49ers’ New ‘Genius’ Nurtures Tradition, Avoids Overcoaching

The latest silver-haired genius choreographing the San Francisco 49ers took awhile to establish his trademark as head coach.

George Seifert finally found a label last Sunday: winningest first-year coach in NFL history.

There won’t be an asterisk beside his name in the record book, denoting: “inherited Bill Walsh’s Super Bowl champions.” But the long-time Walsh disciple wouldn’t mind if there were.

“I remember somebody said to me, ‘If you win it’s going to be Bill Walsh’s team, and if you lose it’s going to be your team,’ ” Seifert said in a recent interview in his office at the 49ers’ headquarters in Santa Clara. “I said, ‘I hope to hell it’s Bill Walsh’s team.’ ”

It’s easy to downplay Seifert’s role in San Francisco’s league-best 13-2 mark. The rookie coach himself doesn’t hesitate in naming his friend John Robinson of the Rams (10-5) as his choice for Coach of the Year; his second preference might be Walsh for leaving behind so much talent.

But even before a rash of early-season injuries sidelined Jeff Fuller, Michael Carter, Riki Ellison, Harry Sydney, Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana, demanding owner Eddie DeBartolo said he didn’t expect much from the 49ers this year. And Walsh, half-seriously or not, told Seifert he’d win nine games his first season.

“I knew he would do well, but you never expect a team to do quite this well,” Walsh said last weekend. “George has done a magnificent job.”

Seifert has made the right fine-tuning moves for San Francisco this season. Perhaps more important, he has largely avoided the tendency of first-year coaches to overcoach.

The defense already bears his imprint from six years as defensive coordinator--the best one in football, according to Walsh. Not involved in the offensive side of coaching since 1976, he delegates much of the play-calling to his assistants.

Last Sunday against Buffalo, he heeded their advice to emphasize the running game in the second half, and a 3-0 halftime deficit turned into a 21-10 victory.

“Some coaches are a little stubborn, or reluctant, about accepting input from others,” says offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick. “But George isn’t above listening to suggestions. And he really does listen.

“He respects everybody and gets respect in return. He is a coach’s coach and a player’s coach.”

As a player himself, Seifert--despite his trim, professorial look--was a lineman. He grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District and followed the 49ers as an usher at their games in Kezar Stadium.

He went on to play guard and linebacker at Utah, then got into coaching. At 24, he served as head coach at tiny Westminster College in Salt Lake City for one year. Then he was an assistant at Iowa, Oregon and Stanford under Walsh before following his mentor to the 49ers in 1980.

In between his two Stanford stints, Seifert got his only major-college head coaching experience at Cornell in 1975-76. His record when he was fired was 3-15--attributed partly to a lack of alumni support--but he learned a valuable lesson:

“Not to try to do everything yourself. To have faith in your players.”

Seifert would have gotten a chance to apply his experience elsewhere had Walsh not stepped aside after the Super Bowl win last January. He was en route to Cleveland to interview for the Browns’ head coaching post when DeBartolo called with the 49ers’ offer, and the San Diego Chargers also were interested.

It was his “dream job,” his hometown team, the team he’d helped win three Super Bowls. Even so, the transition wasn’t entirely smooth.

As an assistant with an obsession for detail, Seifert pored over game films for as long as eight hours at a stretch and liked to call meetings. His duties as the head coach have been “diluted,” he says.

Without X’s and O’s to worry about, he tends to wander out of his spacious new office and around the building, taking the team’s collective pulse.

“I feel that I have to see to it that there’s an environment for the coaches and ultimately the players to be successful,” he says. “That’s what I find myself doing an awful lot.”

Early in the season, Seifert applied his defensive tendencies to offense, substituting frequently and using multiple formations. When the result was frequent mistakes, he huddled with his advisers and simplified the offense, with positive results.

Linebacker Keena Turner thinks Seifert has remained surprisingly flexible and cool for a rookie head coach.

“I thought he’d be a much tougher guy,” Turner said. “When I say tougher, I don’t mean attitude or conversation. But he’s been lenient, understanding, willing to bend for guys on a lot of individual cases. Guys have reacted well and are playing well for him.

“Being with George nine years as the defensive coordinator, he was extremely straight down the line. There was no in-between ground, not even in-between conversation. It was this way or that. I’m seeing a different side of him.”

Seifert may not be the equal of Walsh at fostering an us-against-the-world mentality. But he’s no slouch at motivating his players, and he knows how to get a rise out of them by yelling if need be.

This is the coach who, concerned that his defense wasn’t giving its all, lost his temper during a halftime meeting in a game in Chicago in December 1987 and kicked the blackboard, breaking his toe. The 49ers, already leading handily, went on to win 41-0.

He hasn’t hollered at them this year since early in the season--a 13-2 record will have that effect--at practice two or three times. Guard Guy McIntyre says Walsh was more vocal, but Seifert is less predictable.

“Sometimes George says a lot at halftime, and sometimes he says nothing,” McIntyre says. “Like the Atlanta game (this month), he just said, ‘You’ve just got to find a way to do it,’ and told the coaches not to tell us anything.” The 49ers turned a 10-6 deficit into a 23-10 win.

Preparing for the important Dec. 11 game against the Rams, Seifert wanted to counter all the talk about their NFC West rivals being a great comeback team. So he walked into a team meeting four days before the game with a list of five of San Francisco’s greatest comebacks of the decade.

The 49ers’ 20-point final period in a 30-27 victory gave them a sixth comeback for the list and an honorable mention for Seifert in Knute Rockne inspirational speaking.

“It felt like we were going to win, and I’ll tell you why: George made a great psych job,” says tackle Steve Wallace. “I thought about that in the fourth quarter.”

The Buffalo victory a week later enabled Seifert to pass the only other three coaches who managed 12 wins in their first season -- John Madden of the Raiders (12-1-1 in 1969), Chuck Knox of the Rams (12-2 in 1973) and Red Miller of the Broncos (12-2 in 1977). The best NFL coaching debut was by Guy Chamberlin, whose Canton Bulldogs went 10-0-2 in 1922.

Seifert turns 50 on Jan. 22, the Tuesday before the Super Bowl. He’d like nothing better than to spend his birthday in New Orleans watching his assistants draw up X’s and O’s and getting nervous about another game.

If he doesn’t get full credit for what would be the greatest achievement of his career, that’s OK with him.

“With this club, there’s plenty of recognition to around for everybody,” he says. “I don’t think I have to have it all. I don’t think this has to be George Seifert’s team. It’s the 49ers’ team.”