Oct

11

Nolan Glad to Get Suggestions About Team Improvement

Posted by sf49ers

October 11, 2007 |

During some long meetings on Tuesday to discuss team issues going into to their bye week, Head Coach Mike Nolan handed out suggestion cards to players asking what could improve the team. It was done completely out of anonymity and thus players could honestly voice their opinions. Here is the rest of the article:

“I want you to put what’s from the heart and mind,” Nolan said he told his players. “Everyone did that for me. I got a wide range of things. In reading them, the offensive guys were more open with their thoughts because they’re feeling it (criticism) more.”

As they should. The 49ers are last in the league in total offense (203.2 yards per game), last in passing offense (117.2 yards per game) and tied for last in scoring (12.6 points per game).

Nolan said some responses were general, as in “Things stem from the top,” to more specifics like running the ball more or passing the ball more, to the more personal, like “I want to be involved more.”

“You find out where your team’s at,” Nolan said. “It’s all about, ‘I want to help.’ We’ve got a good group. It wasn’t that way my first year (in 2005).”

One player with plenty to say in the meetings and on his suggestion card is wide receiver Ashley Lelie. Signed to a $2 million contract as a free agent, Lelie hardly has been on the field and has zero receptions after five games. Without getting into specifics, Lelie sounded as if he’s going to get more chances to play when the 49ers come off the bye Oct. 21 against the New York Giants in the Meadowlands.

“We all had our chance to speak our piece to our position coach,” Lelie said, in his case, Jerry Sullivan. “I’m not going to tell you what I said. I got some things off my chest.”

Running back Frank Gore had his suggestion to Nolan:

“We have to go out there, have fun and play hard,” he said. “Even before the meeting, I felt that. It’s trust, man. We’ve got to trust that the boys on the field are going to play hard. We’ve got to trust that the offensive coordinator is calling the right thing.”

Nolan clearly believed the meeting accomplished the first objective, to find out what’s wrong, and the second, how to fix it. The third objective cannot be realized until game day.

“I thought we were very productive,” Nolan said. “We did identify some things. As much as everyone talks about execution, it’s deeper than that. … The reason the offense looks like it does is a lot deeper than play-calling. … You have an execution issue across the board. We have to get on the same page. I believe we’ve made some headway on personnel and use of personnel. I thought it was a very beneficial meeting. It’s a collective issue. The solution is collective.”

Nolan said a better sense of how and when players should be used, rather than simply changing the starting lineup, emerged from the meetings.

As for criticism of the head coach, Nolan said, “You’ve got to keep your mouth shut and take the hits. When you lose, you lose.”

Source: SFGate.com


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