Jim Tomsula and 49ers conditioning

When the 49ers and Jim Harbaugh parted their mutual ways, it became a bit of a cliché to speculate exactly what it was that cause the 49ers to want Harbaugh to leave. Some people speculated about Jed York and Trent Baalke's relationship with the coach, arguing that it seemed to have soured; others questioned Harbaugh's relationship with the players, especially after Alex Boone's comments about how Harbaugh might be insane. One common bit of speculation was that the players did not like how much conditioning Harbaugh required, and so they aided in forcing him out. As a consequence, it would seem more likely that Jim Tomsula will not condition the players hard enough and the team would have a down season as a result.

Now, I will admit here and now that I shade a bit more toward the pessimist side of the spectrum on what I think about the Tomsula era so far. Nor do I necessarily have high hopes for the coming season, although I certainly think certain things could go well and the 49ers could do much better than I expect. That said, it does not seem like questioning the conditioning or the team's "will to win" is a pretty productive process.

Tomsula had some remarks about conditioning in his recent minicamp transcript. He said at first that "As a coach, it's always been a little bit, it's a little touch-and-go. How hard do you push it, what do you do there" and then followed that comment up with another one, "[we are at] the point of going through the movements, getting indoctrinated into the strength and conditioning program."

These comments acknowledge a couple of things, I think: first, Tomsula does want his team to be a conditioned team. By questioning how hard they should be working during a minicamp, it betrays the assumption that Tomsula wants to be working hard on conditioning already. Second, Tomsula is already used to the idea of regulating the amount of conditioning players receive. He's been in minicamps before under the auspices of different head coaches. There are plenty of reasons - I think - to be concerned about Tomsula's tenure as a head coach, but if there is anything that he knows well, it's the cyclical nature of conditioning throughout the offseason and season.

What do you guys think? Is conditioning going to be a problem? Has Alex Boone betrayed the slothful nature of the 49ers, or is he an outlier on the team?