Everyone was hoping that Tuesday's news conference would create renewed confidence in the 49ers. Oh, well.

There was Scot "Trigger Man" McCloughan looking uncomfortable in the spotlight. There was Jed York looking like a teenager play-acting like an NFL owner. There was Mike Singletary, sounding exactly like a newly minted, untested head coach.

The firing of Mike Nolan and hiring of Singletary is strictly a stopgap measure to stem the bleeding. There is no bigger plan right now and — even more troubling — little acknowledgment of the need for a bigger plan.

All three participants in Tuesday's introduction gushed over the man who had just been fired, as though he were some amazing combination of Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi, and not Mike Nolan.

"Mike Nolan set the foundation," Singletary said. "All I'm going to do is build upon the foundation."

McCloughan, too, spoke reverently about all that Nolan had brought to the organization. After all, he and Singletary had just lost their best buddy and de facto boss. Young York echoed the glowing words about the incredible Nolan foundation.

Can we get one thing straight? The 49ers had a foundation — a solid, sturdy foundation — until the Yorks jackhammered it into dust. The owners of the 49ers were gifted a legacy of greatness — something that's darn hard to come by in the NFL — and they have destroyed it in nine years. Now this team might as well just be the Arizona Cardinals or Detroit Lions.

Nolan's fantastic foundation? McCloughan cited an off-season program and team unity. One is a basic that anyone could put in place, the other is an intangible. There was no overriding philosophy, no profound plan. And worst of all, no progress.

Look at the New Orleans Saints. The Atlanta Falcons. The Miami Dolphins. All teams that were in disarray but have made massive improvements in the time since Nolan arrived in San Francisco. The Yorks would like to pretend that they had nothing to do with the dismantling of the 49ers. That they stumbled upon a wrecked team and had to rebuild it. Not true. And the same people who destroyed the old foundation, the same ones who made so many bad moves including giving unqualified Nolan too much power, are the same ones still in charge.

So we're left with little hope. What is needed is a radical change: turning over control to an experienced president or general manager with some juice to run things. How long have we been begging for that from the Yorks?

"Now is not the right time to talk about that," Young York said. "We will talk about things at the end of the season."

Young York — the only member of the ownership family present — was the most interesting part of the news conference. He's now clearly in charge. Yet he was going to make like Dad and walk out without answering questions until reporters started calling out questions to him.

In Young York's mind — and newly created lexicon — the 49ers weren't getting outplayed, they were getting "out-intensitied." Actually, they were doing both. And while added intensity is a nice idea, it's not going to solve the larger problem.

Which is systemic. Which is cultural. You would like the owners to — while acknowledging Nolan's failings by firing him — acknowledge that there are bigger problems. That there is a need for a new direction and a steady hand on the tiller.

We didn't get that Tuesday. We got glowing tributes to an 18-37 coach. We got a song and dance about the firing process that made Al Davis look like a rational leader. We got the impression — again — that the firing wasn't well thought out.

We also got a lot of banalities from Singletary that were woefully short on specifics. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt, because he had less than 24 hours to prepare. But he has been around for the entire Nolan regime — it would be nice to hear some specifics about what needs to change. Yet he offered none.

Singletary once sought counsel from Walsh. But when I asked him about his vision for offensive football — an opening to acknowledge the offensive shortcomings or at least pay tribute to the lost legacy — he passed.

"To me, it's only about one thing. To me it's about the team," Singletary said. "For me the vision of this team is to win."

If Singletary ekes out enough wins the rest of the way, the 49ers once again will have painted themselves into a corner. They'll have a defensive-minded inexperienced head coach. They probably will lose offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who couldn't have been thrilled about these developments. And they still will be lost on offense, without a plan or a clue.

"We do have something special here," Singletary said.

I used to agree with him. But not these days.