San Francisco 49ers: A Coaching Staff That May Finally Stick Around

In the world of professional sports, you can have a team full of all-star quality players but if the team lacks chemistry on the field/on the ice/or on the court, they will not be crowned champions.

The same can also be said for a coaching staff.

Every team needs coaches who can display that sense leadership on the sidelines or in the dugout.

For example, where would the New England Patriots be without Bill Belichick? Where would the New York Yankees have been without Joe Torre? (Baseball fans may be seeing that right now).

Where would the Los Angeles Lakers be without Phil Jackson? Would the Miracle on Ice 1980 USA hockey team been able to beat the USSR without head coach Herb Brooks?

To be fair, these coaching minds have already carved out tremendous careers as coaches and have won championships as well as gold medals. And although San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary is just at the beginning of his career as a head coach, it is easy for 49er fans to get excited again.

The 49er faithful have witnessed world-class coaching throughout the years from the late Bill Walsh to George Seifert, and therefore are well aware of what it takes for a head coach to be successful. And so far, Singletary's first impression has made for a near euphoric state of the players and fans.

With Singletary running the show, Jimmy Raye running the offense and Greg Manusky running the defense, the 49ers finally have a front-line of the coaching staff that each understand their individualized role.

Having such a quality group of coaches is going to be a huge boost to the 49ers chances at competing this upcoming season because they really haven't had that sort of continuity in the coaching staff since Steve Mariucci left in 2002.

In 2003, the 49ers brought in standout college coach Dennis Erickson as head coach but still had Greg Knapp and Jim Mora Jr. in place as offensive and defensive coordinators from Mariucci's regime.

The 49ers still had quite a large amount of returning players from the previous season which saw them finish 10-6 and won the crazy wild-card game against the New York Giants.

However, Erickson never fit in as head coach and did not get along with his coordinators enough to bring them back the following season. After a sub-par 7-9 finish in his first season, Erickson replaced Knapp and Mora Jr. with his own coordinators in Ted Tollner on offense and Willy Robinson on defense.

Granted the 2003 49er team under-achieved with a 7-9 record, but Erickson's 2004 team re-defined the word "awful." The defense gave up nearly 24 points per game, 49er quarterbacks threw just 16 touchdowns on the season against 21 interceptions, and Kevan Barlow became the bust that never fulfilled the shoes left by Garrison Hearst.

San Francisco won just twice in 2004, both games coming against the formerly weak but current defending NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals.

With 2005 comes along brand new coaches at all three of the top coaching positions, new head coach, new offensive coordinator and new defensive coordinator.

Former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Nolan was brought in as head coach, while the former New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy was brought in to fill the same role, and former New York Giants linebacker coach Billy Davis became the new defensive coordinator. 

2005 started with high hopes, but any such thoughts of a potential playoff appearance were going to be shot down in a hurry.

Despite beating St. Louis in the home opener, San Francisco was obliterated the following week, losing to the Eagles by a final of 42-3.

After dropping two more games, the 49ers headed into Week Five with a 1-3 record and for some idiotic reason, coach Mike Nolan gave No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith his first career start against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.

Indy eased to a 23-3 victory which saw the 49ers' rookie quarterback complete just 9-of-23 passes for just 74 yards, 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

The 49ers finished the year 4-12 but despite an anemic offense, their offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy was hired as head coach by the Green Bay Packers over the offseason. San Francisco would now have to find their fourth offensive coordinator in four seasons.

Not only did the 49ers need a new offensive coordinator but they also decided to keep defensive coordinator Billy Davis whose 49er defense finished dead last in the NFL in 2005. The defense gave up an average of 25.8 points per game and an abysmal 44 percent third down efficiency.

However, despite the seemingly odd move of keeping Davis around for another season, the 49ers made what was probably their best coaching hire since naming George Seifert head coach back in 1989. San Francisco hired offensive Guru Norv Turner as offensive coordinator in 2006 and coincidentally the 49ers offense turned things around.

Quarterback Alex Smith put his rookie year of 1 touchdown and 11 interceptions behind him and threw for 16 touchdowns to 16 interceptions while improving his quarterback rating from 40.8 to 74.8. Frank Gore ran for 1,695 yards and nine total touchdowns in his first year as starting running back.

The 49ers finished the 2006 campaign with a promising 7-9 record and increased expectations for the upcoming 2007 season.

However, the high expectations for 2007 would go unfulfilled as offensive coordinator Norv Turner bolted late in the offseason to become head coach of the San Diego Chargers.

In haste to find a replacement, head coach Mike Nolan promoted his inexperienced quarterbacks coach Jim Hostler to replace Turner. Coincidentally enough, after making the best coaching higher in recent memory, the 49ers replaced him with arguably the worst coaching higher in team history.

The 49ers finished the season with an extremely disappointing 5-11 finish after starting the season 2-0 with wins over divisional rivals Arizona and St. Louis. Offensive coordinator Jim Hostler was visibly lost on how to call an offensive game plan as opposing defenses were almost always certain on whether San Francisco was going to pass or run.

It also did not help that quarterback Alex Smith was limited to seven games due to a injury to his throwing shoulder and backup Trent Dilfer won just one game in his seven starts. However the final two wins came from relatively unknown third stringer in Shaun Hill who finally gave 49er fans something to cheer about late in the season making the 49ers final record a bit less embarrassing. 

Going into 2008 the 49ers would once again be looking for a new offensive coordinator but this year decided to keep defensive coordinator Greg Manusky for a second consecutive season.

With Nolan at head coach and Manusky at defensive coordinator, the 49ers needed an stout offensive mind that could run the offense entirely on his own since Nolan is a defensively minded coach.

The 49ers got exactly what they were looking for when they hired former St. Louis Rams head coach and most recently Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz to run their offense. However, most fans knew the history of Martz and his pass-eccentric offense and that the 49ers did not have the personnel to fit such a system.

Coincidentally the 49ers struggled to a 2-5 mark in 2008 which saw head coach Mike Nolan lose his job.

Despite the promotion of assistant coach Mike Singletary, who turned the team around with a 5-4 finish in the final nine games, the 49ers would once again need a new offensive coordinator. Martz and Singletary's styles did not mesh and even though the combination put together a solid second half of the season, San Francisco decided to release Martz and go in another direction.

And finally we arrive at the current forefront of the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff.

Mike Singletary is now the full-time head coach, and Greg Manusky remains as defensive coordinator.

This season Manusky will finally be able to run the defense in the fashion that he wants to run it. In his first season-and-a-half, head coach Mike Nolan forced Manusky to run the defense his way because he was the supposed defensive master-mind from Baltimore.

But now with Singletary running the show, Manusky will have more freedom with the defensive play-calling and the 49ers defense will be able to play to their strengths of speed and quickness, especially from the linebacker position.

Now on the offensive side the ball, the 49ers have brought in their seventh coordinator in seven seasons. However unlike years past, the 49ers don't have to worry about inept coaching or coaching so good that the coach will bolt for a head coaching job.

This offseason the 49ers brought in former Jets running-backs coach and former Raider offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye to run their offense in 2009. A veteran NFL coordinator for 11 seasons and with numerous positional coaching jobs, Raye has been around the block for over 30 years.

He has the ability to run different types of offenses with the vocal points coming from different positions. He can emphasize the run as he did with the Redskins in 2001, and emphasize the pass as he did with the Chiefs from 1999-2000.

With Raye and Manusky holding down the coordinator positions, the 49ers will be able to build some chemistry on both sides of the ball and play under the same system for years to come. Two, three, four years from now the 49ers may be playing under the same defensive and offensive systems for the first time since 2002.

Plus with Mike Singletary as head coach, 49er fans will no longer have to moan and complain about their team settling for a field goal on fourth down and "inch" when they could easily convert for a first down. Singletary has the ability to make the tough calls and is always an advocate of going for the win rather than playing not to lose.

After the nine games of which Singletary coached last year, 49er fans and everyone else seem to believe that Singletary can lead this organization back to their glory days. With the coaching staff seemingly set for years to come, the 49ers may just return to that team of glory.