Who Hired Turner? Nolan Or York
CHRONICLE'S ORACLE SEES A BRIGHT FUTURE?
The sports pages of the San Francisco Chronicle were grasping at straws Tuesday over the hiring of former Raiders head coach Norv Turner as their new offensive coordinator.
Both columnist Gwen Knapp and Niners beat writer, Kevin Lynch mentioned the last time a former Raider head coach rekindled his career across the bay leading the 49ers offense good things happened.
The analogy sought by the two was the hiring of Mike Shanahan in 1991. The writers somehow want to believe Turner's hiring is some sort of omen for good things in San Francisco.
Shanahan took the reigns of the West Coast offense and arguably brought it to new heights with Steve Young as quarterback. Of course, history tells us that Shanahan would subsequently leave the Niners for Denver and win back-to-back Super Bowls with John Elway.
Rest assured, this is guaranteed not to happen again. Turner's nine-year coaching career can simply be attributed to the good fortune of landing in Dallas at the moment that the threesome of Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin came of age. How much coaching did Turner really need to do to get those guys to be a prolific offense?
The real story here is who actually hired Turner? Did head coach Mike Nolan make the pick or did the 49ers' schizo front office do it?
Press reports are not clear on the subject. Both Chronicle stories led us to be Nolan made the hiring, but does that make sense? Who made the hire is very important here.
If Nolan did, then it paints a portrait of a head coach willing to let bygone-be-bygones. Turner let Nolan go when he was the Redskins' defensive coordinator. It also shows a willingness on Nolan's part to shore up their anemic offense with a known quantity, if not a dubious one.
If Nolan didn't do it, then it illustrates the enormity of the problem with the once-formidable Niners. In this case, it would seem that the Niners are hovering a qualified, freshly-fired NFL coach on the sidelines unless Nolan doesn't start winning.
You shouldn't put it pass Dr. John York and company on this subject. The 49ers have not shown any semblance of plan since they bowed out of the 2002 playoffs.
Nolan's first year was seemingly a success by the low standards this franchise has set. Four wins and a propensity to playing good defensive football at home was far above the play under Dennis Erickson.
Here's hoping good ol' Norval does for Alex Smith and Brandon Lloyd what he did for Kerry Collins and Randy Moss.
The sports pages of the San Francisco Chronicle were grasping at straws Tuesday over the hiring of former Raiders head coach Norv Turner as their new offensive coordinator.
Both columnist Gwen Knapp and Niners beat writer, Kevin Lynch mentioned the last time a former Raider head coach rekindled his career across the bay leading the 49ers offense good things happened.
The analogy sought by the two was the hiring of Mike Shanahan in 1991. The writers somehow want to believe Turner's hiring is some sort of omen for good things in San Francisco.
Shanahan took the reigns of the West Coast offense and arguably brought it to new heights with Steve Young as quarterback. Of course, history tells us that Shanahan would subsequently leave the Niners for Denver and win back-to-back Super Bowls with John Elway.
Rest assured, this is guaranteed not to happen again. Turner's nine-year coaching career can simply be attributed to the good fortune of landing in Dallas at the moment that the threesome of Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin came of age. How much coaching did Turner really need to do to get those guys to be a prolific offense?
The real story here is who actually hired Turner? Did head coach Mike Nolan make the pick or did the 49ers' schizo front office do it?
Press reports are not clear on the subject. Both Chronicle stories led us to be Nolan made the hiring, but does that make sense? Who made the hire is very important here.
If Nolan did, then it paints a portrait of a head coach willing to let bygone-be-bygones. Turner let Nolan go when he was the Redskins' defensive coordinator. It also shows a willingness on Nolan's part to shore up their anemic offense with a known quantity, if not a dubious one.
If Nolan didn't do it, then it illustrates the enormity of the problem with the once-formidable Niners. In this case, it would seem that the Niners are hovering a qualified, freshly-fired NFL coach on the sidelines unless Nolan doesn't start winning.
You shouldn't put it pass Dr. John York and company on this subject. The 49ers have not shown any semblance of plan since they bowed out of the 2002 playoffs.
Nolan's first year was seemingly a success by the low standards this franchise has set. Four wins and a propensity to playing good defensive football at home was far above the play under Dennis Erickson.
Here's hoping good ol' Norval does for Alex Smith and Brandon Lloyd what he did for Kerry Collins and Randy Moss.
