http://www.mercurynews.com/timkawakamiKawakami: Singletary inspires awe, but he is only one man
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Columnist
Yes, Mike Singletary won the debate, locked up the independent voters, revved up the base, grabbed a mandate and already has been voted Most Invigorating 49ers Coach of This Millennium.
But here's the eternal, nagging follow-up question: What now, Mike?
What's the second act for an interim coach who opened his tenure by publicly disciplining Vernon Davis, benching J.T. O'Sullivan, promising to clean out problem players and bellowing poetically in the aftermath of a 34-13 defeat?
That was all entertaining and immensely necessary (and satisfying for 49ers fans), but those were the easy parts on a 2-6 debacle.
Now come the tougher, subtler, essential issues, the knotty things that separate the great motivators from the great coaches — the sudden flashes from the franchise-builders.
Now that Singletary has successfully propped up Shaun Hill over J.T. O'Sullivan, naming him the starter for the Arizona game, let's see what else he can do. In this bye week, can he...
1. Tear apart that woeful defense and rebuild it into something resembling the sum of its very expensive parts?
2. Rid the roster and flow chart of "cancers," preferably without a purge of the team's most talented players?
3. Get more production and support out of a key, under-performing player — the general manager?
4. Wean Jed York into a credible franchise overlord? If possible.
Does that seem like too much to do? It is. It
very much is too much for any one person, even for a bold and inspiring man like Singletary.
But it should be entertaining — and educating — to watch Singletary try, especially after the cryptic evasions and rampant self-praise performed for three-plus years by Mike Nolan.
I'm sure Singletary is going to try to do it all in a short time, and nobody else has given it an honest shot in 49ersland since Bill Walsh.
On Monday, Singletary met the media, about 20 hours after a postgame news conference so monumental that its emotions and overtones were still reverberating across the galaxy, thanks to the Internet and his unalloyed fervor.
"I don't ever want to come in there and be a philosopher and analytical, because that's not what I am," Singletary said Monday. "What you see now, that is what I am. And that's not going to change any time soon."
He'll need more than brave and buoyant words, however, and he knows it. He's a decided underdog in the battle vs. 49ers general lousiness, and I'm assuming Singletary knows that, too.
Singletary rehashed his reasons for banishing Davis to the locker room, but also went out of his way to declare that Davis, despite his outbursts, is a hard worker and certainly not a team cancer.
Before the naming of Hill as starter Monday, Singletary had made it fairly clear that his leanings are to Hill over O'Sullivan. But he added that he and offensive coordinator Mike Martz would have to come together on that decision.
Note to Martz: O'Sullivan has committed 17 turnovers — more turnovers by himself than every team in the NFL, except the 49ers.
"I mean, if he had done a good job of managing the games," Singletary said of O'Sullivan, "then we wouldn't be talking about what we're talking about now."
But will Singletary receive the support of upper management as he undertakes these other major changes? Doubtful.
Remember, this is a wishy-washy upper management that is ritually concerned with protecting itself from blame and that does almost nothing logically.
It was G.M. Scot McCloughan who fought to keep Nolan around 10 months ago, against the inclinations of everybody except then-owner, now-exited John York.
It was Nolan who then hired Martz, almost certainly against the inclinations of McCloughan.
It was Martz who tricked up the QB contest to favor JTO, against the wishes of McCloughan (who favored Alex Smith) and Nolan (who favored Hill).
Now Singletary wants a smash-mouth style of football, which is diametrically opposed to everything Martz's offense has ever done.
Perfect 49ers. Can Jed York explain any of that?
"I was talking to Mike Martz about this the other day: I want to be a physical football team," Singletary said. "I don't want to be a finesse, a cute football team. I want to be physical."
Good luck with everything, there. Singletary is off to a blazing start and the momentum is all his. But he's still just one man, facing a monolith of 49ers ridiculousness.
Hint: The monolith almost always wins, and the football team almost never does.________________________
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