Which head coach firing was the worst mistake made by niner ownership

Originally posted by boast:

Originally posted by K1ngCoopa24:
They did the dirty Sanchez firing Mooch. Just straight wrong.

his firing was completely justified. Mooch proved he was a giant vagina in the NFC divisional playoff game vs the Buccaneers in 2002. he let the team quit with more than 2 minutes left in the first half.

I liked Mooch as a coach, but never did understand that move. I never understood why if a team has the ball, even with just a few seconds left, throw a Hail Mary. Just make sure if the other team gets it, there is no return. The only other thing I didn't like during the Mooch years was, whenever the Niners needed 6 yards for the 1st down, they always would do a 3 - 4 yard pass play. Not only do you need to make the catch, now you have to extend the play for a few yards.

Ugh, I forgot about Mooch giving up at the half against the Bucs, but I remember it now. That whole game was just turrible .

Originally posted by JimA49ers:
I liked Mooch as a coach, but never did understand that move. I never understood why if a team has the ball, even with just a few seconds left, throw a Hail Mary. Just make sure if the other team gets it, there is no return. The only other thing I didn't like during the Mooch years was, whenever the Niners needed 6 yards for the 1st down, they always would do a 3 - 4 yard pass play. Not only do you need to make the catch, now you have to extend the play for a few yards.

Better than the Singletary/Nolan years of running Gore up the middle on 3'rd and 9 haha.

Originally posted by Disp:
Ugh, I forgot about Mooch giving up at the half against the Bucs, but I remember it now. That whole game was just turrible .

i wanted him gone at halftime and see mora take over i was so pissed

Originally posted by Disp:

Originally posted by JimA49ers:
I liked Mooch as a coach, but never did understand that move. I never understood why if a team has the ball, even with just a few seconds left, throw a Hail Mary. Just make sure if the other team gets it, there is no return. The only other thing I didn't like during the Mooch years was, whenever the Niners needed 6 yards for the 1st down, they always would do a 3 - 4 yard pass play. Not only do you need to make the catch, now you have to extend the play for a few yards.

Better than the Singletary/Nolan years of running Gore up the middle on 3'rd and 9 haha.

well when we need a pass play for 10 yards roman calls for one that gets 3

Originally posted by TruNinerFan:

How does harbaugh only has 17% of the vote?? We went from a 6-10 team to 3 straight NFC title games and a super bowl under harbaugh.

That would be because it hasn't happened!

The Clark firing was bad at the time, but in retrospect it led directly to the Walsh Era two years later.

Originally posted by dj43:
For anyone old enough to remember, the Monte Clark firing was worse than Mariucci.

The Joe Thomas hiring was the major disaster in that period. Looking at the big picture the downturn there only lasted 4 years not the 8 years of sucking that followed the Mooch firing. Even though he didn't deserve to get fired if Monte Clark stays maybe we don't get a guy named Bill Walsh a few years later.

Originally posted by OldMort49:
The Clark firing was bad at the time, but in retrospect it led directly to the Walsh Era two years later.

monte still did not deserve it. started 6-1 and only a few injuries prevented us from making a deep run in the playoffs, then plunkett would never have went to oakland and maybe we never would have had a need to draft montana.

Of all the coaches that were fired, I would say Mooch. But if we broaden it to include what coaching situation was the worst mistake by ownership, then my list is as follows:

1. Bill Walsh retirement in 1988. I know Walsh contributed to his own burn out, but he deeply regretted leaving in 1988 and Eddie D. basically refused to give him time to reflect on the season before making his decision. Eddie had as much to do with Walsh leaving as Walsh did.

2. Current Harbaugh situation. They have one of the top 5 coaches in the game and they are refusing to give him a raise or concede him greater control over personnel decisions. They have no back up plan. No, Jim Tomsula is not a back up plan. More importantly, they have let the media run wild with this story.

3. Hiring Seifert. This may be controversial. After all, he did lead the Niners to a title in '94 (I count '89 as a Bill Walsh title - easiest head coaching job this side of Barry Switzer). But their commitment to Seifert caused both Holmgren and Shanahan to leave for head coaching positions elsewhere. For a West Coast team, letting two brilliant offensive coordinators and disciples of Walsh to leave the building in favor of a defensive coordinator was not wise, especially Holmgren, who is from SF. Holmgren would have netted us another title or two, in my opinion.

4. Firing Mariucci. Not saying Mariucci was brilliant. He was a very good coach. But the FO had no back up plan. Inexcusable.

Originally posted by midrdan:
Of all the coaches that were fired, I would say Mooch. But if we broaden it to include what coaching situation was the worst mistake by ownership, then my list is as follows:

1. Bill Walsh retirement in 1988. I know Walsh contributed to his own burn out, but he deeply regretted leaving in 1988 and Eddie D. basically refused to give him time to reflect on the season before making his decision. Eddie had as much to do with Walsh leaving as Walsh did.

2. Current Harbaugh situation. They have one of the top 5 coaches in the game and they are refusing to give him a raise or concede him greater control over personnel decisions. They have no back up plan. No, Jim Tomsula is not a back up plan. More importantly, they have let the media run wild with this story.

3. Hiring Seifert. This may be controversial. After all, he did lead the Niners to a title in '94 (I count '89 as a Bill Walsh title - easiest head coaching job this side of Barry Switzer). But their commitment to Seifert caused both Holmgren and Shanahan to leave for head coaching positions elsewhere. For a West Coast team, letting two brilliant offensive coordinators and disciples of Walsh to leave the building in favor of a defensive coordinator was not wise, especially Holmgren, who is from SF. Holmgren would have netted us another title or two, in my opinion.

4. Firing Mariucci. Not saying Mariucci was brilliant. He was a very good coach. But the FO had no back up plan. Inexcusable.

Very good post!

Originally posted by NCommand:

Very good post!

This^ those are a ton of great points, especially about letting two future SB winning guys leave. To this day, Super Bowl XXXII is sort of tough to see because both coaches came from SF.


I'd have to go with Mariucci, mainly because Erickson was such a poor choice for replacing him. The 2003 team underachieved terribly. TO dogging it most of that season didn't help, but they lost so many close games that were winnable that year.

Mooch had definitely run his course. The rumors of him leaving for Detroit had gained steam when Matt Millen "settled" for Marty Mornhinweg. He was constantly at odds with TO, which couldn't have been good for team chemistry. The TB divisional game was the nail in the coffin.

Originally posted by SoCold:
stupid

Mooch didn't deserve the treatment he got but I don't think he was right for the HC job. Great OC but I think he was too nice to get all the players motivated.

Dumbest front office move imo was hiring Erickson

Was Mooch ever an OC?
I remember him going from QB coach to HC.

And, while it was poorly planned. Mooch was fired because he was a p***y.
Coached not to lose ALL THE TIME.

The problem, was management was full of idiots that didn't have any type of plan in place for a coaching search.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

Originally posted by SoCold:
stupid

Mooch didn't deserve the treatment he got but I don't think he was right for the HC job. Great OC but I think he was too nice to get all the players motivated.

Dumbest front office move imo was hiring Erickson

Was Mooch ever an OC?
I remember him going from QB coach to HC.

And, while it was poorly planned. Mooch was fired because he was a p***y.
Coached not to lose ALL THE TIME.

The problem, was management was full of idiots that didn't have any type of plan in place for a coaching search.

Mooch was gonna be the OC until Seifert made a surprise retirement so Eddie D just gave him the job

Not replacing Seifert with Pete Carroll was the worst mistake