Who was the worst 49er HC?

Originally posted by fastforward:

Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:
to me Singletary was better at applying the little/outdated knowledge he had. he tried at least.
Erickson just didn't seem like he cared.

Erickson probably knew he was doomed with that depleted team. In the end he even put himself in the position to be fired.

true. maybe he was telling himself "i didn't sign up for this sh*t" when Garcia, TO, etc got shipped away. but still, that's not an excuse for not caring.

Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:

Originally posted by fastforward:

Originally posted by 49erfeeeever808:
to me Singletary was better at applying the little/outdated knowledge he had. he tried at least.
Erickson just didn't seem like he cared.

Erickson probably knew he was doomed with that depleted team. In the end he even put himself in the position to be fired.

true. maybe he was telling himself "i didn't sign up for this sh*t" when Garcia, TO, etc got shipped away. but still, that's not an excuse for not caring.

I'd be more sympathetic to Erickson if his drafts weren't absolute rubbish. They best thing they gave us was Brian Jennings and Andy Lee. I don't know how much control Donahue had over the draft but I have to bet that Erickson had sizeable input.

Originally posted by dcsham:
None of the above. Back before Bill Walsh, we had a one year combo of Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley. I would take any of the three you list over those two.

Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley were the worst

Originally posted by MiamiNiner:
Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley were the worst

they did had a very bad gm and they had nothing to work with. gene washington, plunket cedrick hardman were all gone and all we had was oj and a coked up over the hill hollywood henderson. we went from monte clark to those two by the way people who defend erickson by saying he had a gutted roster seem to forget he basically had a playoff team he got from mooch. he had the tools, cept for a kicker. he was inept and did not know how to prepare or use what he had in that first year. that is not an excuse for his bad first year

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:
I'd be more sympathetic to Erickson if his drafts weren't absolute rubbish. They best thing they gave us was Brian Jennings and Andy Lee. I don't know how much control Donahue had over the draft but I have to bet that Erickson had sizeable input.

I think that Donahue had most of the control over those drafts. Since Mariucci was the coach for the 2002 draft you would have to blame him for that putrid draft if you are going to blame Erickson for 03-04. In reality, the lions-share of the blame fall squarely on the sun-tanned shoulders of Terry Donahue. I think you would be hard pressed to find many drafts over a three year period worse than Donahue's record from 02-04.

There was no doubt that the Niners were going to experience a major fall because of the salary cap situation. At one point they were paying more cap money to former players than to the players on the team. They had to purge the roster and build anew. No choice. But the problem was compounded considerably by the fact that Donahue was a terrible GM and that his drafts destined the Niners to stay on their knees longer than was necessary.

One thing that Donahue was good at was office politics (which is impressive considering all the time he spent on his yacht in Newport Beach) and he had managed to get more power for himself at the expense of the head coach. That caused fritction between him and Marriucci if I remember correctly. I don't think the "impulsive" Dr. York fires Marricucci without consulation and perhaps encouragement from Donahue. By the time Erikson is brought on board Donahue is firmly in control. Those were his drafts.

I think the Erikson was probably a better coach than Nolan or Singletary. I don't remember Erikson having the on-the-field or off-the-field issues (rumours about drinking I guess) that both Nolan and Singletary had. He had been a very good head coach in college and didn't really embarrass himself in Seattle. What he was, I think, was an average to maybe a little below average NFL coach in a situation that was much to big for him and made worse by the incompetence of the front office. I really doubt, given the cap purge and the horrendous drafts that Marriucci would have done much better.

Originally posted by BHulman:
I think that Donahue had most of the control over those drafts. Since Mariucci was the coach for the 2002 draft you would have to blame him for that putrid draft if you are going to blame Erickson for 03-04. In reality, the lions-share of the blame fall squarely on the sun-tanned shoulders of Terry Donahue. I think you would be hard pressed to find many drafts over a three year period worse than Donahue's record from 02-04.

There was no doubt that the Niners were going to experience a major fall because of the salary cap situation. At one point they were paying more cap money to former players than to the players on the team. They had to purge the roster and build anew. No choice. But the problem was compounded considerably by the fact that Donahue was a terrible GM and that his drafts destined the Niners to stay on their knees longer than was necessary.

One thing that Donahue was good at was office politics (which is impressive considering all the time he spent on his yacht in Newport Beach) and he had managed to get more power for himself at the expense of the head coach. That caused fritction between him and Marriucci if I remember correctly. I don't think the "impulsive" Dr. York fires Marricucci without consulation and perhaps encouragement from Donahue. By the time Erikson is brought on board Donahue is firmly in control. Those were his drafts.

I think the Erikson was probably a better coach than Nolan or Singletary. I don't remember Erikson having the on-the-field or off-the-field issues (rumours about drinking I guess) that both Nolan and Singletary had. He had been a very good head coach in college and didn't really embarrass himself in Seattle. What he was, I think, was an average to maybe a little below average NFL coach in a situation that was much to big for him and made worse by the incompetence of the front office. I really doubt, given the cap purge and the horrendous drafts that Marriucci would have done much better.

he let the inmates run the asylum, we had stupid penalities and all of a sudden became very very undisciplined. that is coaching. he let the guys lounge around in a hotel one weekend when we played the ravens cuz the weather was bad. the ravens were out working, steve young ripped erikson for that decision and of course we went out and got blown. he was terrible. the only thing he did right was, unlike mooch, he showed some class when he got fired and did a nice give and take press conference after he got fired. thats the only bone i will throw him

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:
I'd be more sympathetic to Erickson if his drafts weren't absolute rubbish. They best thing they gave us was Brian Jennings and Andy Lee. I don't know how much control Donahue had over the draft but I have to bet that Erickson had sizeable input.

i'm guessing you didn't follow the team that closely. erickson was a puppet for donahue to pull the strings. donahue was the mastermind behind all those bad drafts and cap moves.

Originally posted by BHulman:
I think that Donahue had most of the control over those drafts. Since Mariucci was the coach for the 2002 draft you would have to blame him for that putrid draft if you are going to blame Erickson for 03-04. In reality, the lions-share of the blame fall squarely on the sun-tanned shoulders of Terry Donahue. I think you would be hard pressed to find many drafts over a three year period worse than Donahue's record from 02-04.

There was no doubt that the Niners were going to experience a major fall because of the salary cap situation. At one point they were paying more cap money to former players than to the players on the team. They had to purge the roster and build anew. No choice. But the problem was compounded considerably by the fact that Donahue was a terrible GM and that his drafts destined the Niners to stay on their knees longer than was necessary.

One thing that Donahue was good at was office politics (which is impressive considering all the time he spent on his yacht in Newport Beach) and he had managed to get more power for himself at the expense of the head coach. That caused fritction between him and Marriucci if I remember correctly. I don't think the "impulsive" Dr. York fires Marricucci without consulation and perhaps encouragement from Donahue. By the time Erikson is brought on board Donahue is firmly in control. Those were his drafts.

I think the Erikson was probably a better coach than Nolan or Singletary. I don't remember Erikson having the on-the-field or off-the-field issues (rumours about drinking I guess) that both Nolan and Singletary had. He had been a very good head coach in college and didn't really embarrass himself in Seattle. What he was, I think, was an average to maybe a little below average NFL coach in a situation that was much to big for him and made worse by the incompetence of the front office. I really doubt, given the cap purge and the horrendous drafts that Marriucci would have done much better.

This is a pretty compelling account of events, I'll buy it.

I think Nolan was worse.... We had a lot of close competitive games under sing though.

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:
I'd be more sympathetic to Erickson if his drafts weren't absolute rubbish. They best thing they gave us was Brian Jennings and Andy Lee. I don't know how much control Donahue had over the draft but I have to bet that Erickson had sizeable input.

If we had listened to Erickson in the draft we would have been better off. He had no input. He wanted Stephen Jackson over Rashaun Woods. Just one example. It would be hard to be worse than Terry was.

Originally posted by Evilgenius:

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:
I'd be more sympathetic to Erickson if his drafts weren't absolute rubbish. They best thing they gave us was Brian Jennings and Andy Lee. I don't know how much control Donahue had over the draft but I have to bet that Erickson had sizeable input.

If we had listened to Erickson in the draft we would have been better off. He had no input. He wanted Stephen Jackson over Rashaun Woods. Just one example. It would be hard to be worse than Terry was.

Really? I don't remember this.

Looking through some old emails from a buddy who was watching all the games on Sunday Ticket:

10/21/08

"the fall from grace is steep and never-ending. nolan should have been fired after last season. at least you would have had an entire offseason and training camp to get singletary prepared to coach. i'm excited about singletary plus he bided his time and is owed the opportunity.

i give nolan credit for taking over a team that was unwatchable (2-14 under erickson) and raising the talent level. he made some good draft picks (gore, willis, staley, josh morgan looks like a player) but he also had some bad ones (vernon davis) and will forever be tied to the bust that is alex smith.

but his coaching was lacking. it started to become pretty obvious the past few weeks. against new england, he was thoroughly outcoached and it was embarassing. and against philly, he doesn't challenge a clear bobble on the sideline by a philly receiver deep in niner territory on 3rd and forever but decides to challenge a field goal attempt that turns out wasn't even challengable. he should at least know the rules.

bottom line, he deserved to go. should have been done sooner and because it wasn't another season is done before the midway point. the yorks should fire themselves. "

Another vintage email, this time from me:

9/15/08:

Check out a recap of 49ers/Seahawks yesterday...

First 300+ yard passing game in 4 years, lol.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap?game_id=29552&displayPage=tab_recap&season=2008&week=REG2

Mike Martz, Isaac Bruce for 153 yards receiving....I'll put up with the Rams pedigree so long as it provides some offensive decency!

As crappy as Ericson, and his NFL record is, you have to cut him some slack, management was so far over the cap, they jettisoned half the team, Ericson coached a talentless team.

Nolan inherited the mess, and added talent, but was just not a good coach.

Singletary was handed a talented roster, just a few players away from from a championship caliber team, and embarrassed himself, and the franchise with an absolutely stunning lack of knowledge of X's and O's, coupled with arrogance, and favoritism, he by far is the not only the worst Niner coach I've ever seen, he just may be the worst head coach in modern the NFL. Hands down...Singletary!

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
As crappy as Ericson, and his NFL record is, you have to cut him some slack, management was so far over the cap, they jettisoned half the team, Ericson coached a talentless team.

Nolan inherited the mess, and added talent, but was just not a good coach.

Singletary was handed a talented roster, just a few players away from from a championship caliber team, and embarrassed himself, and the franchise with an absolutely stunning lack of knowledge of X's and O's, coupled with arrogance, and favoritism, he by far is the not only the worst Niner coach I've ever seen, he just may be the worst head coach in modern the NFL. Hands down...Singletary!

they did not tear up the team untill the second year he was the coach, no excuse for that first year going 7-9 with a playoff roster mostly still in tact