If San Francisco 49ers fans would rather their 19th head coach win football games than press conferences, they're halfway there after Jim Tomsula's introduction on Thursday.
By all accounts, Tomsula is one of the nicest, most genuine people in the NFL. In a rambling, offbeat opening press conference, though, he managed to convey precious little of his plans for the 49ers going forward.
Tomsula was evasive about offensive and defensive schemes. When asked what will make a Tomsula-coached team unique, he replied, "Let's wait and see."
That was the one-hour meet-and-greet in a nutshell.
Between Tomsula and general manager Trent Baalke, the point most successfully relayed is a desire for a physical, aggressive team that can pound the football and stop the run.
Here is what else we gleaned from Tomsula and Baalke on Thursday:
- Tomsula expressed a desire to get Colin Kaepernick and the rest of the 49ers back to having "fun playing football" after a disappointing 2014 season.
"I think he can run, I think he can throw, I think he can change the pace of the game, change the speed of the game. I think he's very intelligent," Tomsula said of his quarterback. "He can do a lot of things with his feet, he can do a lot of things with his hands, he can do a lot of things with his arms, he can do a lot of things with his eyes, he can do a lot of things with his brain. And more so than a traditional quarterback, he does it with the lower body. Look at that, corral it and let's accentuate those things."
- Tomsula emphasized that the 49ers' off-field issues are a thing of the past.
"When you talk about the overall picture and discipline, that's been made very clear," Tomsula said. "I'm not gonna get into past stuff, but that's not the way we're going to conduct business moving forward. That's been made very apparent. That has been made black and white."
- Addressing his own circuitous journey to the top the coaching food chain, Tomsula stressed that "nothing has been the norm" in moving from a sales job to volunteer assistant coach to NFL Europe and at one point even living out of his car to pursue his dream.
"I understand that my journey is an unusual one," Tomsula added. "My journey has taken my family -- on what, three continents? -- and nothing has been the norm. I am used to not normal, and I'm very comfortable in not normal."
That much is now obvious.
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