It's been roughly three weeks since Mike Nolan fired defensive coordinator Billy Davis and in that span Nolan has only interviewed one candidate for the position. Last weekend Nolan met with former Lions defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson and it appears as though Henderson will not be Davis' replacement. Latest reports are that Nolan and staff will head into Mobile for the Senior Bowl without a defensive coordinator. Nolan and Mike Singletary will run the defense and after this week, Nolan will again look for a coordinator. It appears that if a replacement isn't found within one to two weeks after Mobile, Nolan will most likely promote Mike Singletary to defensive coordinator and Nolan himself will continue to oversee the defense. Nolan was looking for someone to take over the defense and allow himself to have more time to oversee the entire team.
One candidate that would fill that role in giving Nolan a hands off approach to the defense is Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau. LeBeau would be a dream fit, he coaches the 3-4, which Nolan prefers, and would instantly upgrade a poor 49ers defense. Of course we have to hope new Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin lets LeBeau go and that Nolan can throw enough cash LeBeau's way to bribe him to come to the West Coast. Again it's a pipe dream, but a coaching staff of Nolan, Turner, LeBeau and Singletary is every 49er fans fantasy.
The 49ers filled another vacant coaching spot on Tuesday by hiring former Rhein Fire head coach Jim Tomsula. Tomsula replaces the recently fired Gary Emanuel. Tomsula has never coached in the NFL ranks, but he has been with NFL Europe in various coaching jobs since 1998.
"Jim has a great track record of success in NFL Europe and has earned the opportunity to step up to the National Football League," 49ers coach Mike Nolan said. "He is an outstanding teacher and he has had a great rapport with the players wherever he has coached. He has had success as a defensive line coach, defensive coordinator and head coach in NFL Europe, and he also has experience coaching numerous college all-star games."
Tomsula was the only person interviewed by head coach Mike Nolan for the job. Which was also the same with the special teams coordinator position. The 49ers have only the defensive coordinator position left to fill, and Donnie Henderson has been the only person interviewed for that job.
This season one 49er in particular emerged as the new face of the 49ers. That would be running-back Frank Gore. Over the course of 16 games Frank ran and ran and ran some more and in doing so made lots of opposing players look foolish. He broke their ankles with his jukes, he knocked them on their backs, and had coaches screaming obscenities on the sidelines. With that we'd like to present to you ten minutes of pure Frankness.
The 49ers over the weekend filled one of their three vacant coaching positions. The 49ers hired former Saints special-teams coach Al Everest, to take over for the departed Larry Mac Duff, who departed for the University of Texas. Everest sat out of football last season after not being retained by new Saints head coach Sean Payton. Prior to spending six season with the Saints, Everest was in the same position with the Arizona Cardinals, where he coached for four seasons.
While sitting out of football last season, Everest helped with USC's special-teams. He wasn't hired as a coach, he more of a consultant. Everest has a total of 35 years of coaching experience, including 28 in football.
Accodinrg to an article written in the USA Today, NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus is taking a page out of the game show 'Press Your Luck' and is looking to get running back Frank Gore, big money and no whammys. Rosenhaus and camp are seeking a contract for Frank Gore that makes Gore among the top-three backs in the league. The 49ers on the other hand are believed to see Gore being compensated along the lines of the top 10 backs. Gore's contract is set to expire after the 2007 season and both parties are hoping that a deal can be reached before the beginning of the season.
"It's a priority," Nolan said of a new contract for Gore. "It was talked about since before Frank started to show up on all of your radar screens because of what we knew about Frank."
Over the weekend the 49ers learned that they have another coaching spot open on their staff. Special teams coach Larry Mac Duff accepted the co-defensive coordinator position and linebackers coach at the University of Texas. Mac Duff will also act as the assistant head coach. With the departure of Mac Duff the 49ers now have openings for defensive coordinator, defensive lines coach, and special teams coach.
Mac Duff was one of a few coaches who 49ers head coach Mike Nolan kept on when he took over the team in 2005, sharing a history with Mac Duff that dated back to their time together at Stanford in the early 1980s.
"This is a really unique opportunity for me that I couldn't pass up," Mac Duff said. "I enjoyed working with the 49ers, but with the chance to work at Texas with Coach Brown, the staff and players, it was really exciting."
With the 49ers staff set to coach the Senior Bowl, Nolan doesn't have a whole lot of time to fill the spots. Look for most of the positions to be filled no later this the end of this week or next.
For the second year in a row the 49ers coaching staff will be coaching a team in the Senior Bowl. Head coach Mike Nolan jumped at the chance to coach in the Senior Bowl. The 49ers got the opportunity due to teams ahead of them in the draft order going through coaching changes. The 49ers took advantage of the Senior Bowl last year by drafting Manny Lawson, Michael Robinson, Marcus Hudson and Parys Haralson, each participated in the Senior Bowl. All were on Nolan's squad except Michael Robinson.
The 49ers look to have eight picks in the first four rounds and some of the players in the Senior Bowl who could help out the 49ers squad. Such as LaRon Landry, Quentin Moses, Jeff Samardzija, Rhema McKnight, Amobi Okoye and Michael Griffin just to name a few.
Last night Damon Bruce of KNBR reported that the 49ers head coach Mike Nolan was going to fire current defensive coordinator Billy Davis sometime today. Well it is now official according to Matt Maiocco of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Davis has been with the 49ers the past two seasons and his defenses have been subpar. Along with Davis the 49ers also fired defensive line coach Gary Emanuel. Neither of these fires should come as a surprise since both the defensive and the defensive line played poorly this season.
Early reports to replace Davis as DC is current linebackers coach and assistant head coach Mike Singletary. Singletary has been coaching for only four years and some question whether he is ready for a defensive coordinating gig. Nolan also did not rule out any other candidates currently on the market.
I could watch these highlights over and over again. Mainly just to watch the Denver quarterbacks getting abused. Man Cutler took a beating that day. The 49ers defense that showed up on Sunday all were laying some serious hits. Also nice to see Gore break the franchise record and Alex Smith throwing some nice passes on third downs when the team needed him to come through. Watching these highlights really gets me excited for next season.
Well 2006 is done, no playoffs and now we can look forward to free agency and the draft, but first we have to hand out the end of the season Eddie Awards.
MVP: The Eddie goes to Frank Gore. Gore set franchise records for yards in a season and yards from scrimmage in a season. Oh yeah and he won the NFC rushing crown as well.
Defensive Player of the Year: The Eddie goes to both Walt Harris and Brandon Moore. Harris had one of the best seasons for a corner in a long time and Brandon Moore turned the defense around once he got the start. Forced fumbles, sacks and more.
Offensive Lineman of the Year - The Eddie goes to Eric Heitmann. He solidified the line after Newberry was shelved and despite missing the final two games with an injury he was the one consistent throughout the year.
It's been roughly three weeks since Mike Nolan fired defensive coordinator Billy Davis and in that span Nolan has only interviewed one candidate for the position. Last weekend Nolan met with former Lions defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson and it appears as though Henderson will not be Davis' replacement. Latest reports are that Nolan and staff will head into Mobile for the Senior Bowl without a defensive coordinator. Nolan and Mike Singletary will run the defense and after this week, Nolan will again look for a coordinator. It appears that if a replacement isn't found within one to two weeks after Mobile, Nolan will most likely promote Mike Singletary to defensive coordinator and Nolan himself will continue to oversee the defense. Nolan was looking for someone to take over the defense and allow himself to have more time to oversee the entire team. 
For the second year in a row the 49ers coaching staff will be 
Well 2006 is done, no playoffs and now we can look forward to free agency and the draft, but first we have to hand out the end of the season Eddie Awards.
