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Cottrell is a solid coach, known for constructing good defenses with the Buffalo Bills and NY Jets. The 49ers need to improve their defense. A good judge of character, Bill Walsh, compared Cottrell to Dusty Baker in this Peter King piece on Erickson's hiring. Erickson has head coaching experience, sure. 31-33 over 4 years with the Seattle Seahawks. Great performances from his Oregon State teams recently and, before his Seattle stint, Miami Hurricanes (1 nat'l champ.). But his college teams have been cocky, heavily-penalized and poorly-disciplined teams. The Niners and their fans are used to class. The Niners showed class (Mariucci) the door, exuded ineptness during the coaching search, then refused to make a good decision with a classy guy (Cottrell). No class, and no brains.

posted by msacheson at 04:38 PM - reply - flag:

I'm no fan of the Niners - quite the opposite - or of this hire, but hasn't San Francisco done done exactly all the things that Detroit and Matt Millen were roasted on an open spit for not doing? If Cottrell himself is satisfied that the process was fair, then end of arguement. My suspicion (okay, hope) is that Erickson will have less success than Mariucci but if the Niner brass - having conducted the proceedings according to NFL sanctioned Hoyle - feel he's the man for the job, then it should be their right to hire him. If the process can only be considered a success when the end result is the hiring of a black man then what has been proved? And now comes the $64 question: How long before the NCAA sanctions hit the Oregon State program?

posted by kloeprich at 05:51 PM - reply - flag:

Terrell Owens is going to walk all over Erickson. This is sad, the Niners used to be great, now they are just a one trick pony, and now the pony has a horrible coach.

posted by jbou at 07:01 PM - reply - flag:

Not sure where this is headed. I'm a Niners fan and I don't really know anything about Dennis Erickson. Out of the big 3 candidates, I was rooting for Mora, mainly because I've been happy with the progress he's made with our injury-ravaged crew, not because of anything racial. I don't see the huge deal about minority coaches in the NFL. This SportsFrog post gave an interesting stat on it. I was really hoping to get Monte Kiffin, but oh well. We'll see how this unfolds...

posted by swank6 at 12:33 AM - reply - flag:

Can anyone tell me how come Dennis Green wasn't in the running? He seems like a lock for a situation like this. Still, Dennis Erickson? Weird.

posted by owillis at 03:26 AM - reply - flag:

They fired Steve Mariucci and replaced him with Dennis Erickson??!??! Hahahahahaha. Seriously, that's just plain silly. Cottrell, Green, Kiffin, me, Blache, Mora... Any of these people would have been better choices. Owillis, I have no idea why Green didn't get the job, but i've heard it reported that he talked to the Niners at some point. Maybe he wanted somethign they wouldn't give. No idea. And Swank6, I feel bad for you, I really do. At least the parties (glug, glug) will be good.

posted by 86 at 07:52 AM - reply - flag:

owillis - speculation on espn this morning was that Green demanded a dual role as GM, and the Niner's feel like they already have enough cooks in the kitchen. Chris Mortenson also reported that the interview process was fair and Cottrell had a good shot at getting the job, which is the point of the league's mandate to encourage interviewing minority candidates. Obviously the league cannot insist on hiring a minority coach, just that they get a fair shake. Having said that - wtf? Erickson? Chump city. Mortenson that all the candidates that interviewed were roughly equivalent but Erickson's head coaching experience tipped the balance. That's bullshit. Erickson was an awful head coach for the Hawks, and I think head coaching experience is totally overrated. At some point in their career every single coach is getting hired without experience...so that sounds like a cop-out to me. I hear Wayne Fontes was available. He's got head coaching experience.

posted by vito90 at 08:55 AM - reply - flag:

Dennis Erickson ... man, didn't they know Marty M. was on the market? I have to say I'm happy for the 49ers. No one in the NFL deserves to have his offense dragged down by poor coaching than TO.

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

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