Alex Boone called in to radio station to talk about Jim Tomsula hiring

Alex Boone is not one to hide his feelings, and he was quick to support the San Francisco 49ers new head coach on Wednesday. Boone has a regular call-in segment with 95.7 The Game, for which he is paid to appear. That ended following Week 17, but Boone called in Wednesday afternoon to speak with Damon Bruce about the new hire. Although I think we have to take his comments with a grain of salt, he was fired up about the 49ers new head coach. Here is a transcript of his comments (AUDIO).

On the hiring of Jim Tomsula and not being as hard on team as Jim Harbaugh:

I think that for the most part, people are taking things the wrong way. Jimmy is a great guy. He's a great coach. He's coached a lot of guys. I'm excited about this. He understands the game of football. More importantly, he understands the trenches, and that's what's big for us. Is that he understands how this game is supposed to be played. I think that a lot of people taking things out of context, but for the most part, people should be excited about this.

On why Tomsula didn't attract other NFL teams:

Well I think that sometimes secrets are best kept guarded. And I think that Jimmy was one of those secrets. He's been a coach before, obviously over in Europe. He understands this game, like I said. It's his personality that really makes the guys like him, but it's his knowledge that makes everybody love him. And I'm excited about this because he does get who we are; he knows who we are as a team. He's been around us enough. And we've talked several times about, 'Hey, we're gonna run the rock, and this is how it's gonna be.' And that's what's exciting to me. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he has, he knows the guys that are in place, and he e knows the scheme. He's not gonna be some outsider coming in, saying, 'I think we should do this.' No, Jimmy's been around enough to know, 'hey this is what we're the best at. Let's do it, let's do this because that's what's going to make us successful.'

On if the hiring will persuade Frank Gore to return:

I would hope so. I would hope that Frank sees this as an opportunity to come back and really continue to do what he's been doing, playing great football, running the rock well and loving the game. Jimmy's got a great, great attitude toward the game of football. The way he treats the guys. He's very personable. My wife said to me, 'I love him just because he talks to me every time I go up there.' He's always 'How are ya? How ya doing?' That's the kind of guy he is. That's what you want s a leader. A guy that doesn't put himself away from everybody else, doesn't put himself in a corner. He's out there, he's engaging, he's talking to people, he gets the families. He knows the team, he knows the schemes. That's what you want from a leader.

On if Greg Roman lost sight of the offense's strengths:

No. I don't think so. I think G-Ro always had it in the back of his mind who we were. I think sometimes we didn't put ourselves in the best situations, so we kind of had to get ourselves out of situations. I would never talk bad about G-Ro. I have great respect for the guy. And I think he came under enormous pressure. I mean no question, people came down on him hard. At the same time, people forget how the game is played. You go down, you can't just keep running the ball, you have to spread it out. I think his thing was was, 'I'm trying to keep people away from loading the box.' We would talk all the time, and I'd say, 'G-Ro, we gotta run the ball.' And he'd be like, 'Dude, what are you going to do, run against nine guys in the box? You're going to run against that?' We gotta spread people out, we gotta make them fear our pass game. That's what he was always trying to do. I think sometimes we hurt ourselves doing it. You know, giving up sacks, throwing bad balls, not catching the ball. That was on us. For the most part, his heart was always in the right place. He always wanted to run the rock and give it to Frank.

On the potential departure of Fangio:

If Vic does leave, I think it'll be a tremendous loss for our defense. But I'm confident Jimmy will get the right people in place. This defense is, I mean let's be honest, it's one of the best in the NFL. It'd be tragic if they did screw it up, but I don't think you can. I think that Jimmy knows defense well enough, and he knows the guys that are out there well enough that  he's going to get the right guys in place and that guy's going to come in and do a phenomenal job.

On why it wasn't an offensive hire:

I agree. And I think that when everybody heard of Gase coming in, I think everybody was like that's where they were going to go. And I agreed with that. I was like, 'Listen, I think it'd be great to get an offensive guy.' Just because we need help on offense. We've got to clean some things up. And who better to bring in than an offensive-minded guy? But I understand their logic. They wanted to bring Jimmy in. He knows the system, he knows the scheme. He can get the right people in place. And he can bring a great guy on board on the offensive side to take over. There's no saying that he can't. But I understand what everybody's saying, by the whole 'We wanted to bring in Gase, and he'd have been great for us', and I get that. But I think Jimmy will do just a fine job.

On whether Mike Solari will be back:

You know, that's a tricky question. Because I talked to Mike the other day, and I think he was kind of like, let's see what happens. And you know this game, it's political. It is what it is, and guys bring in their guys. I think Mike's tops in the world at what he does. He is the best offensive line coach. If he stays here, I hope he does. Do I see him going to Buffalo? Possibly. I could see him going with G-Ro. They know each other well, they like the schemes together. And that's just an up in the air question, but I hope that he does stay.