Jim Tomsula getting rave reviews in Washington

The San Francisco 49ers will see their former head coach on Sunday, Jim Tomsula. While he didn’t have a very successful run as head coach, Tomsula was very respected as a defensive line coach and it looks like he’s still got it. Both head coach Jay Gruden and Kirk Cousins could not have been more positive about what he brings to their team and how much he has already accomplished.

Cousins:

Players love him and he has a great demeanor about him, not only the practice field but just throughout the day in the building and in meetings. I think the guys play hard for him, they do what he says, they trust him to help them be successful. I think he’s just good for our team, for our chemistry, for our locker room, for morale. I think it was a great hire by coach Gruden and a great addition to our organization and we’re thrilled to have him.

Gruden:

I was interviewing defensive coordinators for the job and I interviewed quite a few of them and coach Tomsula was on my radar to coach defensive line and so I called him before I hired a defensive coordinator. I called him to see if he was still interested in coaching because you just never know. He was, and he was really excited to work with coach Manusky it was kind of a package deal there and I was fortunate to get coach Manusky and then obviously very fortunate to get coach Tomsula because he has our defensive lineman playing at a much higher level then before obviously.

We have some newcomers that have helped a lot, Jonathan Allen and obviously some other players and Ziggy playing nose guard has done a good job and Matt Ionnidis is starting to grow, Terrell McCLain, those guys have done an excellent job and Tomsula has been a big help in our defensive front.

When asked if he had trouble tracking him down, Gruden gave this funny nugget of information:

It wasn’t easy. It was not easy. I will tell you that. He’s not a guy who is going to call you right back after a call either. You gotta ... I had to wait a little while and be patient but finally he called and had a great conversation with him. Flew him up here and had a good conversation with him and we did what we could to get him and got him.

Washington has allowed 355 yards of rushing in four games averaging 88.75 per game and an average of 3.9 yards per carry. Last season they allowed an average of almost 120 yards rushing per game with average of 4.5 yards per carry. Just for reference sake the 49ers have allowed 583 yards rushing in five games which gives them an average of 116.6 yards per game but only 3.6 yards per carry. Last season the 49ers allowed and average of 165 yards per game and 4.8 yards per carry.