The first surprise hire has emerged from the NFL's annual head coaching carousel, as the San Francisco 49ers are reportedly set to name defensive line coach Jim Tomsula as their next head coach.
The news of Tomsula's hiring was first reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The 49ers are the only NFL team that Tomsula has ever worked for. He originally joined the team as a defensive line coach in 2007 under Mike Singletary, a position he has held since.
He became the team's interim head coach for one game at the end of the 2010 season after the team fired Singletary. He led the Niners to a 38-7 victory.
Tomsula's coaching experience prior to the NFL came with NFL Europe, where he started as a defensive line coach and ended his tenure as the head coach of the Rhein Fire in 2006 when he made the jump to the NFL.
As both Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com report, the decision for the 49ers came down to Tomsula and former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator, Adam Gase.
It was close between the two candidates, but the 49ers ultimately decided to go with the commodity that they know best.
The 49ers called Gase today to inform him that they were going in another direction, NFL Network's Albert Breer reported.
The 46-year-old Tomsula will now take over an extremely talented 49ers team from former head coach Jim Harbaugh that he already knows very well.
