It looks like it is down to the 49ers and the Rams for the services of the Rob Chudzinski, the OC, HC, and now TE coach of the Colts. I’m assuming Indy is out of the running as he just got a half-assed endorsement from the GM, and since this is being dragged out to the bitter end of his deal, one would likely think they would have wrapped him up already had they wanted him. But then again, it’s the Colts and the Irsay family running things, so anything could happen.
The hopeful side of me thinks this would be a great opportunity for a young coach to be able to work with a young stud QB and do some rehab of his own image at the same time. He can’t be too greedy in wanting to get back to the head coaching ranks after his last debacle in Cleveland. A place that has humbled better men than him, and promises more of the same as they unwind themselves from their latest QB disaster.
Anyhoo, the Bears ended their OC search by inking Adam Gase, the latest wonderboy guy who has a pretty stacked team to work with, although he has Jay (what, me worry?) Cutler as his QB. The Rams? Well, they have a solid if not unspectacular coach in Jeff Fisher, and an offense that varies between lukewarm and glacial. Mainly because they can’t even keep their 2nd string QB (Shaun Hill) upright, let alone Mr. Knee Injury Sam Bradford. He can’t seem to make it through training camp, having missed the last 2 years.
Then there are the owners. Wellllll. The Rams did have Georgia Frontiere, one of the most despised owners in any sport, but Walmart latcher-onner Stan Kroenke is doing a fairly good job of not being an major tool. Our side? Well, there’s the thing. Chud wouldn’t really be able to pick his staff, but then again neither did anyone else. The fallback is a one-way ticket to mediocrity in one Geep Chryst. A guy who as a QB coach, did as much for Kappy as John Morton did for the WRs. Or Mangini did with the TEs.
*gulp*
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
I just found this tidbit from Takeo Spikes. He posted it on 1/20. He has two entries, here’s the first one:
There’s a lot of speculation on Jim Harbaugh. Will he stay or go? That’s not what we should be asking.
The 2 critical questions are:
1st, can Harbaugh, Trent Baalke (GM) and Jed York (owner) get on the same page? They need to hash out their differences in the meeting room and align on expectations from all sides. Pay and control of the 53 will both be high on Harbaugh’s list.
2nd question: Has Harbaugh completely lost the locker room? If yes, he’s fighting an uphill battle. He’ll have to drop his ego to get the players back. Truth: I think his ego is too big for that to happen. There’s only been one coach to my knowledge who lost the locker room and got it back: Tom Coughlin. Speaking firsthand from a player’s perspective, players don’t care how smart you are and what you know, they only respond when they see you care 1st.
Harbaugh’s not out to win a people person award. And with his success over the years, it’s obvious he believes in his system. I’m sure he doesn’t see it this way, but this attitude hurts him with the players and staff. If he’s going to keep the attention of players, he must show a great deal of humility. Not thinking less of himself but thinking of himself less in their eyes.
Can Harbaugh, Baalke, and York work out their differences? They all bring value to the table. Has Harbaugh lost the locker room? I guess we will find out in the days to come. In the meantime, kickoff is about to start and I’m observing firsthand. Stay tuned my good people.
I typed the wrong date, the entry from above was actually on 12/20, this one is from 123/23:
I truly feel the Jim Harbaugh era is over in San Francisco. Hard to believe this team has lost four in a row. After the game, the body language of the players in the locker room — the disgust in their faces — said it all. The disgust of having key injuries to superstars whom they were depending on, disgust of having so many high aspirations before the season with three previous years of success, disgust of the players not feeling it’s about them, but it’s all about Jim Harbaugh and his personal endeavors. He has totally lost this locker room and I don’t foresee him having an opportunity to get it back mainly because management is tired of the ego fighting and they are aware that key players on the team probably won’t buy into what he’s selling if he’s back for another year.
Sad to say after three great years that this Harbaugh window of opportunity has passed and both parties recognize it. That’s why I think this will be resolved within 72 hours after the 49ers last game against the Cardinals with a trade or a firing. I don’t see Harbaugh finishing the last year of his contract.
It is obvious what I had previously thought but was only guessing about, was actually true, Harbaugh had definitely lost the locker room. Spikes is still close with many players on the 49ers. This is first hand knowledge. The apologists can deny, they will, but at some point reality is a bitch. Harbaugh needed to go. Jed did the right thing. Period, end of story.
I was fine with Harb’s leaving because he was a stubborn murk who couldn’t make adjustments when losing started happened. But to say he lost the locker room is absurd. The players played their asses off till the end. They were losing in the end because they had replacement level players littering the field. Come on man, you watched the games right?
Sorry, “mule”. I got auto corrected by accident
I disagree Flavor. When you get millions for playing you play hard to keep your value.
Spikes is still close friends with many 49ers. He isn’t talking out his ass. Believe what you want.
Thanks to Rob for alerting me to these posts.
Anyone who is currently watching the Pro Bowl needs to turn off their TV and seek immediate medical help. Even then I’m afraid it may be too late.
And Berger, I know you haven’t responded yet but consider this: when you talk about “losing a locker room” you and I have to look no further back into Niners history to see what that really looks like: Mike Singletary’s final game. Was there anything more pathetic than watching him try to rouse an obviously dead team that was in need of a single win to become playoff eligible? That guy had lost the locker room
I don’t doubt the team was in a bad mood, losing does that to teams who care. But harbaugh’s players played hard till the end, we all saw them hugging him in his final game, giving him a game ball, etc. and after he left I didn’t hear any player say a bad word about him.
Aren’t you all touchy feely. I’m touched!
If you want everybody to say nice things about you, die. It always works. Harbaugh was gone, why say bad things?
Singletary would yell at people so often for screwing up all the players were thinking of their assignments instead of playing instinctively. They sure played their hearts out the last game of the year for Tomsula.
Harbaugh was being mutinied. The 49er players have class and are letting the situation lie, unless of course you can tell me you know more about the situation than Spikes who knows these guys close and personal.
Spikes is a guy trying to make it in media right now. But I’m not going to argue it with you, maybe he did lose the locker room. Neither one of us know. I think he didn’t, you think he did. End of discussion, right?
Well said, we’ll agree to that!
Harbaugh is the perfect College Coach.
He gets to recruit, and, turn the roster over every 4 years.
Less chance of flaming out with the players.
He’ll do well there in MI, because he loves it there.
I don’t doubt that he rubbed Jed and the FO the wrong way.
His personality borders on obsessive.
So long as he keeps the UM program on the up-and-up, no sanctions or misdeeds, he’ll turn out good prospects for the NFL.
If he doesn’t close the gap with Urban Meyer, that’ll be a horse of different color.
That’s when the AD and Jim will see which the way the wind blows.
100% agree.
Here is what stood out to me the most of what Spikes said, ” players don’t care how smart you are and what you know, they only respond when they see you care 1st. ”
I’ve taught management often and I always make sure I tell my protégés that their employees won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Harbaugh is a known driver of people and it is well known he is not a people person. I think Spikes let us know not only that he was flaming out but why.
I’ve got to go with Flavor’s take Berger, I never watched this team lay down all year under Harbaugh.
Key injuries, suspensions,were the biggest culprits to overcome for the dismal year, not dissenission in the locker room, unless Baby York & his sidekick Baba Louie Baalke were feeding the players false crap about Harbaugh to try and divide a locker room, which didn’t seem to work..
You are entitled to your opinion. I questioned what Deion said but Spikes still has some BFFs on the team. Lots of cred. I’ll go with him over you and flavor.
chuck – I wouldn’t discount the Rams just yet they got a lot of young players and if they ever figure it out they could be real dangerous. I guess they will once again become the LA Rams which will make me glad because I missed hating them so much. With us having so many ex-HC’s on board maybe it will all come down to Baalke and the crew all sitting around having a circle jerk throwing ideas around. who knows. But it is a little more interesting now.
Winder I’m going out on a limb if Chudzinski isn’t acquired.
I’d go the College OC route, as Philly did with Chip’s Offense.
I like what I’ve read about Auburn’s Offense under HC Gus Malzahn.
He married a Spread to a power running Offense.
Interesting concept that might be RIGHT up our alley.
Gus is well compensated down there.
Highly unlikely he’d leave but, maybe his OC or Asst OC could be considered?
His current OC is Rhett Lashlee.
http://tinyurl.com/o2gz5qb
Dameyune Craig is Lashlee’s Assistant and, also works with their WRs.
http://tinyurl.com/mo8qhx5
He faces Saban at ‘Bama.
Damn near Pro caliber there.
Just like here on this blog, and others, opinions vary.
I’m sure there were players that loved Harbaugh, players that questioned him, players that flat tuned him out.
Going 0-3 in the biggest games didn’t help I’m sure.
We are where we are now.
Trying over.
I’ll give Jed this much. He didn’t settle for ‘just getting there’.
NJ- I honestly don’t have a clue as to who should be our OC. I thought Tressman would have been a good pick but the only one I would have really wanted was Norv Turner and that’s mainly because he’s good with QB’s.
Winder I thought Gase would have been a good ‘young mind’ for Kaep.
Chudzinski makes sense, as he worked with Cam Newton in Carolina.
What failed Harbaugh, IMO, was finding a scheme that could benefit Kaep, while protecting him from being an extension of the running game.
Harbaugh couldn’t marry the Pistol with the Pocket apparently.
Malzahn at Auburn appears to have done that.
See what comes this week with Chud.
I’m all for going off the board and trying to get Kaep an innovator at this point.
Surprises with Offensive play calling can work, if you keep a Defense on it’s heels, as Harbaugh did early on.
Once everyone figured us out, hello diminishing returns.
Harbaugh may have not lost the locker room, a misnomer anyway, but there sure was a lot of dissatisfaction with the play calling and the offense on general. It’s one thing for VD and Crabs to be complaining, but when Gore and Staley are among one ones unhappy, that’s a problem. Gore especially is a team leader who rarely goes against the coaching staff in any way.
It was a problem all season that got terrible by the end. Harbaugh refused to change his offense an that to me was enough for his dismissal.
And I’m damn sure the whole “who’s got it better than us” thing got old in a hurry.
Oh CHUD it.
I know I was beating a dead horse when I posted the Spikes quotes but I had not seen them before and it was affirmation of what I had suspected. Spikes is closely connected to many players on the 49ers, so when he says it, it carries a lot of credibility.
Jed is still taking a lot of heat. I think he did the right thing. If an owner loses a power struggle with an employee he won’t be the owner for long. As a 49er fan it would be worse to have a weak owner without any viability than to have a coach running things because of a past record. IMO, York had to win this one for the future of our team. I hope it all works out but what happened was inevitable when Harbaugh pushed the envelope.
I posted the Spikes quotes to illustrate what was being felt in the locker room. Apparently the FO felt the same. IMO, NJ called it correctly when he said Jimbo is better suited for college.
NJs, we’d better have a better answer than Geep Chryst.
Mil SanfordfromBoise State is a good young guy.
Numbers can be quite influential. Harbaugh’s record would sway many because of only the numbers. Unfortunately the person it swayed the most was Harbaugh and he took advantage of the situation to the point of making many uncomfortable.
Because of his numbers fan’s are crying foul. Reporters are crying foul. IMO it is good thing our FO was bold enough to see through the numbers and do the right thing. More than likely, Harbaugh would have crashed down next year.
I certainly think it was a problem with harbaugh going forward, they coul very easily slide into mediocrity with a bad/over his headOC.
Chud seems to be a great fit. We have to get him. If not we could be looking at the Erickson era again.
We would’ve probably have been sliding backwards with Harbaugh at the helm. It was time for a move.
It seems to me that you’re putting too much significance on the outcome of the OC hire. You’re implying that the OC will have more influence on the team’s outcome over the HC who is already in place.
A subordinate more important and influential than his superior?
That’s like saying Forrest Gump had more to do win winning his war than Gen. Patton did with winning his. Gump might have made for a more entertaining movie in some minds, but he sure in the hell didn’t have an impact on the outcome of the war. Saving Lt. Dan’s life and keeping Bubba’s name alive aside.
And besides, it’s not going to make one bit of damn difference who the new OC is if this team doesn’t get a new fucking quarterback. The current one sucks.
Now I have a hankering for a shrimp cocktail.
If Barry Switzer can win it all, certainly Tomsula can as well.
A good offensive mind will help a lot.
Or just keep up the whine, Dennis.
An elite QB would help even more.
I love how the local scribes are trumping up Chud as some sort of TE coaching wizard. Shit. If I had Antonio Gates, Kellen Winslow, Greg Olson, Jeremy Shockey, Jordan Cameron, Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener at my disposal. I’d make for a pretty good TE coach myself.
“Throw it to those guys”
Coaching complete.
He did a pretty good job with Cam Newton, skippy.
BTW, RobChudzinski will be a available for contract talks after midnight tonight.
Ahhh, i see Skeebs has gone from bemoaning St Jim to dogging Colin Kaepernick.
Like he missed what happened with Alex Smith when he got better coaching.
If Dennis would show up for Happy Hour a happy outcome would follow.
Yeah, he set a new NFL record for no TDs to WRs. He’s gone from unreliable to reliable game manager. His RB is always his #1 receiver with the TE close behind. What’s changed? After ten years as a starter no TDs to any WR is not a good thing or an achievement to crow about.
Yeah LOL NF,
Alex was one of the worse fantasy QB’s out there last year.
Any team that had him or one of his starting receivers dumped their pathetic asses in a hurry!!
I didn’t say he was the second coming, NoFear. Just that he improved with better coaching.
Just cuz yer an old dog doesn’t mean others can’t learn new tricks.
WOOF!
Del there’s the possibility that a good OC can get more control of Kaeps’ development too.
Since there’s plenty of questions surrounding the Roman / Harbaugh dynamic, (who ran who’s Offense), will no longer be relevant with Tomsula, and the yet TBD OC.
Chud makes sense for his TE experience, (which Mangini had no business dabbling in) and, his work with a similar pupil, Cam Newton in Carolina.
I like the idea of Tomsula learning the Team Mgt phase, while someone takes ownership of the Offense.
Tomsula does carry weight on the Defensive side obviously, which could help the transition some on that side of the ball.
As we all know, Tomsula has no background to speak of, least of all, on the Offensive side of the mix.
For me, it’s all about getting Kaep comfortable with an Offense he can Master.
By now I’m sure everyone has heard the latest news surrounding Deflate-gate.
There’s a mystery attendant on video seen handling Brady’s balls after the League inspection process was completed.
How much money do we figure this individual will acquire for taking the fall?
Hell I would bring back Kap’s college coach at UNR Chris Ault as a consultant.If anyone knows how to get the most production out of him it’s Ault,running the pistol offense he invented was enjoyable to watch.
Too old at 68, to be the OC,IMO, but could be quite helpful, working with Chud(hoping he gets the job) to turn this offense around.
Alleykat I was calling for Ault when he left Nevada, as were several others.
At this point, I’d prefer less running from Kaep, more controlled passing.
IMO, there’s nothing wrong with dipping into the College ranks for a young, more creative play-caller.
If Chud doesn’t agree to join on.
Throw out ‘The Book’ and blaze a new trail.
Malzahn at Auburn is onto something.
Yeah I had the same thought AK. He was on KC. Not sure now.
I’ve identified the mystery ball attendant from the Patriots surveillance video.
He’s a 3rd generation Patriot fan.
His name is Patsy.
Patsy Scapegoat.
He loves the Patriots more than anything in the world.
He will confess to his misdeeds, regarding the deflation of NFL game balls, following the SB this weekend.
For his loyal, and unselfish devotion to the Patriots, he will plead guilty to his offense.
In return, he will receive a wildly OVER-inflated severance package, to assist him in his retirement years.
Mr Kraft was quoted,
“Patsy handled Tom Brady’s balls better than anyone could have expected, or imagined.
Our organization wishes Patsy all the best in his retirement. He defines the spirit of a TRUE Patriots fan.”
Nixon has nothing on this guy. To think it all started with the work furlough guy clearing the field for a late FG.
Yeh Chuck, the list of accusations just keep on coming.
Can’t fault Richard Sherman for stating the obvious either.
As long as Goodell keeps raking in his millions, from the same guys he’s there to protect, this game is going to remain a long way away, from ever being taken seriously, when it comes to sh!t like this.
They’re all in bed together.
The Colts have just announced they are retaining Rob Chudzinski naming him associate HC. That puckering sound you hear is Chuck’s sphincter tightening like a boa constrictor.
Chud’s staying in INDY as the Colts just named him an associate HC.
On to plan Q….
Time to think outside the box Del.
Go get a College guy with some new ideas.
Business as usual, with the same recycled NFL Coaches is getting B-O-O-O-O-R-I-N-G.
New thread is up.
New thread is up