Erickson Hiring Is a Sudden Turn

After focusing on defensive specialists, interviewing minority candidates, stressing expertise over head-coaching experience and concentrating on successful pro assistants, the San Francisco 49ers reversed field Tuesday and hired a head coach who doesn’t fit into any of those categories.

The club will hold a news conference today, according to a team spokesman, to announce that Dennis Erickson has been selected to fill the vacancy created nearly a month ago when owner John York fired Steve Mariucci.

Although he coached the Seattle Seahawks for four seasons, Erickson is best known for his success at the college level. He won national titles at the University of Miami in 1989 and ’91 and was 63-9 overall there in six seasons; turned around a struggling program at Oregon State by going 31-17 in four seasons and also was successful in head-coaching stints at Washington State and Idaho.

It was a different story in Seattle, where he was 31-33 from 1995 to 1998.

While York and club executive Bill Walsh had input, 49er General Manager Terry Donahue made the final decision.

He interviewed New York Jet defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell and Chicago Bear defensive coordinator Greg Blache, both African Americans, along with San Francisco defensive coordinator Jim Mora Jr.

The 49ers also considered Monte Kiffin, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive coordinator who built his unit into the league’s best this season. Kiffin, however, recently signed a new deal with Tampa Bay.

Donahue, a college head coach at UCLA for two decades, had said from the beginning of the search process that he wouldn’t rule out college coaches, but the two most prominently mentioned, USC’s Pete Carroll and Washington’s Rick Neuheisel, said they weren’t interested.

Erickson, 55, never finished above .500 in Seattle, but he was able to survive because he didn’t have much of an act to follow. The Seahawks hadn’t had a winning record in five years when he arrived.

He’ll have no such honeymoon by the bay.

Erickson is the fourth 49er coach since 1979. The first two -- Walsh and George Seifert -- won Super Bowls. Mariucci, who signed a five-year, $25-million contract with the Detroit Lions last week, won at least 10 games and led the 49ers into the playoffs in four of his six seasons.

His firing was never fully explained, the reason given being philosophical differences with York.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.