Right, let's roll the tote board. Steve Mariucci is finding love and money in Detroit. Mike Holmgren has a renewed commitment to, and from, Seattle. Monte Kiffin got himself a fat raise in Tampa. Ditto Brad Childress in Philadelphia. And Jim Johnson in Philly, now that we mention it.

	Look who's laughing now that Steve Mariucci has found a new job before the 49ers figure out where they'll find his replacement.

Say this for the San Francisco 49ers: When they make a coaching change and initiate a replacement search, nearly everyone walks away happy.

Nearly everyone, that is, except the 49ers themselves. Seldom has a franchise blown out so successful a coach with so little apparent idea what to do next.

Curious at the outset, politicized almost from the get-go, the 49ers' coaching odyssey is beginning to take on darkly comic tones. The franchise that whacked Mariuicci after six seasons, four playoff appearances and a 60-43 record through a total rebuilding process now finds itself with a candidate list that is getting pistol-whipped by San Francisco's own Pro Bowl stars.

"It's like we don't even have a plan now," quarterback Jeff Garcia sniffed from Honolulu during Pro Bowl week. "To me, it's embarrassing. We're almost pulling names out of a hat. I don't know where we're going with it."

Well, recently, GM Terry Donahue was going in the direction of Chicago assistant Greg Blache, Garcia was told.

"I don't even know who he is," the QB replied. "That's just another candidate who probably doesn't do much for our fans."

The 49ers' first row of candidates, by contrast, have done wonders by their current employers. It took Seattle about three seconds to shut down the Holmgren-to-SF rumors, relieving him of some front-office duties so that he can concentrate on coaching and counting his money. Kiffin, identified as someone on Donahue's wish list, was given a three-year, $5.1 million deal to remain as Tampa's defensive guru. Childress and Johnson both signed extensions with the Eagles, thus taking them out of the running with the 49ers.

What is left for Donahue and 49ers owner John York, the man who principally wanted Mariucci fired? San Francisco assistant Jim Mora Jr., perhaps. Maybe Jets assistant Ted Cottrell or Blache.

Or maybe, just maybe, Donahue is waiting until after national letter-of-intent day to lure away some top college coach. (Who wants to be the next Butch Davis and tell high-school kids to their faces he'll be there for them, then ditch the program days later for the NFL? Sign up right here.)

York wanted rid of Mariucci, he said, because the coach wanted more involvement in front office and personnel decisions, and that just wasn't going to fly in Sir John's business organizational model. Others close to the team say Donahue and influential consultant Bill Walsh, neither of whom hired Mariucci, felt the 49ers could not reach the next plateau with him as coach, and thus were only too willing to carry out the firing.

Fan response suggests there was at least a 50-50 split on that same issue -- but, of course, the 49ers' followers who favored canning Mariucci were assuming the team would be putting someone better in the job. As of today, the team is nowhere close to being able to say that, and even its own players have noticed.

"It doesn't seem like something that was planned out too well beforehand," center Jeremy Newberry said at the Pro Bowl. "They're definitely making it up as they go along. But hopefully they'll find somebody good."

At the $1.5 million per year the 49ers are reportedly offering? "Good" is about the best they can hope for.

Mariucci himself came to the 49ers untested as an NFL head coach, but those were different times. He was handed a team so loaded, so deep, that it went 13-3 in his first year despite losing Jerry Rice and Steve Young in the first game of the season.

The current San Francisco team is neither deep nor loaded. It's a good team that isn't about to fall apart, but in the York era of ownership (with its stated goal of watching the bottom line more closely), there's nothing especially reassuring about the future. As of today, that includes the part about who's coaching it.

I hate to raise the Tampa Bay example, but it's coming in useful just now in ways San Francisco fans might never have imagined. When the Bucs made the difficult decision to fire Tony Dungy a year ago, they appeared for the longest time to have committed a grand mistake.

Jilted by Bill Parcells, the Glazer family sputtered and smoked for weeks before finally coughing up two first-round draft picks, two second-rounders and $8 million in cash to Oakland for the right to give Jon Gruden a $17 million deal. It was stunning at the time. Looking back now, from the Bucs' perch atop the NFL, it seems to have been the clumsy stumble of the football decade -- the brilliant end result of a horribly botched process.

At this point, 49ers fans could only wish for an ending so bright. The franchise, that is, has been able to make several people happy so far in the post-Mariucci era. It's just, none of them work for the 49ers.

Mark Kreidler is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee and a regular contributor to ESPN.com