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Now that the season is over, the Offensive Coordinator position is nailed down, and the calm before the storm of the offseason is upon us, it’s time to look back at 2007.  In this case, these entries will focus on what went wrong with 2007, as it has become one of the worst in recent memory and in team history.  First in this series is analysis of the single largest contributor to the failure of 2007, the offensive coordinator.

To be fair, it’s not as though something that Jim Hostler did was the primary contributor, but rather what he could not do.  It’s more about what Norv Turner did, and what Mike Nolan did in response, that started this whole avalanche.  Norv left the team very late in the offseason, for a ready-made playoff team and a lot more money, leaving Mike Nolan scrambling to find his replacement.  This put the entire team in the lurch, and I would like to throw a flag on Norv Turner for being the guy that started it all.

Next in line comes Mike Nolan, the guy who had to do the hiring.  No one knows more about Mike Nolan’s offensive ineptitude than Mike Nolan.  No one knows less about what makes a good offensive coordinator than Mike Nolan.  So it should come as no surprise that, considering the amount invested in Alex Smith, that he would go with the kid’s QB coach to “keep the continuity.”  The only problem is, he failed to take into account Jim Hostler’s relative experience in football.

He started out playing for Division II IUP, a satellite campus of Indiana University based in Pennsyvlania.  You can’t get much further from the plane of major college experience–and Jim Hostler played defensive back.  Right off the bat, this suggests that he is not familiar with what it takes to excel at the highest level, especially at any offensive position.  So after graduation, Jim Hostler and his teammate Frank Cignetti coached at IUP. 

Immediately following this experience, Hostler found himself in the NFL as an Offensive Quality Control coach with Kansas City (00), same position at New Orleans (01), then Assistant Wide Receivers Coach (02).  At this point I’m trying to figure out what these jobs are, exactly, besides holding a clipboard for someone.  He then served as QB coach for the New York Jets (03), where he had a tenuous relationship with Chad Pennington, and was then moved to Wide Receivers coach (04).  In 05 he came to San Francisco, and was Alex Smith’s QB coach under Mike McCarthy and Norv Turner.

Somewhere in here is the large flashing indicator that says Jim Hostler was a good hire at Offensive Coordinator–I must simply fail to see it.  After all, Nolan had Jerry Sullivan on his staff, who called served as Offensive Coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals under Dave McGinnis.  Pete Hoener, the current Tight Ends Coach, had extensive experience both in the NFL and at the NCAA Division I level, and was also on staff with Jerry Sullivan.  Both men, old enough to have coached Jim Hostler in his college days, were passed over for “continuity.”

Jim Hostler had neither experience, nor quantifiable success at any level in the NFL, certainly not enough to warrant the position of Offensive Coordinator with any NFL team.  His first decision was  far-reaching, if not arrogant.  He decided to operate a mixture of Norv Turner’s digit system and Mike McCarthy’s west coast system.  One thing you don’t do as a rookie coordinator is start mixing systems you have no experience calling plays for in the first place.  Of course, we can only assume he did so because he claimed he did.  However,  strange and ancient plays that no one has ever heard of, such as “THE QUICK SLANT” were notoriously absent from any gameplan.

Throughout the season, Jim Hostler called the wrong play in the wrong situation, time and time again.  Quick outs on 3rd and long, deep posts on 2nd and 2, and the infamous delay draw on 3rd and 7.  In fact nothing shows how poor Hostler was at his job than the variety in the running game that didn’t exist during the first 12 weeks of the season.  The only plays in Hostlers arsenal, apparently, was dive left, dive right, and the delay draw.  Fans screamed repeatedly for a sweep, trap, or off-tackle play just to end the monotony. 

Hostler was also known to panic, as evidenced by what he did when a play didn’t work.  Take Vernon Davis’ post pattern against New York to open the second half.  Yeah, Davis had his hands on it and he dropped it.  But you know what?  The line gave Dilfer time, Dilfer actually made a good throw, and Davis had nothing but daylight had he caught it.  Did they milk the run and then try it again?  No.  In fact, no one ran a deep post for the rest of the game, even when they were forced to throw.  Just as bad, Frank Gore averaged 6.3 yards per carry  in the game, and it was still close going into the 3rd quarter.  As we saw this Sunday when the Cowboys went away from the run and ended up losing, the Niners kept trying to force the pass against the best pass rush in the league and lost. 

I think the biggest indicator as to Hostler’s ineptitude, as well as his self-serving attitude, was the addition of Ted Tollner.  After Nolan brought him in to assist him, Hostler routinely downplayed Tollner’s role.  In fact, to hear Hostler tell it in radio interviews, Ted really didn’t do much.  He was just an “extra pair of eyes.”  Is this why Ted Tollner was retained under Mike Martz?  Because he didn’t do anything?  No.  In fact, we saw a marked improvement in the players and the playcalling from the first game Tollner was present.  In fact, the 8-game losing streak was broken in the game at Arizona, and the 49ers more than doubled their average point output.  No one can tell me Ted Tollner had no effect.

Ultimately no system can make or break a player, but rather how that system is taught.  Hostler and Cignetti were incapable of moving Smith further along the track that Norv Turner started him on.  In a single season he brought Alex to the cusp of being a quality starter, but how much time during the offseason and practice did they take to learn it?  Conversely, how much time during the offseason and practice did Hostler take to continue drilling it into players’ heads?  Amazingly, he admitted on KNBR that he did not make the players repeat plays until they got them right.  How very un-Walsh of him.

The fact is that Jim Hostler deserved to be fired, just as much as he did not deserve to be hired in the first place.  If you have any doubts, look at his college buddy Frank Cignetti.  He has been hired to be the Offensive Coordinator at Cal.  Jim Hostler remains unemployed.