The San Francisco 49ers have been invited to coach the South squad during the 2019 Reese's Senior Bowl and accepted. The all-star college football exhibition game will be played on January 26, 2019, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Jon Gruden and the Oakland Raiders will coach the North squad.
The @Raiders and @49ers will coach our 2019 game next month in Mobile, Ala. >https://t.co/U4aB7Yu2qc #70thGame #SeniorBowl #CompeteAndConnect pic.twitter.com/jJWf81GarY
— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) December 31, 2018
The coaching staffs of the two NFL teams with the worst records are typically invited to take part in the even. With the Arizona Cardinals firing head coach Steve Wilks after one season and the New York Jets firing Todd Bowles, a 49ers-Raiders coaching staff matchup was expected and was made official on Monday morning.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters last Friday that he expected to be approached about coaching the annual event.
"You have mixed emotions about it, especially as a coach," Shanahan said. "But it's something that you never turn down. It's an advantage for you. Any little thing helps if you can find out more about one guy, whether it affects the seventh-round pick or free agent, you go for (it). It's always worth it."
The last time the 49ers coached the Senior Bowl was in 2008 when Mike Nolan was the head coach. Shanahan took part in the 2012 Senior Bowl as the offensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins, coached by his father, Mike Shanahan, and in 2005 as the offensive quality control coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, coached by Gruden.
Gruden has coached the Senior Bowl three previous times with Raiders and Buccaneers.
The Senior Bowl once before featured the coaching staffs of the 49ers going against the staff of the Raiders. It was the previously mentioned 2008 game featuring Nolan versus then-Raiders coach Lane Kiffin.