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Monday, February 7, 2022 SECTION B Paul Farmer . Sports Editor . 427.6926

Miami hires 49ers’ McDaniel to be next head coach

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The Dolphins have hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as their next head coach, the team announced Sunday, bringing an end to the franchise’s month-long search for a new leader after the surprise firing of Brian Flores.

McDaniel, 38, becomes the 11th head coach in Dolphins history and the fourth hired since Stephen Ross became majority owner in 2009.

McDaniel has 15 years of NFL experience, starting out as an intern for Mike Shanahan’s Denver Broncos in 2005. He had stints as an assistant with Washington, Cleveland and Atlanta before joining Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco as run game coordinator. McDaniel held that role from 2017 to 2020 before being promoted to offensive coordinator this past season.

ESPN’s report Saturday that San Francisco was hiring Anthony Lynn as assistant head coach to be a “key cog in the 49ers’ offense and run game” added speculation that McDaniel could be headed to Miami.

A Yale graduate, McDaniel does not call the plays – Kyle Shanahan holds that role – but has been lauded by players and fellow coaches for his intelligence and creativity.

“Mike, his mindset, the way he creates things, his creativity, his outside-thebox thinking, his ability to communicate with people, he’s as good as they get,” said New York Jets coach Robert Saleh, who coached with McDaniel in San Francisco. “He’s been with Kyle for longer than any of us have. He’s been there since he and I were [quality control coaches] sitting across from each other with the Houston Texans back in [2006]. He’s brilliant. He’s every bit as deserving to be a head coach. [I] would not like him to come to the division but if it happens, so be it.”

With McDaniel, the Dolphins have continued the trend of hiring young assistants and firsttime head coaches to lead their teams. The team hasn’t hired a head coach with prior NFL experience since Dave Wannstedt in 2000.

Amid Flores’ classaction lawsuit against the NFL, Dolphins and two others teams alleging racial discrimination, McDaniel, who is biracial – his father is Black – becomes the first minority hired in this year’s coaching cycle. The five teams that made hires before the Dolphins – the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars – all hired white

See Coach, Page B8

George Rose/Getty Images/TNS file (1988)

San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Steve Young (8) and Joe Montana (16) discuss strategy with head coach Bill Walsh during a game against the Phoenix Cardinals in Tempe, Arizona, Nov. 6, 1988.

Decades after Montana, Young, 49ers’ QB standard still sky-high

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Fewer than 48 hours after playing in his second NFC Championship Game in the last three seasons, Jimmy Garoppolo bid adieu to 49ers fans.

“It’s been a hell of a ride, guys. Love you guys. So, see ya,” Garoppolo said in what amounted to a farewell press conference on Tuesday.

It was Super Bowl title or bust for Garoppolo, who saw the writing on the wall bolded and underlined when the 49ers selected Trey Lance with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

For some franchises, it would be difficult – perhaps impossible – to part with a quarterback who has led a team to a Super Bowl appearance and another conference title game in the span of three years.

Not for the 49ers.

The standard for San Francisco quarterback play was set by a pair of Hall of Fame passers who won multiple championships and MVP Awards, Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Nearly 30 years after the team won its fifth Super Bowl title, that standard remains unchanged.

“There are some cities where you get a team to a championship game and you’re a hero,” Young told KNBR this week. “It’s like, ‘Great, thanks, that was awesome, it was memorable.’ It’ll define your career in a positive way. And then there are some cities, like ours, where it’s not about that. It’s about Super Bowls.”

Young isn’t wrong.

Since the two-time MVP was last a full-time starter in 1998, the 49ers have spent a quarter-century chasing greatness at the most important position in sports.

Steve Mariucci twice made the playoffs with Jeff Garcia, Jim Harbaugh and Alex Smith paired up for a NFC Championship Game run and the 49ers reached a Super Bowl and another NFC title game after Harbaugh replaced Smith with dual-threat quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kyle Shanahan was on the brink of coaching the 49ers to their sixth Super Bowl victory when Garoppolo’s offense stalled and San Francisco’s defense melted down against the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2020. Two years later, Garoppolo’s game-sealing interception against the Rams in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s matchup at SoFi Stadium leaves the 49ers exactly where they were when Young suffered a career-ending concussion in Week 3 of the 1999 season.

It’s once again time for a transition at the quarterback position, and anything less than greatness won’t be tolerated.

“This is a city that demands that and I love that about being a 49er, honestly,” Young said. “The pressure is the thing where you learn the most about yourself. For good or for bad, there are cities where you can get in the playoffs and they make a parade, but not this one, and I love it.”

The standard is higher in San Francisco because legendary head coach Bill Walsh demanded as much.

Back in the 1980s, Walsh pitted Montana and Young against one another. The result was a tenuous situation that clearly irritated Montana, who had already won two Super Bowl titles when Walsh announced an open competition for the starting job.

“Our strength is at quarterback, but our problem is that we have two,” Walsh said before the 1988 season. “There’s a quarterback controversy developing and we’re going to have to select between Steve Young and Joe Montana.”

The experiment wasn’t an overnight success – the 49ers finished the regular season 9-7 – but Montana secured back-to-back blowout playoff victories before leading a game-winning Super Bowl drive in the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Joe Montana is not human,” Bengals wide receiver Chris Collinsworth said postgame. “He’s not God, but he’s definitely not human.”

The standard for 49ers quarterback play, it turns out, was still being set. The next year, Montana won the first of his back-to-back MVP Awards and the 49ers cruised to their fourth Super Bowl title.

When a serious elbow injury to Montana forced Young into action as a full-time starter in 1991, expectations continued to escalate. His MVP season in 1992 helped convince the 49ers to trade Montana to Kansas City, and gave the fan base hope that the days after

Gary Klein/Los Angeles Times/TNS file John McVay, Sean McVay’s grandfather and the former San Francisco 49ers executive who built Super Bowl teams with Bill Walsh, poses with cutouts of former 49ers quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young.

CALENDAR

Monday’s TV sports

Note: Some events may be canceled or moved to different times and/or stations because of Covid-19 considerations Basketball College men •UNC Wilmington at Hofstra, CBSSN, 2 p.m. •Virginia at Duke, ESPN, 4 p.m. •Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech, ACC, 4 p.m. •Furman at East Tennessee State, ESPNU, 4 p.m. •Lafayette at Navy, CBSSN, 4 p.m. •Alabama A&M at Grambling, ESPNU, 6 p.m. •Kansas at Texas, ESPN, 6 p.m. •Arizona at Arizona State, FS1, 6 p.m. College women •Georgia Tech at North Carolina State, ESPN2, 3 p.m. •Rutgers at Ohio State, BIG TEN, 3 p.m. •LSU at Ole Miss, SEC, 4 p.m. NBA •Phoenix at Chicago, NBATV, 5 p.m. •Golden State at Oklahoma City, NBCSBA, 5 p.m. Gymnastics College women •Ohio State at Nebraska, BIG TEN, 5 p.m. Olympics •Speed skating, women’s 1500, USA, 12:30 a.m. •Curling, mixed doubles, round robin, United States vs. Great Britain, USA, 2 a.m. •Short track, men’s and women’s events, 1000 and 500, USA, 3:30 a.m. •Figure skating, team competition, pairs free skate;

Alpine skiing, women’s giant slalom, first runs; freestyle skiing, women’s big air, qualifying; and more,

Ch. 3, 4:05 a.m. (re-air) •Luge, women’s singles, first run, USA, 5:05 a.m. •Luge, women’s singles, second run, USA, 5:30 a.m. •Biathlon, women’s individual, 15km, USA, 6:40 a.m. •Ski jumping, mixed team, normal hill, USA, 8 a.m. •Curling, mixed doubles, semifinals, USA, 9:30 a.m. •Women’s biathlon, 15km individual; ski jumping, mixed normal hill, Ch. 3, 11 a.m. •Luge, women’s singles, first and second runs, USA, 11:30 a.m. •Speed skating, women’s 1500, USA, 12:45 p.m. (re-air) •Curling, mixed doubles, semifinals, CNBC, 2 p.m.

See TV, Page B8

49ers’ Hightower joins Bears after season of special-teams struggles

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Richard Hightower still has a job.

It’s just not with the 49ers.

The franchise’s much-scrutinized special teams coordinator was hired Sunday for the same role with the Bears. Hightower’s exit came after the 49ers struggled on special teams throughout the 2021 regular season before having more breakdowns in the second half of a wild-card win at Dallas last month.

Hightower, 41, a 16-year NFL coaching veteran, was hired by head coach Kyle Shanahan in 2017 for his first head coordinator role. Shanahan and Hightower were teammates at the University of Texas and they also worked together with the Texans from 2006-2008.

In 2021, the 49ers were one of three NFL teams to allow a least two touchdowns on special teams. They surrendered a 99-yard, kickoff-return score and 73-yard touchdown run on a fake punt, and they ranked in the bottom half of the league in many major categories.

They were 28th in yards per kickoff return (18.9), 18th in yards per punt return (8.2), 23rd in yards allowed per kickoff return (23.1) and ninth in yards allowed per punt return (7.8). They also had a roughing-the-punter penalty on 4th-and-20 and allowed a successful fake-punt pass in a 23-17 wild-card win against the Cowboys.

Said CBS sideline reporter Jay Feely after