It was an interesting interaction to watch: Troy Smith was sitting on the bench with his QB coach on his left, and Ted Ginn standing off to his right. Head Coach Mike Singletary was standing in front of the quarterback and informed him that he would be benched in favor of the other Smith. Troy Smith then went off on a tirade, gesticulating wildly, seemingly telling he head coach to shove it. Ginn, the started to run interference, literally. The former Buckeye wide receiver started rubbing a towel in T. Smith's face only to get swatted away by the agitated QB. Sing finally walked away and T. Smith remained the starter for another two series.
I was the third time 49er fans have seen this painful exhibition. Sing, challenging his starting quarterback by threatening a benching and expecting his starting quarterback to respond with some fire. It happened with Shaun Hill, Alex Smith and now Troy Smith.
The scene, and the fact that it happened three times, placed the fundamental fractures of Singletary's head coaching tenure in plain view. In a league dominated by quarterbacks, (Sam Bradford made that painfully obvious today) Sing has no clue how to handle the leagues marque position. It was the same problem his mentor, Mike Nolan, suffered from.
The larger issue, though, is the volatility exhibited by the team's supposed leader. He vacillates between starting quarterbacks. He is never sure of anything unless he "looks at the film." He gets into screaming matches with his players. He unequivocally supports his flailing offensive coordinator only to fire him the next day. He enters the press room with red, puffy eyes from crying over a loss and simultaneously says he needs to keep his emotions in check.
The 49ers could never find their footing in such a volatile environment. And now, thankfully, the volatile season is effectively over.
9:35 pm: UPDATE: Apprently David White, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, is reporting on his twitter page that Mike Singletary was just told he was fired. (http://twitter.com/#!/bydavidwhite/status/19252094124957698)
He followed it up with some other tweets and apparently the 49ers have made it official with a statement.
Said Singletary: "I am ... thankful for the Faithful fans, I am just sorry I couldn't give them more."
White is also reporting that Defensive Line coach Jim Tomsula will be the interim head coach. Tomsula has been a head coach before in NFL Europe.