head Coach Mike...

Mike Nolan....Nolan has done a little bit of everything, he was also an offensive coordinator, before switching to defensive coordinator





SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Baltimore defensive coordinator Mike Nolan accepted the San Francisco 49ers' head coaching position Monday and began to negotiate a contract to take over the team that had the NFL's worst record last season.

Nolan, a longtime coordinator for four teams who has never been a head coach, will replace Dennis Erickson, fired earlier in the month after going 9-23 in two seasons out of the playoffs. San Francisco went 2-14 this season.

After wowing 49ers owner John York in an interview Thursday, Nolan accepted the offer Monday and flew to York's home in Ohio to work out a contract.

<TABLE cellPadding=1 align=left border=0 hspace="10" vspace="5"><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>``(York) had a good strong list of candidates, and they felt that Mike was the perfect candidate to lead us into the future,'' 49ers spokesman Kirk Reynolds said.

Nolan earned the chance to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dick, who went 54-53-5 in eight seasons as the 49ers' coach from 1968-75, winning three straight division championships and reaching two NFC title games while getting the first playoff wins in franchise history.

Mike Nolan, 45, has been in charge of the Ravens' powerful defense since 2001, following stints as the coordinator with the New York Jets (2000), Washington (1997-99) and the New York Giants (1993-96). Baltimore ranked sixth in the NFL in total defense last season.

General manager Terry Donahue was fired along with Erickson, and Nolan will have a hand in picking Donahue's successor as York rebuilds the once-proud franchise, which will have the top pick in the next draft.

York, who didn't return a call seeking comment, has said he planned to hire a coach with broad powers, supplemented by a general manager who concentrates on salary cap issues.

Nolan will be the 15th head coach in 49ers history.

Nolan was interviewed by York and two of the few remaining members of the 49ers' front office. He was offered the job Monday morning, beating out four other candidates: New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, thought to be Cleveland's top choice; Giants defensive coordinator Tim Lewis; and Tennessee coordinators Mike Heimerdinger and Jim Schwartz.

Southern California coach Pete Carroll, thought to be York's top choice after he fired Erickson, apparently was never contacted by the 49ers after initially saying he wasn't interested. Nolan is a protege of Dan Reeves, who hired the former Oregon safety for his first NFL job with the Denver Broncos in 1987. He was a hot candidate for several head coaching spots in recent years, but his star had cooled slightly until the 49ers became interested.

never heard of him

Any relation to Ted Nolan?

He is the son of ex-Niner coach Dick Nolan...

...he was also Redskins receivers coach before becoming Baltimore's defensive coordinator......Talk about a low profile hire...

Good choice.

The hiring of Mike Nolan should help the 49ers maintain their position at the bottom of the NFC Western Division. The organization is in shambles. One can only hope that ticket sales will finally fall off to the status of the Raiders across the Bay so that the local television stations will no longer have to televise home games for this team and people in this area can finally get a chance to view some of the better games that are televised nationally and not stuck with viewing these cellar dwellers. We enjoyed our championships. Now it's time to watch other more deserving teams battle.

Now, as for the SF Giants, that's a whole different story.

I had never heard or Andy Reid before the Eagles hired him and he turned around the team. Now they are one of the best teams ervery year.

Everyone in Baltimore was beside themselves when they heard Mike Nolan (Wash Redskins WR Coach) was taking over the Ravens defense for Marvin Lewis...he did a great job ...

It will be hard to do worse. Good luck niner fans.

Who pulls the trigger?

Deciding Nolan should go is easy, what's next isn't

Ray Ratto, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 15, 2008


(10-14) 20:11 PDT -- The wolves have gathered, checked themselves in at the table and are properly credentialed and name-tagged to howl for the firing of Mike Nolan.
Which is great and all, given that is the perfect knee-jerk reaction to any sporting problem. It feels good, it satisfies the administrative bloodlust we all have, and it kills time between gin and tonics.
Only it's the second move that has everyone flum- moxed, namely, who is going to fire him?
And then there's the third move, which is, who should replace him?
Now this will not be a defense of Nolan or his regime. He has had 54 games to show far more progress than this, and winning every third game isn't close to cutting it. His players are starting to show the telltale signs of losing heart. They look disorganized, confused and directionless in every area, and, worst of all, this season is exactly what those snot-nosed media creeps foresaw for them when the season began.
But there's more. Nolan has not looked comfortable in his own skin since he got here, as though he spends too much time in his own head wondering how he looks while he's coaching. Stylistically as well as tactically, he was simply too twitchy to wield the power he had been given.
In other words, there is simply too little evidence to suggest that he has earned the right or even the blind optimism to keep the job. It might not be time this week, but the time is coming, and the 49ers are always good at seeing the time has come after it already has passed.
Here, though, is the problem everyone wants to avoid when the subject arises. Firing Nolan takes someone to do it, and, frankly, it's hard to see who would. Consider the candidates:
John York: The Guy Who Started It
He hired Nolan, he likes Nolan, he had a chance to fire Nolan as he stood in the soot of last season and chose instead to jerry-rig a system wherein Nolan's subordinate, Scot McCloughan, suddenly becomes his boss (yeah, right). Plus, York would have to appear in public to explain the firing, and he would rather hit himself in the face with a hammer than submit to that.
Jed York: The Boy King, Eventually, Maybe
Hasn't got the power to buck dad on this one, because firing the coach is entirely the purview of the boss, and he isn't the boss yet.
Denise York: She Who Still Must Be Obeyed
It is her team, after all, but she wants less to do with it than she does with a backed-up sewer outside the family's Youngstown manse.
Andy Dolich: The New Guy
Doesn't know enough about NFL football to offer an informed opinion (which also can be said of the Yorks pere et fils), hasn't been on the job long enough to volunteer, and is still spearheading (mmmppfffhhh) the Santa Clara (oh God, no, please don't) stadium plan (HAHAHAHAHA, STOPSTOP, YOU'REKILLINGUS!).
McCloughan: The Right Hand
Already compromised by his relationship with Nolan, and we're still not clear just how much higher in the organizational flow chart than Nolan he actually resides. Plus, his own record of talent acquisition leaves something (say, like wins) to be desired, so his position might not be so secure once the whackings begin.
Paraag Marathe: The Math Guy
The numbers stink, but this isn't a numbers thing. Besides, being in the coaches' booth on Sundays is probably closer than he ought to get to that end of the business.
And here is the next problem: determining the next Nolan.
One of the 49ers' greatest ownership failings has been its lack of connection to other NFL teams to get a sense of where the best talent can be found. After all, John York brought back Bill Walsh and immediately decided he needed a minder. That turned out to be Terry Donahue, whose incompetence-enriched regime helped set in motion that disaster you see before you. Then York canned Donahue and, because he wanted someone to be the franchise front man so he wouldn't have to be, he hired Nolan and gave him more power than any first-time head coach should have.
Oh, and don't give us Mike Martz as an alternative. He is a handy name as an interim guy, and that is all. He is not the future of the franchise, unless you think the franchise should have the same future as its present.
Truth is, there is no evidence to suggest that the Yorks would be any better at replacing Nolan than they were at replacing Donahue than they were at replacing Steve Mariucci. And when we say no evidence, what we mean is plenty of evidence to prove the opposite.
So sure, fire Nolan. Why not? He has it coming, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it, and the team has risen from utter unwatchability to painfully chaotic and borderline resigned. Coaches get fired for cause all the time when they are the cause of this.
Just remember that Nolan isn't the only cause. Remember the paralysis in January when it looked like Nolan would be fired but wasn't. Remember that those same conditions exist now, and that the next move will be made by the same people who will have made this move.
Firing Nolan will make you feel good for a couple of minutes, but you'll still have the same nausea, the headache, the limp and the backache by the time Nolan's car leaves the compound for the last time.
In short, you're nowhere now, and you'll be nowhere later. The scenery simply will be different.

Being a long time fan of and being born the same year as Joe Montana I want to puke as to what our franchise has become.

It is the same now as when I moved to Bay Area in 76 till Eddie Debartolo bought the team and brought in coach Walsh.

Eddie D was a great business man and his sister is a spoiled slut!

Here is the demise in a nut shell.

Eddie D. and Jerry Jones brought us great football in the 80's and 90;s with their deep pockets so the NFL said not fair hence salary cap.

Dwight Clark and Carmen Policy mortgaged the future minipulating the capp and then ran off to expansion Cleveland leaving a mess.

Then Eddie got busted bribing a La. politician as aspired to open a casino,which boggles my mind as his dad owned race tracks and the NFL almost didn't let him purchase team in the first place because of.

So now NFL says Eddie must sell and don't let the door hit you.

So he GIVES the billion dollar franchise to his sister(MUST BE NICE TO BLOW OFF ALL THAT MONEY)and she in turn gives it to her hubby who knows jack shit about running a NFL franchise.


To say it's a Mickey Mouse operation is an insult to Mickey Mouse.


All that being said I had tickets from 1982 till 2000 till I bolted tax laden inflated Ca.

I have seen five championships and been to numerous NFC championship games and no one can take that way from me.

Back then the playoffs were a given and the playoffs were what made paying out the nose for season tickets all worth it.