What a difference a year makes...

Jan 16, 2015 at 8:19 PM

VANiner
Veteran
Posts: 348

Exactly one year ago today, we were in a much different place. We were gearing up for our 3rd straight NFC championship appearance and hoping for a second shot at the Superbowl (ok, we know how that went). Even so, after that heart breaking loss and listening to the subsequent blathering of Richard Sherman, I was ready to load up in the Draft and FA and then hit it again in 2014. I didn't pay any attention to the media frenzy circling around the schism between Harbaugh and the front office. I assumed Bowman would be back around mid-season for our playoff push. I assumed Kap would be lighting up the league with both his arm and legs. Basically, I was ready for an offseason of improvement and completely expected that right now, on Championship weekend, we would be right back here and ready to take the next step. What a difference a year makes.

Harbaugh is gone. Almost the entire coaching staff is gone. Tomsula is the HC. The list of long time / important Niners who will not or may or may not be back is somewhat staggering depending how the offseason goes (Gore, Crabtree, V. Davis, Iupati, J. Smith, Brooks, Culliver, Boldin, MacDonald (gone), etc.) There are more questions about Kap now than there have been at anytime before during his career. There is no offensive identity and our vaunted defense is a year older. What a difference a year makes.

All that said, even with the inevitable losses of some of the players I mentioned and the question marks as to who our OC and DC will be, and most importantly what our offensive identity will be, I have a completely indefensible feeling of confidence that we will bounce back quickly from this. There is too much talent on this team to be less than a contender. The greatest thing Harbaugh brought to this team was the ability to get everyone in the locker room to believe that they were good enough to contend. He had basically the same talented roster that Singeletary had and turned them into winners (something Singletary couldn't do). Tomsula, on the other hand, doesn't have to turn these guys into winners. He just has to remind them that they are winners. Of anyone that could have become our HC this year, as crazy as it sounds, Tomsula might just be the most perfect person to do just that. If he does, then a year from now, hopefully I'll be writing another silly post as we get ready for another NFC championship and I'll be able to title it "What a difference a year makes".

We'll see...

Jan 16, 2015 at 9:01 PM