Truth is, we just don’t know about the 49ers

<p>I don’t know anything about the 49ers and neither do you. This is strange when you consider they open their season in a few hours.</p><p>I’m talking about not knowing the important things, like how good they are. I honestly don’t know if they’re good or terrible or middle of the road. The Niners are a complete mystery. Oh, sure, I know details. I know Frank Gore is a good running back and Nate Clements is a fine corner and Vernon Davis needs to do more. I know particulars. But I am clueless about the big picture. </p><p>Here are some things I don’t know.</p><p>I don’t know if Mike Nolan is a good coach or a bad coach. A lot of people who read my blog, The Cohn Zohn, tell me he’s the pits. They refer to him as Coach Suit and say he’s regimented and narrow-minded. Certainly, last season was the pits and the way Nolan seemed to treat Alex Smith was harsh. But wait a minute. Go back to this time last year. Everyone — and I mean everyone — was praising Nolan as a bright young coach with a vision and everyone — and I mean everyone — was speculating the Niners could make the playoffs.</p><p>My point is not to rub it in — I, too, was ga-ga over Nolan and the Niners. My point is we still know zero about Nolan even though this is his fourth year. </p><p>Well, we know a few things. He is a defensive coach, certainly not an offensive guy. He seems offensively challenged. We, the media, brought this up with general manager Scot McCloughan the other day. We were pushing the idea that: 1) Offensive guys make better head coaches. 2) Even if that’s baloney, the 49ers need an offensive coach.</p><p>McCloughan disagreed. He said good head coaches can come from either side of the ball. And I must say a former coach I admire once told me defensive head coaches are better organized than offensive head coaches, and it is a fact George Seifert was defense all the way and won two Super Bowls with the Niners. So McCloughan isn’t all wet.</p><p>McCloughan went further. He said a head coach is either offense or defense, not both. “Show me a coach who’s an expert at offense and defense and I’ll show you it’s not true,” he said. McCloughan used to work for Mike Holmgren in Seattle and he said Holmgren, a Bill Walsh disciple, wouldn’t go anywhere near the defensive game plan, ceded that part of football to his defensive coordinator. I can tell you from personal experience Walsh himself left the defensive game plan to his coordinators.</p><p>Which means it is not a flaw in Nolan that he is a defensive head coach. This does not let him off the hook and it certainly doesn’t tell us if he’s a good head coach. Head coaches have “It.” I apologize for being vague but life sometimes lacks specifics. A head coach has to get players to play for him. A good coach does this by making players love him — “We’d lay down our lives for that guy.” — or by getting players to hate him, to unite in their loathing of the boss. There are millions of other ways to bring a team together. Does Nolan know any of those ways? I sure don’t know. And you don’t either. We’ll find out starting today.</p><p>Here’s something else I don’t know. I don’t know if offensive coordinator Mike Martz still has “It,” and the It in his case is much like the It in Nolan’s. Martz has a reputation for being a mad genius. Plays come flying out of his head like lightning, and already he’s been anointed as something special in San Francisco even though the Niners have not played a game. People perceive Martz as the savior — maybe Nolan perceives him that way, too.</p><p>But Martz has not been a cracker jack lately. Part of it certainly is not his fault. He suffered a serious heart ailment. But he’s been perceived as a reckless offensive guy and he’s struggling to maintain his place in the NFL. Will he bring magic to the 49ers? I don’t know. I simply have no idea. Surely, there are no guarantees, not with mediocre wide receivers and an offensive line that must prove itself. I would like Martz to succeed — it’s always better to cover a winning team, and he gives great quotes. But I’m in the dark about Martz. And you are, too.</p><p>That brings me to J.T. O’Sullivan. Martz brought JTO to the 49ers, brought him in special delivery and staked his reputation on this career nothing. I am not saying JTO is a bad player. He’s a nothing who has had no career so far. Well, if JTO is a good player, Martz is a genius. If JTO stinks, Martz doesn’t look so brilliant.</p><p>And what exactly is JTO? I don’t know. Neither do you. Until a few months ago, I never heard of the guy. This is what McCloughan said about JTO. “Is he one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks starting in the NFL this weekend? Absolutely not. But you don’t need that. You need a guy that’s headsy, that knows the system and will get the guys around him to work for him. I think he understands that.”</p><p>Well, that’s pretty interesting. JTO is not physically gifted. So what is he? According to McCloughan — and I think I’m interpreting him correctly — JTO is an “intangibles” guy. He gets the team to play. He is a leader. He does the right things. We’ll see about all that. The funny thing about intangibles is they’re like “It.” You either have them or you don’t, and JTO’s possession of intangibles or lack of them will become apparent fast enough.</p><p>Here’s another thing I don’t know — and you don’t either. I don’t know how good McCloughan himself is. He’s honest and hardworking and accessible to the media and you pull for him to succeed, but he also has complicity in selecting Alex Smith. So he’s an unknown like the rest of the unknowns.</p><p>Here’s one thing I do know for sure. This not knowing, this uncertainty, is fascinating. I want to find answers. I’m obsessed with finding answers. And to tell you the truth, I haven’t felt this excited about a 49ers opener in years — and, as a matter of fact, neither have you.</p><p>You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.</p>