The rumor mill continues to run at full steam even on New Years Eve. Thanks to drummer for pointing out Jason LaCanfora's tweet that Brian Billick is getting more and more buzz, with the 49ers in particular. LaCanfora seems skeptical on Jim Harbaugh to the 49ers and has tweeted other options over the past few days. Today he went into a bit of 49ers overdrive with this series of tweets (the timeline is top to bottom from oldest to most recent):
Hearing more legit buzz about Brian Billick as head coaching candidate than at any time since his firing by the Ravens. 49ers in particular 1 hour ago via web
Billick has a ring, ties to Bay Area and Bill Walsh family tree, and remains close with Marv Lewis. If Mike Zimmer promoted to Bengals coach 1 hour ago via web
The tandem of Billick and Lewis as his defensive coordinator would get even more traction. I could see that in San Fran. Also expect the... 1 hour ago via web
49ers to take a good look at Philly coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. I still don't see Jim Harbaugh landing there at this point but we'll see 1 hour ago via web
The Marv Lewis portion of this obviously would require a bit more work and things falling the right way. However, it certainly would be intriguing if this happened, and really it would be the final completion of Mike Nolan's previous attempts to turn the 49ers into the West Coast Ravens (mainly bringing over several ex-Ravens).
Brian Billick technically is an offensive coach (OC of the high-flying Vikings offenses in the 90s) but his Ravens teams were based on strong defense and solid running game with more of a game-manager QB than a big playmaker. Someone mentioned this to LaCanfora and he responded with this tweet (awesome twitter handle):
@Enrico_Palazzo_ he's a CEO. Would need strong coordinators but Lewis would be a helluva start 1 hour ago via Twitter for Blackberry
I do think Billick could work, but LaCanfora makes a good point that he would need a solid support system behind him. He's not my first choice, but given his past success I'd be willing to give him some time. I've attached a poll that is a bit haphazard, but hopefully you get what I'm asking in it.