Ira Miller

Two things became readily apparent on Dennis Erickson's first full day as the 49ers' coach:

One is that the 49ers' offense will be more aggressive than it was under his predecessor, Steve Mariucci.

"I like getting the ball up the field . . . creating some deep threats," Erickson said Wednesday.

The other thing is that coaches' titles will not mean very much.

Erickson said Greg Knapp, who is under contract through next season, would remain as his offensive coordinator. What he did not say was that the batteries already have been removed from Knapp's headset.

Look, let's be clear here: Erickson might have said -- as he did -- that his offense wasn't all that different from what the 49ers have used in the past and that only the terminology was different, but the 49ers didn't fire a coach and hire another one because they wanted a new thesaurus.

Which means Erickson is either foolish or fibbing, and it's not likely he won all those games in college by being a dummy.

Knapp may keep his title if he stays with the 49ers, but Erickson will be the real offensive coordinator, and look for him to bring in someone else as, say, assistant head coach -- in charge of offense.

Instead of Mariucci's play-it-safe philosophy, the 49ers will operate under Erickson's attacking, spread-the-field, throw it downfield philosophy.

"I'd assume, myself, that he'd be calling the plays," said consultant/legend Bill Walsh, who sat off to the side at Erickson's news conference as the 49ers emptied their Santa Clara office building to pack a San Francisco hotel meeting room with friendly faces. "I'm sure he's not ready to say that himself."

In fact, he was not ready to say that.

What Erickson did say, several times but unconvincingly, was that his offensive philosophy was no different from what the 49ers are used to. The truth of the matter, however, as he finally admitted, is that he hadn't studied the 49ers the past couple of years.

If he had, he would have noticed that Jeff Garcia's average completion during the 2002 season, 10.2 yards, was the lowest ever for a 49ers starting quarterback.

The 49ers' offense with which Erickson is familiar is the Walsh offense from the '80s and early '90s, the one that featured Jerry Rice and John Taylor and deep slants and crossing routes that got receivers into one-on-one coverage and created big plays.

Erickson said he wants to get back to that style of play, "to give a receiver a chance to go one-on-one and make a play." That doesn't necessarily mean bombs away. It can be accomplished with passes in the 10-to-20-yard range, post patterns and play-action passes.

"Throwing it down the field is not always related to arm strength," explained general manager Terry Donahue. "It is related to timing, the kind of routes you run."

The 49ers felt compelled to lay it on thick. They not only brought along Walsh, with the team's power structure and a bunch of office workers to cheer when Erickson was introduced, but they sat Garcia and several other players at the front of the room, too.

It remains to be seen how well Garcia can adapt to the changes, but there is no reason to believe he can't. In 2000, when Marty Mornhinweg was the 49ers' offensive coordinator, Garcia averaged 12.1 yards per completion, nearly 20 percent better than last season.

No one, not even Terrell Owens, was more critical of the 49ers' offensive approach last year than Garcia. Yet he was so eager to embrace Erickson and appear to be a loyal soldier that he even found it necessary to try to rewrite history.

On Wednesday, Garcia said -- we couldn't make this stuff up -- "When you look at . . . the knocks that were against this team, aggressiveness was sometimes a question mark. Not to say that we felt that as a team, but that seemed to be the knock outside of this organization."

In November, after the 49ers blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead and lost to San Diego, however, it was Garcia, not someone "outside the organization," who said, "I think, in essence, what we're doing is losing our killer instinct. "

Of course, this was a surreal news conference, without much news because Erickson's hiring was announced a day earlier. Here was an odd scene: At one point, Donahue, owner's hubby John York, Walsh and even club president Peter Harris were surrounded by hordes of media types -- while Erickson stood, by himself, at the back of the room. And here we thought this was about his hiring.

But if Erickson was the stealth coach, hired without enduring the dog-and- pony show the 49ers put on for several other candidates, he won't be alone for long. There's lots of work to be done, starting with changing the offense that Erickson said he won't change.

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