San Francisco Chronicle

49ers won't hire best man
 
 
February 08, 2003
 
BY LARRY KRUEGER
Special To The Examiner

The best football coach who is not coaching today is Jimmy Johnson. If I owned a National Football League franchise, he would be my head coach.

I advocated in this space a couple of weeks ago that the 49ers should hire Dennis Green as coach and also bring in Ray Rhodes as defensive coordinator. They are outstanding coaches who were previously in the 49ers' family. Bill Walsh built the 49ers empire with outstanding players and bright, young coaching minds. Rhodes and Green are two of the most intriguing candidates and their ties to the organization made their return seem plausible. But with Walsh being phased out and John York and Terry Donahue running the show, the organization has changed and neither Green nor Rhodes were contacted for the job. Rhodes became Mike Holmgren's defensive coordinator in Seattle this week.

York has a very real problem on his hands. The 49ers' fan base is a fickle bunch. Their expectations are incredibly high and somewhat illogical. The five Super Bowl victories have spoiled them and it won't take much of a downward spiral before York's team will be playing in front of 40,000 every Sunday. Most 49ers fans suspect that York is an incompetent owner, the 2003 version of Joe Thomas. His starting quarterback, Jeff Garcia, has described the coaching search as "unorganized and embarrassing."

York fired Steve Mariucci without a better alternative. Mariucci had a 60-43 record in six seasons and led the 49ers to the playoffs four times during that span. He was such a bad coach that the Detroit Lions gave him a five-year deal worth $25 million this week.

Terry Donahue's list of coaching candidates is underwhelming to say the least. The 49ers' position, which once was one of the most heralded and prestigious positions in all of professional sports, is currently slated to go to Ted Cottrell, Jim Mora or Greg Blache. My guess is that Cottrell will ultimately get the nod.

While the 49ers would never consider hiring him, Jimmy Johnson is the marquee coach who would excite the fan base and pump life back into the organization.

Johnson has proven that he can take over the most highly pressured jobs and have success. He took over for Howard Schnellenberger at the University of Miami (Fla.) and led the Hurricanes to a national title in the 1987 season. Johnson replaced Tom Landry in 1989 in Dallas and led the Cowboys to Super Bowl titles in 1992 and 1993 seasons. He won two titles during his five seasons in Dallas and the 1995 Cowboys, coached by Barry Switzer, also won a Super Bowl with many of the players Johnson drafted. Johnson took over the Miami Dolphins for Don Shula in 1996. While Miami never won a title under Johnson, it did accumulate a 38-29 record in his four seasons there.

To make fans happy, the 49ers must win playoff games and Johnson's postseason winning percentage in Dallas of .875 (7-1) was the second-best mark in NFL history, behind only Vince Lombardi's mark of .900 (9-1).

Johnson's greatest strength was as a personnel evaluator. His eye for talent -- what he refers to as "playmakers" -- is rare. In Dallas, he drafted Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith, Darren Woodson and many others that contributed to the Cowboys winning back-to-back Super Bowls. His early '90s Cowboys were the NFL's fastest, deepest and youngest team. With the Dolphins, Johnson drafted Jason Taylor, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain, Zach Thomas, Tim Bowens and Derrick Rodgers, among others, and Miami's 2002 defense that was led by many of Johnson's players finished the season as the fifth-best unit in the NFL.

Johnson won't be the 49ers' next coach because he would demand a large contract and total control of the franchise, but he is the one coach who could take the franchise back to the top of the NFL ladder.


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