By Skip Bayless
Mercury News

This search bounced as bizarrely as a football down through an increasingly unimpressive list of pro and college candidates. Some wanted nothing to do with the instability, volatility and frugality of the House of York. Some favorites of General Manager Terry Donahue were vetoed by team director John York and vice versa.

Down spiraled a pin-the-tail-on-a-coach search that left many fans as red-faced as 49ers jerseys. Down it went to an edge-of-the-radar guy near the bottom of Donahue's college list. Finally York and Donahue settled -- and that's the operative word -- on the one coach who a) wanted the job and whom b) they both could live with.

Dennis ``You've Got to be Kidding'' Erickson.

This choice is so out of character for a team built on character -- so baffling and deflating -- that it makes you step back and wonder if the 49ers didn't hire the wrong Dennis. What happened to Dennis Green, who took the Minnesota Vikings to two NFC championship games?

No doubt this once-proud organization deserved a little better coach than Steve Mariucci. But the 49ers also deserve a CEO who didn't fly off the handle and fire Mariucci without a superior coach in mind or hand. York had no Plan A, B or F.

This organization deserved Jimmy Johnson or Bob Stoops or Mike Holmgren -- a proven winner who could soon take a team with six Pro Bowl players over the top.

It did not deserve Erickson, who might not be as good as Mariucci.

The other Dennis, Green, was fourth on my original wish list. But now that sights and standards have fallen all the way to Erickson, you wonder what happened to the former Stanford and 49ers coach called by Bill Walsh ``the brightest offensive assistant I ever had.''

For that matter, what happened to Walsh, who reportedly has moved his office out of 49ers headquarters? Walsh apparently had little or no input in this decision, because two weeks ago he told me Green was ``probably the best man available -- an outstanding coach.''

As an NFL coach, Dennis Green makes Dennis Erickson look more like Dennis Miller.

Yet Green's off-field character issues in Minnesota were thought to be negatives for Donahue, York and his wife, Denise DeBartolo York. So instead they wind up with Erickson, who hasn't exactly been known for imposing discipline on his teams or himself.

Yes, Erickson won two national championships at Miami with all the NFL-bound talent he inherited from Jimmy Johnson. There's something to be said for not screwing it up. But Erickson soon let the program degenerate into an undisciplined eyesore of taunting, celebrating, rule-violating and law-breaking. Meanwhile, Erickson had trouble with alcohol. He escaped one step ahead of the NCAA law, landing on his feet in his home state, coaching Seattle's Seahawks.

There Erickson inherited some of the league's top talent, especially on defense. Yet for four seasons his Seahawks underachieved with three 8-8 finishes and one 7-9. The rap on Erickson: not forceful enough to earn the respect of and light fires under pro athletes. Erickson's low-wattage personality isn't exactly the Grudenesque spark the 49ers need.

Fired in Seattle, he wound up where he belonged, at Oregon State. His best coaching job probably came in 2000, when the Beavers went 11-1 and humiliated Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl. Again, though, Erickson was criticized for allowing his players to dance and prance after they scored.

At least Terrell Owens will initially love this guy. Yet Owens has been subconsciously in search of a father-figure force who'll stand up to him.

That Fiesta Bowl probably helped win Erickson the 49ers job. Notre Dame alum York, easily and overly impressed when it comes to his Fighting Irish, surely thought: ``If Erickson could beat my school that badly, he surely can coach my team.''

Donahue clearly wanted a Pacific-10 Conference coach he knew from his days coaching at UCLA. Then, Erickson was at Washington State. Donahue pushed for his close friend Rich Brooks, the former Oregon coach who failed with the St. Louis Rams and landed at Kentucky. But Rams officials turned off York to Brooks. Thankfully, York said no.

Johnson was too big a threat to Donahue and too expensive. So was Stoops, who also didn't trust the unpredictable York. Holmgren had recommitted to the Seahawks by the time Mariucci was fired.

Several sources and reports had University of Washington Coach Rick ``I Never Talked to the 49ers'' Neuheisel meeting with Donahue and York on Sunday. Amazing how Donahue, who prides himself on principle, was reduced to sneaking around with college coaches who had just finished pledging themselves to recruits who committed to their schools. Amazing, too, how Donahue, who says his No. 1 priority in drafting is character, wound up with a coach who hasn't always valued that commodity.

Apparently, York and ``Slick Rick'' Neuheisel weren't a match.

York appeared to be leaning toward New York Jets defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, an intriguing choice because of his love-him, fear-him personality. But Donahue, who won the power struggle with Mariucci and Walsh, finally convinced York to go with Erickson.

Of the two, Cottrell would have been the better fit. Erickson, whose expertise is offense, has never used the 49ers' West Coast offense.

Said Cottrell's agent, Joe Linta: ``I honestly went to bed Monday night thinking Ted had the job. But Terry's problem the whole time was he just didn't know Ted. Not that he didn't like him, but that he just wasn't as comfortable with him.''

Too bad. Now Dennis Erickson makes Dennis Green look awfully inviting.

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