This is the fifth time the 49ers have game-planned for an opponent during Mike Singletary’s tenure as head coach. I was curious about the approach Singletary takes during those days.
Is he a CEO head coach who gives his assistant coaches complete autonomy in developing the game plan or does he take an active part in setting the tone for what he wants the 49ers with their X’s and O’s?
I asked Singletary today about his role. Here was his answer:
“What I do on Mondays, Tuesdays, my focus is mainly on the players and the staff. Where are they? Because I want to make sure that Greg (Manusky) and Mike (Martz) aren’t coming in here thinking, ‘Man, we’re just not very good. We don’t have a chance.’ So the game plan is going to reflect that. The way they going about doing the game plan is going to reflect that. The way they respond to their coaches is going to reflect that. I don’t want that.
“My job is to make sure that our coaches, every one of them, how attentive are they? How focused are they? My job is to make sure that as I look at those players that they’re on one accord. That they’re not separating and going into their own little corners and cliques and whatever, and making sure I keep them together. Just keep bringing everybody back together and then overall let Greg and the staff, I’m in the room when they’re talking about doing this and doing that, I just sit back and think, ‘We need to think about this. We need to think about that.’
“Mike Martz is a little bit different, but I’m in that room listening to the things that they’re thinking about doing or think that they can do. But I have more one-on-one (time) with Mike Martz so that I can talk about, ‘Let’s talk about what you’re thinking about.’ Because Mike Martz is the guy that he’s been doing it for so long and he pretty much knows exactly what he needs to do and what he wants to do so that’s more of a one on one.
“(With) Greg, it’s more of the staff, more of the defensive staff because that’s the way we’ve always done it. So my job, as I said before, CEO or however you look at it, my job is to make sure that the environment is right. To make sure that the mindset is right. And as I look at the game plan and talk to Mike Martz about, ‘This is what I think. Tell me what you think.’ And we kind of go through that. And as I look at the defensive staff, that’s a little bit different because we have more input from everyone. So I just make sure that, ‘We need to think about this. We need to think about that.’ “
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