San Francisco 49ers General Manager Terry Donahue spent nearly a month in search of a coach to replace Steve Mariucci. With all that time, you’d think he could have come up with someone better than this.

Dennis Erickson? Please.

Dennis Green would have been a better alternative. Or Ted Cottrell. Or Jim Mora Jr. Or for that matter, Jim Mora Sr. At least he helped two NFL teams make the playoffs, which is more than you can say for Erickson. He never finished better than 8-8 in four seasons with the Seahawks.

But the way Donahue tells it, the 49ers have just discovered the second coming of Bill Walsh.

“We have found what we were looking for in a new coach: a leader, a motivator, a teacher, an individual with exceptional skills in coaching the game of football,” Donahue said. “Dennis Erickson has a long history of coaching winning teams and I am confident he will succeed in San Francisco.”

(We’ll correct Donahue and say Erickson has a long history of coaching winning college teams. His NFL record indicates otherwise.)

At the beginning of his search, Donahue claimed he wanted a tough, defensive-minded coach, which led many to believe Cottrell had the inside track, with Mora Jr. not far behind. But Donahue, a former UCLA coach, clearly found it more comforting to go the college route. He tried to get Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, which would have been a coup. Then he tried to get Washington’s Rick Neuheisel, which would not have been a coup. It would have been a stretch.

But not nearly as big a stretch as Erickson, who won at Miami under controversial circumstances, then fell flat on his face with the Seahawks before reviving his career at Oregon State. Erickson coached Seattle from 1995-98, went 31-33, and showed little of the magic touch that helped him win national titles at Miami in 1989 and ’91.

Granted, Erickson had the unenviable task of trying to win with stiff quarterback Rick Mirer, which will test any coach’s patience. But he also had two years with Warren Moon, and things didn’t get any better.

Erickson never commanded the kind of respect NFL coaches need, nor did he show much offensive imagination. He also revealed late in his tenure with Seattle that he was an alcoholic. Commendably, he sought help and has been sober since. But the fact that he is a recovering alcoholic doesn’t weigh into any criticism about his taking over in San Francisco. The fact that he is a weak choice as a coach does.

So now Erickson gets another chance, while a deserving coach such as Cottrell gets shut out again. Cottrell insists he wasn’t a token interview, as he has been in so many other NFL coach searches. He felt as if this was going to be the one. But with all his credentials as one of the NFL’s top defensive coaches, Cottrell couldn’t save Donahue from himself.

Bad choice, Terry.