On January 14, 2015, the San Francisco 49ers hired Jim Tomsula.
And on January 3, 2016, the San Francisco 49ers fired Jim Tomsula:
The San Francisco 49ers have announced that Jim Tomsula has been relieved of his head coaching duties.
“Jimmy has been a valuable member of the 49ers organization for the last nine years,” said CEO Jed York. “We all know he is a man of high character, and his contributions on the field and in our community have always been greatly appreciated. This entire organization is proud and grateful to have worked so closely alongside Jimmy. We all wish him and his family great success in the future.”
Another case of a head coach getting the blame for a team’s failures, when the team’s failures were inevitable due to the front office’s inability to put a halfway decent roster together. This was a brutal 49ers roster.
Should Tomsula have ever been hired as the head coach? Probably not, but once CEO Jed York and general manager Trent Baalke decided Tomsula was their guy last January, they should’ve given him more than one season — at least with this roster — to show he could provide results before firing him.
Is it possible the 49ers also had a head coaching target in mind that was too good to pass up the chance to go after, and wanted to move swiftly on that? ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen are hearing that San Francisco plans to target New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton:
Now that 49ers have parted ways with Jim Tomsula, they are expected to explore idea of hiring Saints HC Sean Payton, per @mortreport and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 4, 2016
The 49ers of course already had a great, high profile coach in place with Jim Harbaugh, and the front office’s inability to get along with Harbaugh forced that relationship to end after last season.
Tomsula, 47, had been a longtime defensive line coach under Harbaugh, and got promoted to San Francisco’s head coaching position when Harbaugh left for the University of Michigan head coaching job.
It’s doubtful Tomsula gets another NFL head coaching opportunity anytime soon, but he should catch on somewhere quickly as a defensive line coach again, a role he thrives in.
