Succeeding is not something this team has done well lately. It's not something this ownership has done EVER. What they do is fire a well-respected, successful coach and replace him with Dennis Erickson. Then they draft the wrong quarterback, pair him with a defensive-minded, in-over-his-head coach, and give that coach too much authority. Then they fire him, choose to ignore their offensive deficiencies, and hire another in-over-his-head, defensive-minded coach.
Then, when he doesn't work out, they fire him before the end of the season, do a cursory GM "search" that ends with them hiring the guy they had in mind all along, and then miss out on the obvious coaching choice to improve their team, choosing instead to hire a retread (billick) or a recently failed never-was (mcdaniels), or just poop on a platter and serve it to their fans (mora jr).
But not this time. They got the guy!! What the hell?! They got their guy! They got THE guy! They got the guy everyone else wanted...THE 49ERS got the guy everyone else wanted?!!!!?!?! What?!?!
When does THAT ever happen? Ever? Did you hear his press conference?! This guy...KNOWS something about football! He actually came out and said the quarterback is the most important position in football! IMAGINE THAT!
And this GM that nobody thought was the right call? He delivered on his first mission: coach by friday. Harbaugh by Friday, if we're honest. And he did it. He did it for a fair price, even. 5/25? That's a bargain for a guy who was as hotly sought after as Harbaugh. Amazing.
It's obviously possible that this move doesn't work, but you know what? They're trying. That much is obvious. York looked at the first decision he made as the lead guy (hiring singletary) and said "wow, that was retarded", and learned from it. He did what his parents never did: THE RIGHT THING! He looked at other successful teams and decided to be like them instead of stubbornly deciding he knew best.
I still can't believe they pulled it off. What a great way for Baalke's tenure to begin. He got his guy, and from hearing them talk, it sounded like there wasn't much doubt that he was coming here. I'm not afraid to admit that I have a full-on man crush on Jim Harbaugh. He sounds like a motivated, smart, professional coach who knows what's wrong and knows what to do to fix it.
I don't think we'll see too many more 31-6 losses to the Seahawks with this guy in charge. This is going to be fuuuuun.
