The San Francisco 49ers re-emerged from the football wilderness and back into prominence thanks to a mix of savvy football moves and Jim Harbaugh’s coaching.

Now, with team management succumbing to the same type of arrogance that once declared the Titanic unsinkable, San Francisco is poised to take a cliff-dive back into irrelevance under vastly underqualified new head coach Jim Tomsula.

Tomsula is the type of guy players love playing for, but his introduction to the media brings to mind another defensive line coach who struggled to get the job done running the whole show — Ed Orgeron, who is one of college football’s top recruiters and most charismatic figures but ended up being in way over his head in a three-year stint running Ole Miss.

During his introductory press conference, Tomsula said accountability starts with him, at which point team president Jed York interjected, “It starts with me.”

And there you have the crux of the problem.

York and general manager Trent Baalke seem to embarked on an ego trip proving that it is them, not Harbaugh, who are ultimately responsible for the franchise’s recent success. And in order to prove their theory, they’ve inserted the ultimate “yes” man as their coaching puppet.

This was no time for San Francisco to go experimental in the head coaching department. The 49ers are one down season removed from three consecutive NFC Championship appearances and nearly won a Super Bowl in Colin Kaepernick’s first full season as a starter.

Someone who knows how to coach the quarterback position, particularly when dealing with Kaepernick’s intriguing mix of skills, would have been more fitting. That’s why many on the outside believed Denver offensive coordinator Adam Gase was high on the list of candidates.

However, with Gase the Niners’ management didn’t know if they’d have a guy they can keep in line. Tomsula, who has been with the organization since 2007, will present no issues on that end.
They should be careful what they asked for.

Arizona has already supplanted the 49ers as the second-best team in the NFC West, and St. Louis appears headed in that direction next year. When it comes to picking a guy to coach your team between Pete Carroll, Bruce Arians, Jeff Fisher and Jim Tomsula, Tomsula is finishing No. 4 with a bullet in every poll.

Unless, of course, your name is Jed York or Trent Baalke. But in that case you don’t need our help — you’ve already got all the answers.