This thought just crossed my mind and I feel I have to throw it out there to get my NN peeps opinions. We pretty much realize that it's in our best interest to bring in an offensive-minded coach for next year with a knack for X's & O's. We can pretty much rule out Brad Childress, especially when you see lines around the net saying things like "From ESPN: Since Brad Childress was hired in 2006, no NFL team has run more plays for zero or negative yards than the Minnesota Vikings." 

So my thought:  He had a bad year this time around, but in all his years as a HC this was his only losing year. He would have gone bowling every year (he's 4-2 in bowl games) except this year and in 2002 when the program he's Head Coach for was under probation.  He still ended 2002 with a winning season. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about Jeff Tedford.  He doesn't have the most stellar of credentials, but he's got quite a viable and impressive Head Coaching history. One major argument against him is that he can't get his teams to The BCS, so how can he coach an NFL team to a championship?  But when you consider that Cal has been respectable every year since going 1-10 under former 49er Tom Holmoe in 2001 and had had only one winning year and two non-losing years in their previous ten seasons before Tedford, I'd say he's at least worth enticing. And yes, he is an offensive mind if you didn't know already. Tedford is under contract until 2015, but I believe he is in the third year of that contract and of course could leave Cal by being fired or resigning. Thoughts guys?

BTW, I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!

So I know we here at NN seem to have our opinions on Yahoo Sports, but I saw this article that is still pretty interesting and worthy of note. Doug Farrar in this article discusses how The Niners offense needs to catch up to the progression of the defense and how it can do that. He points out how Crabs' more successful plays have come on combo/slant routes, particularly on plays where he crosses routes with Josh Morgan and in effect crosses up the coverage. You can see the particular play Farrar mentions at 2:19 here (Tre9er posted this video not too long ago BTW) . There's also another example against The Cards at 5:01, and a third play at 5:56 that is not a crossing play, but is still a good example of the combo, or more likely, head fake philosophy that Crabs has seen success with. BTW, yeah, that's our own Will James defending in the last play. So I read this and I'm thinking that's all good, but I'm sure a lot of people will wonder what happens when defenses catch on to this scheme? Personally I don't think it's the scheme, it's moreso the execution of it. I think Crabs has definitely put to rest concerns going into his rookie year about his route running. Combo or not, cross or not, I think it's more than just a matter of the offense finding the right plays to make Crabs effective. It's also going to be a matter of him continuing to do just as well and even better in his route running. Take a look at the article and feel free to give your input. Is this going to be one of the main keys to get the offense where it needs to be? How exactly does Crabs become more of a factor this coming season? Only 52 more days till The Niners play again!

So to put it bluntly, the s#*t hit the fan for the University of Southern California athletic program today. The USC Athletic Department was slammed with a boatload of sanctions affecting the football, mens basketball and women's tennis programs. I haven't done a huge amount of research on this, but I have to think the majority of the reason why Pete Carroll is back in the NFL is not only because he got a great offer to become HC of the Seahawks, but he had to find some way to disassociate himself with the gloomy situation awaiting the school. As Niner fans and football fans in general, the sanctions hitting the football team alone are extremely damaging. I was just curious to know what you guys think will come of all this. How does this benefit the local schools (Cal, Stanford)? The Pac-10 as a whole? Maybe it hurts them? I'm not saying this is a good way for it to happen, but for a team like Cal that is in the mix every season, the immediate impact to me is that Cal and perhaps Stanford may now have a decent chance of being in the BCS next season. It may also likely help Oregon's and other teams' chances of being there, although Oregon probably didn't really need this to happen to be in BCS contention. Also, in Carroll's case, is he back in the NFL because he has a legitimate chance of being a successful HC? Or was he just lucky enough to find himself an opportunity to bail out of an impeding disatrous situation? Part of me wants to say he found a way to bail on his program. But between two of his last three years as a HC in the NFL and his career at USC, I'd say barring the rules violations, he's got a chance at being reasonably successful in his second go round. By the way, if you look at Carroll's Wikipedia page, you'd see something that had me going for a few seconds. Let's just say I thought, "How could they have gone to The National Championship in 2005 when they were 0-13?" The Wiki people, as Hawaiian's say, do things pretty Wiki-wiki! Anyway guys, I don't really have a lot against Pete Carroll. But I think as Niner fans, when we play the Seahawks this season, we should root with a chip on our shoulders as much as Taylor Mays will likely be playing with a chip on his. I'd rather not have Pete feel all that comfortable with his career move!

So just curious, who here on NN connects through Facebook? Last week I "liked" a few of my favorite teams' FB pages thinking it would be a cool way to keep tabs on them and chime in on some linked stories and read the comments associated with them. However, I have to bring this up in a pretty professional and intelligent venue (Yes, the majority of you guys here at NN are great). How many of the people who post on these team FB pages are true intelligent, insightful fans with a real opinion, and how many are merely just looking for a place to put up some rude, ignorant blurb that no one asks for? Furthermore how many just use these pages as a means to attack other users in a way that could very well get their account banned? Don't they know when they do this, their (for the most part real) names are on the comment, linking them to some information about them that could get them in trouble? Sadly enough, less than a week after "liking" these pages, I had to hide a couple from my news feed. However, I have liked NN and honestly gotta say I don't think I'd ever hide it. Are any of you with me on this? I think I've learned my lesson about thinking these pages are in any way for people who have a true passion and intelligent opinion on professional sports or any level of sports for that matter. Ahhight, 'nuff said. Thanks guys. 73 days left!

So today bored off my arse and watching afternoon TV, this idea scarily found its way into my mind. I'm sure we all know people that will come to a Super Bowl party to watch the commercials but not give a rat's you-know-what about the game. Personally if it was up to me and I was hosting the party, those people would either not be allowed in my house or would have to pay admission! But what about us who love the commercials AND get stoked about the game too? Well after seeing a commercial of this type today, I figured I'd do some research and came up with what are my five favorite football commercials. I've embeded them below for you to enjoy. Just FYI, these commercials are all of the comedy variety. My first preference in genres is comedy, whether it be in commercials, movies, TV shows, my life, etc. So please check these commercials out after the jump, and if you have any others, comedic or not that you want to share or you think might outdo these, please feel free to post their links in the comments.

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My first FanPost, this is exciting! I guess this makes me official (official what I don't know.) Is that a good thing? Bad thing? Anyway, this story was put out last Friday by Yahoo Sports' Jason Cole. I don't know if anyone has referred to it on NN or not. But it has a nice intro on the Jags', Niners' and Bengals' receiving corps, and then goes into his rankings of the receiving corps of all 32 NFL teams (these are based on WR's and TE's only). There's also a nice blurb at the bottom from Jerry Sullivan about Michael Crabtree. I would say they're pretty accurate. The fact that we're ranked in the top half in the league I would say makes us quite respectable. We came off a season where our leading receiver was a TE, our best WR was a rookie who missed camp and didn't play until the sixth game of the year, and our #2 WR I feel has not quite firmly established himself in that role yet. We've added in a newcomer in Ginn who is still looking for his first breakout year as a receiver. Hill in three years has not reached expectations when he came into the league. Jones had injury setbacks which may in effect have compromised his season. And Williams is unproven but may prove to be a really good addition for his all-around skills. I think our ranking is a good starting point. I think there's a great chance it will end up being a good bit higher by the end of next season. Here it is, let me know what you think.