I have to admit that after doings some research, Harbaugh is a pretty interesting option. Reasons:
1) He KNOWS football. I like Sing, but his over reliance on his coordinators is a glaring issue. It never made much sense to me that a HC that doesn't know much about calling plays on offense is dictating "what he wants" to the coord. With Harbaugh, this wouldn't be an issue at all. He could install his system and if (for whatever reason) it doesn't work out with the o-coord, we wouldn't have to change anything.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. And did I mention consistency?
2) He's an ex-player. Again, his resume reads as being very QB friendly which we need because we haven't had a competent QB since Garcia left. And him being a former first round pick, I'm sure he could teach whatever QB we draft a thing or two about adjusting to the NFL.
3) He's a Stanford product. I'm just working the feel-good-story-angle here but we all know what happened the last time we hired a HC out of Stanford. Not implying in any way that he'll even be half as good as Walsh (hopefully so) but hey at least the media would yuck it up.
And the good press could work to our benefit with a new stadium on the horizon.
4) Attitude. He's not known for his speeches, but for demanding hard work and more importantly TEAMWORK out of his players.
Pair that with the following offseason moves:
-Cut Alex Smith, Carr, and draft a QB (Luck?).
-Sign the best available veteran QB for the rookie to sit and learn behind.
-After QB, target a pass rushing OLB early in the draft that can come in and start, and possibly a NT if we can't get Franklin locked up.
.....and we'll have a winner for years to come.
[ Edited by baltien on Oct 4, 2010 at 6:20 AM ]