Until now, these have only been posts related to players. At this point though, I've covered (basically) everyone and had my fun doing so. Mike Singletary is, if you didn't get the memo, our head coach. He's a Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker and one helluva speaker. (Is 'helluva' considered breaching [site decorum] rules? I mean, I guess I should know as a daily poster with admin powers but hey.. whaddayagonnado?) But how much confidence do you have in the guy?
Do you feel like he has all the tools to be a complete head coach in this league? Can he be consistent and handle all of what is required of him? I think he can. He's made some questionable decisions in the past, surely. His clock management skills are a question mark at the moment, but his game-planning seems to be pretty solid. He seems, thus far, that he was a good scout before the draft in evaluating a player's personality. Like I said though, he's made some questionable decisions. What immediately comes to mind is putting Nate Clements in at punt returner. People immediately said it was too risky, and it ended up costing Nate the rest of the season.
He'll live and he's hopefully learned, and now he's coming into his second full season (unless something goes horribly wrong) as the 49ers' head coach and I'm interested to know just how far he can take this team. He is a fantastic motivator, and I truly believe that will win us a game or two on its own. But is it enough? Do we have a strong enough group of assistant coaches to allow Singletary to do "his thing" while they handle some of the more scheme-based aspects of coaching?
He's certainly done many things right. Players like Chilo Rachal, Vernon Davis, Manny Lawson and Dashon Goldson have found "it" under coach Singletary. Rachal has been inconsistent, but it seems like Singletary stepping in and making him the starter will eventually pay off. Hopefully he will not have to knock him out or say "dang gummit" ever again. Jump for your voting criteria, which is hard to define in this case.
Very High: It's hard to define what a 'very high' coach confidence level would be. With a player, a 'very high' rating likely means a Pro Bowl, but does a 'very high' rated head coach lead his team to the Super Bowl? I'll say that's not the case here (not ruling out the possibility of it happening, of course, just not necessary for this rating) but a definite candidate for Coach of the Year. He motivates, he makes the right moves on the roster, he says the right things and the players he puts his trust in put their's in him and play up to the level that he believes they can. He exudes great clock management and game-planning on top of his other skills.
High: Simply just like above, but to a slightly lesser extent. The 49ers don't do 'as good', but they play well and it's clear that Singletary is a big part of that. This is a playoff team with a playoff worthy coach, with a mistake here or there. May or may not depend on his coordinators for a lot of things.
Medium: More-so on middle-of-the-pack (hence 'medium', duh!) when it comes to coaches. Singletary slips up in certain areas, be it clock management or just putting his trust in a player that doesn't do well with it. Is this tanking a season? No, not by a long shot, and he's still a fantastic motivator, Singletary will just clearly rely on his assistant coaches for more and more once it's clear he can't shoulder the load on his own.
Low: He seems more like a gimmick to put butts in seats, of the paying variety. There's not much else to say than that - the team isn't necessarily bad, but his mistakes are clear and subject to public scrutiny. Just not as good as advertised.
Very Low: Mike Nolan