How will Hostler handle Smith & 49ers’ offense?

By Chris Cluff  |   Wednesday, May 30, 2007  |  Comments( 16 )

San Francisco 49ers
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When Norv Turner left the 49ers to take over the San Diego Chargers, a lot of people thought the sky would fall in San Francisco. In just one year with the 49ers, Turner had resuscitated the offense and begun to develop Alex Smith from a raw No. 1 draft pick into a capable NFL starting quarterback. Without Turner, critics have hollered, it will all unravel.

But will it? Coach Mike Nolan chose to maintain continuity by handing the offense to quarterbacks coach Jim Hostler, who has come to know Smith better than anyone over the quarterback's first two years.

It goes without saying that the 49ers' continued progress under Nolan -- from 4-12 in 2005 to 7-9 last season to hopefully a winning record and playoff berth in 2007 -- will hinge largely on how Hostler and Smith perform this year.

Under Hostler's guidance and running Turner's plays, Smith made satisfactory progress from Year 1 to Year 2. But the big question is: Can Hostler get Smith to go from a barely average quarterback to better than average? And how will Hostler do it?

To answer those questions, we must take a look at just who Hostler is. And the answer to that is that he is a combination of four coaches: Turner, Jimmy Raye, Paul Hackett and Mike McCarthy.

Hostler began his NFL career in 2000 in Kansas City, where Raye was the offensive coordinator. Hostler already had experience coaching on both sides of the ball at small colleges in Pennsylvania, but he learned the foundation of pro offenses during his one year as offensive quality control coach with the Chiefs.

"Not only from teaching me but also helping me along, I probably owe him the most," Hostler said of Raye. "He's a great man and was the first coach I had ever been around who had been in both systems, the digit system and the West Coast, so he knows both systems very well, which is extremely rare. Usually guys in one system stay in it. He's been able to do both."

From 2001 to 2004, Hostler focused on the West Coast scheme in New Orleans and New York. Under Saints offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy -- now the Green Bay Packers' coach -- Hostler spent one year in charge of the offensive line and one coaching wide receivers. Then he was hired by the Jets in 2003 to coach quarterbacks under Hackett.

"Paul taught me a lot about coaching quarterbacks in the West Coast philosophy," Hostler said, "and that experience also gave me my first taste of handling the quarterbacks on game day and understanding the communication that is involved."

In 2005, Hostler reunited with McCarthy in San Francisco, where Hostler immediately was given the major task of turning a raw No. 1 draft pick into a winning NFL quarterback. As with most young quarterbacks, Smith struggled in his first year trying to learn the complicated West Coast scheme.

After McCarthy was hired by the Packers in January 2006, Nolan brought in Turner, who switched the offense from a West Coast derivative to his version of the "Air Coryell" system -- a simpler attack that features power running and deep passes. So Hostler had to begin teaching Smith a new system, and he said he plans to stick with it because that is what Nolan wants and because it is the best way to build on the progress Smith made in 2006.

"I owe this coordinator job to Norv because I think it was important to coach Nolan to stick with this system and Norv taught me that system very well," Hostler said. "Between the digit system and the West Coast system, those are the two that have dominated the offenses in this league for the last 25 years. Time and time again, their success has been proven."

While the 49ers will continue to build off Frank Gore and the running game, Hostler plans to rely on the other offensive tricks he has learned over the past seven years.

"The one thing I've learned is that it's not what a play is called, it's about what you know about a play and how you apply it," Hostler said. "Over the years, I've been around a lot of great coaches, so over time I've collected all of this information and put a lot of time into thinking how it fit me and how I would do it, and you kind of take a piece of each guy and put it together the way you want to do it."

Hostler plans to follow Raye's way of mixing systems, calling plays from Turner's system while training his quarterbacks using Hackett's West Coast way.

"That's really the plan," Hostler said. "We'll continue what Norv started so our young players can grow and not have to learn a new system, but we'll incorporate my touches in how to train the quarterbacks within that system and allow them to become better at what they do."

In the end, Smith should be better for it because he will have a foundation in both major offensive systems. The key then will be for Hostler to call the right plays for his young quarterback. Hostler admits he does not have much experience calling plays, but he thinks his knowledge of offense will make up for it.

"I don't have the experience calling plays that some guys might, but no one does when they start out," he said. "But, if you have the knowledge, that will come out and you will earn everyone's confidence. I'm fine with that. I've been overachieving and fighting my way through this my whole career. That's part of the terrain. Norv Turner wasn't born Norv Turner the offensive coordinator and neither was Mike McCarthy, Jimmy Raye or Paul Hackett. That's all earned. It's about having an overall knowledge of the offense, and I have that."

And Nolan thinks that will be enough to keep the sky from falling in San Francisco.

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About Chris Cluff

Chris Cluff spent 10 years as an editor and sportswriter for The Seattle Times. He was a key figure in the newspaper's coverage of the Seahawks, particularly during their Super Bowl run in 2005. He also has written two books on the Seahawks: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Heart-Pounding,...
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CommentsComments: 16  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
MrFootball		04:32 AM
05/30/2007
Well that is kindave scary for the niners, with a new offensive cordinator whom admits he doesn't have much experience in calling...
No.2
Mike		09:38 AM
05/30/2007
Just a HUGE question mark here. We really don't know Hostler, QB coaches are not high profile guys. I wish we could have brought...
No.3
SonocoNinerFan		11:33 AM
05/30/2007
The timing of Turner's departure really limited the Niners replacement options. They wanted to talk to Ken Zampese (Bengals QB...
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