[NFL] 49ers to fire Erickson


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The San Francisco 49ers fired coach Dennis Erickson on Wednesday, with the official announcement coming at a 5 p.m. ET news conference.

Erickson was informed of his fate shortly before noon on the West Coast after three days of short meetings with team owner John York. Erickson has three years and $7.5 million remaining on the contract he signed in 2003.

The 49ers will be honorable in paying off the contracts of Erickson and his assistant coaches, who each have a year remaining on their deals.

"His mind was made up," Erickson said. "It's a shame. I tried to get back to the NFL trying to win. Too bad this didn't work out."

ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports the 49ers have reached a settlement on general manager Terry Donahue's contract and he will step down as GM.

York will make an announcement about organizational changes at the news conference.

Erickson finished 9-23 with the 49ers after two years, but he really didn't have much of a chance during his 2-14 season in 2004. The 49ers had $29 million of dead salary cap money, which restricted their payroll to $64 million, lowest in the league. His team was young at many key spots including quarterback, and didn't have the depth to handle the multitude of injuries it suffered to starters during the season.

This was Erickson's second tour in the NFL. He was 33-35 in four seasons with the Seahwks from 1995 to 1998. Considered one of the best college coaches for turning programs around, Erickson will likely be one of the top coaches considered for vacant college positions along with Butch Davis, his replacement at the University of Miami.

York likes Erickson but wanted changes on his coaching staff. Erickson has final say on all coaches on his staff and was willing to consider some changes, but that apparently wasn't enough to sway the decision.

source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1959782

:woot: finally he's gone!!!!! :woot:

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chow + carrol + leinhart @ 49's .....that would be interesting...

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Ya I would start being a hardcore fan again it's just hurts to much to watch a whole 49ers game anymore. I like the Chow+Carrol part too but I think ken dosey is ok he seems pretty good I would stick with him for awhile.

I just can't understand why they hired him in the first place.  He failed MISERABLY with the Seahawks....why would this be any different?

He's purely a college coach.  Nothing more.

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I agree 100%.. I was shocked when they hired him. That should be in a "what was they thinking" segment.

i think u are are being a little harsh on this guy.. everyone already knew the niners were going to do bad this year no matter what coach they had. they lost all their players, its a rookie team, the 49ers are in a rebuilding stage.. they are going to suck, even next year, and probably a year or two after that. ive been a niners fan since I was little i live real close to sanfransisco and dont get me wrong, it hurts to watch the games, but its going to be like this for awhile. so.. suck it up.

I'm not sure what way I lean on this. Anyone who is a half-way decent 49er fan should admit that the players flat out suck. Yeah, we have some decent, rising stars on the team (Brandon Lloyd, Julian Peterson, Eric Johnson) but as a team, we flat out suck. Two years isn't long enough to have any kind of success with the roster we have. Couple that with the fact the owner himself refuses to put the franchise as his #1 priority (he lives in Cleveland during the season dammit), the 49ers are going into the ground head first super fast.

That's not to say, though, Dennis Erickson is a great coach. But, really, as a 49er fan, could we or should we have expected anything more? The offensive line completely caved in early in the season, which took away any type of running game we might have had with Kevan Barlow. Peterson went onto the IR at the beginning of the season, both the starting cornerbacks went down for the year, the defense has absolutely ZERO pass rush ability, our special teams sucks (which is always the case), and above all, our Pro Bowl fullback Fred Beasley was injured most of the year.

I do like the firing of Terry Donahue, though, I never thought he would amount to much as a GM. The only half-way decent draft he looked over was when they hired Bill Walsh to act as a "consultant". To sum it up, the team sucks, starting with John York.

The only answer is to fire him and, well, that won't happen. God, how I wish he would have sold the team to Cisco earlier in the season. :cry:

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