So why would the 49ers show interest in coach Tom Coughlin? Apart from the fact that: (1) they’re looking for a coach who can win Super Bowls; (2) Coughlin has won two of them; (3) along the way to his most recent Super Bowl win, Coughlin beat Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers, Coughlin and G.M. Trent Baalke share a mentor.
It’s Bill Parcells. He’s the coach Baalke wanted to hire in 2011, when Parcells was 69. Coughlin is now 69.
Parcells, whose endorsement of Mike Zimmer has paid off for the Vikings, recently made a public pitch for Coughlin, who worked for Parcells with the Giants from 1988 through 1990, serving as receivers coach on the Super Bowl XXV championship team.
“I know guys Tom Coughlin’s age who know a whole lot more about football than some of the 30-year-olds who are coaching it,” Parcells told 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, via Philly.com. “I think his record pretty much speaks for itself.”
The fact that he has a record as a head coach speaks for itself, too.
“The debate is always between the experienced coach vs. the hot coordinator,” Parcells said. “Nobody knows which of this hot coordinators are eventually going to be successful.”
Coughlin has been successful, in Jacksonville and with the Giants. Chances are he’ll be successful again. And the chances of him being successful again would seem to be a lot higher than the chances that someone who has never been a head coach being successful.
Especially since 49ers owner Jed York is looking for a guy who will do precisely what Coughlin has done: Win Super Bowls.
While Baalke may be looking for someone who won’t try to take over in San Francisco, Coughlin didn’t try to take over in New York. Besides, if Baalke wants to continue in San Francisco into the future, maybe the right call for right now is to bring in a guy like Coughlin.