Chris Townsend

The San Francisco 49ers were officially without a full time head coach for only two weeks.  But now they have taken care of that.  This all started after the departure of Mike Singletary conlcuding his final coaching duties in Saint Louis in week 16.  The 49ers named Jim Tomsula the Interim Head Coach.

Upon the conclusion of the last game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals, Jed York knew he had to get things rolling with trying to find a new head coach, and possibly a big name coach.  But in order to accomplish this, he would first have to hire a general manager.  So on on Tuesday, Jed York had made announcement that would definitely kick off the hunt for a new head coach.  This was the promoting of Trent Baalke from Vice President of Player Personnel to General Manager.

Trent, 46, enters his seventh season with the 49ers and 14th with the National Football League.  Prior to being named the general manager, Baalke served as the Vice President of Player Personnel for the 49ers and overseeing all aspects of player personnel.

Over the last nine months, Baalke was responsible for all player acquisitions. His first order of business was orchestrating a trade with the Miamia Dolphins for WR Ted Ginn, Jr.  He then orchestrated the 49ers drafting for the first time.  All eight of the 49ers 2010 selections made the active roster, including first rounders T Anthony Davis and G Mike Iupati. Baalke also played a role in extending the contracts of Pro Bowlers LB Patrick Willis and TE Vernon Davis and signing veteran RB Brian Westbrook.

Prior to his promotion to Vice President of Player Personnel, Baalke was the 49ers Director of Player Personnel from 2008-2009, where he oversaw both the collegiate and professional personnel departments.  He first joined the franchise in 2005 as the team’s Western Region Scout, a position he held through 2007.

So now that Jed York's first task was accomplished, it's off for a head coach search.  But the 49ers started their search close to home and first sat down with Stanford University Head Coach, Jim Harbaugh for approximately 6-7 hours on Wednesday.

Eventhough the 49ers went through a few other choices to possibly lead the 49ers, it was more evident that Jim Harbaugh was their man.  Harbaugh also felt that the 49ers was his organization, once the meeting of newly named GM Trent Baalke and CEO/President Jed York was completed.

On Friday afternoon in a press conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the 49ers officially announced that now former Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh was their new face of the franchise.  Widely regarded as one of the finest up-and-coming coaches in football, Harbaugh becomes the 18th head coach in 49ers history.

A 15-year NFL veteran quarterback, Harbaugh brings 17 years of coaching experience to San Francisco, which includes spending the last seven years as a head coach (58-27) in the collegiate ranks.  He joins the 49ers after an impressive four-year stint as the head coach at Stanford University, where he guided the Cardinal football program to the biggest turnaround in school history over a four-year span.

For the complete information on the hiring of Jim Harbaugh as the new 49ers head coach, visit http://blog.49ers.com/2011/01/07/jim-harbaugh-to-coach-49ers/

What ever happened to these guys working their way up from college?How can you just give someone a spot lot that from college.Let him earn that spot see what he can do first see if they even respct him.