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Bill Belichick and Dick Jauron will be everyone else's coach-of-the-year winners this season. But not mine. Not when compared to the beautiful music being created by Steve Mariucci from the out-of-tune rubble that was the 49ers two years ago.
Call it an award for career achievement if you want, but the 49ers' success in 2001 cannot be restricted to just a 16-game review. It is the culmination of an amazing rebuilding effort that was held together, then improved, through Mariucci's combination of superb people skills and keen coaching ability.
"The thing that has impressed me most about Steve" says 49ers guard Ray Brown, a wise veteran who started on the franchise's last playoff team, "is the level of quality he demanded from us even when things weren't going well. There was no compromise on how things were being done here. We practiced the same and met the same way as we did when we had a winning record. There was no panic, no attempt at a quick solution. He showed everyone he had confidence we would become ...