Count former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith among those who can’t figure out why 49ers owner Jed York and General Manager Trent Baalke didn’t want to keep a successful coach like Jim Harbaugh.
Smith told the San Jose Mercury News that he’s baffled at why Harbaugh and almost all of his coaching staff were sent packing, despite the 49ers going to three NFC Championship Games in Harbaugh’s four years at the helm.
“I think for me, it’s still just tough to believe all those guys are gone, all that turnover,” Smith said. “I wasn’t there so obviously it’s hard for me to speculate on any of that. I was just kind of shocked. There were a lot of ballgames that got won over the last few years, but for whatever reason, they couldn’t make it work. I don’t know.”
Smith added, however, that he thinks highly of Jim Tomsula, the new head coach, and thinks the 49ers can succeed with him. Perhaps they can. But asking Tomsula to win nearly 70 percent of his games, like Harbaugh did, is a tall order.