Line of Scrimmage: Whose head should roll?

In this week's Line of Scrimmage, JR and Ben debate which coach should shoulder the blame for this season's woes and, as a result, get canned first. Is it always-under-fire Jim Hostler or is it the head honcho, Mike Nolan?

MIKE NOLAN: I'm not indifferent to the situation at the moment. Nobody should be fired in the next two weeks, especially not Nolan due to what he's going through. Nothing is going to turn around in those two weeks but I want a little more evidence before I go hunting for jobs.

That said, Nolan has to go at the end of the year. Somebody has to take responsibility for this catastrophe of a season and in my eyes it's the head guy. Talk all you want about Norv Turner being the guy the 49ers had to have back. One coordinator should not have that much influence on a team, not if the head coach is worth anything at all. Nolan came in as a defensive coach, everyone knows that. But who is getting the credit for developing defensive players? It's not Nolan, it's Mike Singletary.

The playcalling has been bad, no question. But at what point do you expect the head coach to say look man, you really suck at this and you have to go. It's not Hostler who refuses to gamble (and don't call those pathetic onside kicks to begin the second half of games gambling), it's Nolan. We've seen it throughout his tenure with the 49ers. Nolan is an ultra-conservative coach when it comes time to make the big decision. He's been loosening a bit lately but that's not a shift.

— Ben

JIM HOSTLER: Ben, you ignorant misguided slut. (HAAAAA!) Sure, let's just go ahead and get rid of the one thread of continuity this team has had over the last three seasons. Two years of nearly doubling the team's total victories while losing your two most important supporting staff members and then having one season go down the tubes because your offensive coordinator got swiped nearly twice and your QB gets landed on by a 306-pound guy named "Rocky" definitely demands that you lose your job.

You're absolutely right, Nolan made all the calls to get where we're at, and yes, the season has pretty much sucked. But his biggest mistake was letting a guy take over the offense that had no qualifications whatsoever to do so. Hostler, as we all know, hadn't called one play in the NFL prior to this season, and even though he was a holdover from the Norv Turner regime, it's obvious that he's no Norv Turner. Hell, he ain't even Tina Turner. (Side note to San Diego's front office, you should totally can Norv's ass and send him back north and into the booth where he belongs.)At this point, I'd rather let a 13-year-old Madden Bowl competitor sit in the booth and call plays.

Seriously though, when you watch the putrid San Francisco offense stumble their way through game after game and make no apparent improvement at all, you've got to realize that this team lacks both preparation and any creativity. Nolan's not an offensive guy, and if he really trusted his O-coordinator to make calls that will work and have his players ready to execute, he'd take the leash off and let them go. But as it stands now, I wouldn't trust Hostler to make me a piece of toast without dropping it on the floor three to four times. I hate to change coordinators for a fourth year in a row on poor Alex Smith, but lets call a spade a spade, and then use that spade to bury Hostler.

— JR