While Vic Fangio and Greg Roman were the far more important Jim Harbaugh Stanford staffer hires for many San Francisco 49ers fans, don't overlook the addition of former Stanford Cardinal tight ends/offensive line position coach Tim Drevno. Matt Maiocco, the 49ers insider for CSN Bay Area, reported that Drevno will join current offensive line coach Mike Solari rather than replace him, as both will work in tandem to try and improve a young but talented 49ers offensive line corps.
Despite boasting a fairly decent rush attack thanks to Frank Gore, Brian Westbrook and Anthony Dixon, according to Football Outsiders, last year the Niners were 30th in pass protection (by virture of their adjusted sack rate) and 24th in power possessions (short yardage situations on 3rd and 4th down). The Niners did have a lot of offensive linemen both young and old starting--right tackle Anthony Davis and left guard Mike Iauptai are both rookies, right guard Chilio Rachal is only in his third season, and the aging Barry Sims was a stand-in at left tackle after Joe Staley went down for the season. For Drevno, who spent the last two years presiding over one of the most brutish offensive lines in college football that protected Andrew Luck without fail and powered the Cardinal rush attack to dominating performances, it will be a much steeper challenge to upgrade the offensive line.
This co-offensive line coach look is nothing new for Harbaugh though. Drevno worked exclusively with the guards and centers while the new Niner offensive coordinator Roman worked with the tackles the past two seasons in Palo Alto. You can probably expect a similar type arrangement between Drevno and Solari here that would include the tight ends.
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