Niners call an audible Hail Mary
February 12, 2003
By Roger Phillips - STAFF WRITER
SANTA CLARA -- And so, the correct answer as to the identity of the San Francisco 49ers' new head coach is none of the above.
After parading three NFL defensive coordinators through their headquarters last week as ostensible finalists to replace the fired Steve Mariucci, the 49ers ended their monthlong search Tuesday by hiring Oregon State coach Dennis Erickson and his spread-offense playbook.
Erickson, 55, was the Seattle Seahawks coach from 1995-98, compiling a 31-33 record and never reaching the playoffs. He won 144 games in 17 years as a college coach. Erickson has signed a five-year deal averaging a bit less than $2.5 million a season.
That's more than the $2.2 million Mariucci would have received had he returned for the final year of his contract with the 49ers but slightly less than half of the five-year, $25 million package Mariucci received last week from the Detroit Lions.
"We have found what we were looking for in a new coach -- a leader, a motivator, a teacher -- an individual with exceptional skills in coaching the game of football," general manager Terry Donahue said. "Dennis Erickson has a long history of coaching winning teams, and I am confident he will succeed in San Francisco."
In taking the job, Erickson walks away from the 21 recruits he signed last Wednesday to play for Oregon State. Erickson, whose greatest success came when he won national championships at Miami in 1989 and 1991, will be introduced to the Bay Area media at noon today at a news conference at a San Francisco hotel.
"To compete for a world championship, I guess, is the itch I had to scratch," Erickson said Tuesday night in Corvallis, Ore., where he said goodbye to his Oregon State players. "That's basically what it boils down to.
"It was very difficult to turn down. "I guess there's a little piece of me missing from my time in Seattle to have the opportunity to win a world championship. Dealing with Terry Donahue and Bill Walsh and John York, it was just the right thing."
Erickson gets a job that had seemed as if it would go to one of three NFL defensive coordinators: the 49ers' Jim Mora, the Jets' Ted Cottrell and Chicago's Greg Blache.
Mora indicated Tuesday he has not decided whether he will remain with the 49ers. He has standing offers to make a lateral move to Carolina or Detroit, where he would rejoin Mariucci.
Indications are Erickson will retain offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, who recently signed a one-year contract extension, and quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner.
Only a few 49ers players were around the facility Tuesday, but offensive lineman Dave Fiore said, "I was a little surprised (by Erickson's hiring). But after thinking about it, he's been successful everywhere he's been and he has NFL experience. It'll probably be a good choice for us."
The candidacies of Cottrell and Blache were under close scrutiny because they are African Americans, and NFL teams have been under pressure to improve their poor track record of hiring minorities to head-coaching positions.
Did their candidacies exist only to create the public perception the 49ers were serious about hiring a minority coach?
"I can't answer that for you," Blache said Tuesday when asked that question. "When I got involved in the process I was determined to do whatever they asked me to do within reason. I took it in good faith and worked my way through it in good faith. I walk away feeling that they were in good faith."
Cottrell's agent, Joe Linta, said: "Why have these three guys (including Mora) paraded out in front of the media, and the other guys aren't announced publicly, and there is not even an acknowledgment that the guy has been discussed?"
A spokesman for Washington attorney Cyrus Mehri, who has been pressing the cause of minority hiring in the NFL, said the 49ers' search was within the boundaries of the league's guidelines.
According to a league source, the 49ers' first contact with Erickson was Friday. Interviews with Donahue and owner John York were conducted over the weekend, and the deal was finalized Monday.
ESPN reported Tuesday that 24 hours earlier Oregon State was prepared to announce Erickson's contract had been extended two years, through 2009. According to ESPN, Erickson asked the school to "hold off until the end of the week."
Erickson said Tuesday night, "A week ago, or four days ago at this time, I had no idea I was going to have the opportunity to be the 49ers' coach -- no idea at all," Erickson said. "It just happened."
Erickson was believed to be making roughly $1 million a year at Oregon State. Until Erickson's arrival in 1999, the Beavers were locked in a 30-year losing tradition.
Erickson was at Miami from 1989-94, and in late 1995 the school was hit with severe NCAA sanctions owing to a "decade of violations" and a "lack of institutional control." Earlier in 1995, after becoming the Seahawks' coach, Erickson was arrested for drunken driving.
The 49ers will look to Erickson to perk up their West Coast offense, which had grown stodgy under Mariucci. Under Erickson, look for the 49ers to frequently use one-back formations with a more wide-open passing attack that will seek to highlight the talents of receiver Terrell Owens.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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