I find myself thoroughly fascinated at the entire interview process of hiring a football coach in this day and age. Experts talk about baseball as a copycat game. May I submit here that the NFL has that beat.

Right now — and this may have begun with the hiring of Kyle Shanahan — the offensive “guru” is very much in vogue. Except perhaps in New England where the shadow of Bill Belichick continues to be long.

In fact, at this writing, the only new head coach hired during this period of wooing and being wooed, is Mike Vrabel at New England who is a Belichick disciple and yes — considered a brilliant defensive mind.

But right now it seems the league is leaning toward points on the board.

Whether you lean toward scoring or stopping scoring as the most important ingredient in the selection process of a new head man, what I really think is that NFL teams need to take a long look at the Peter Principle.

All right class, here’s a reminder. The Peter principle implies that “In a hierarchical organization, employees tend to be promoted until they reach a level where they are no longer competent to do their job effectively. Thus reaching their level of incompetence.”

The simple fact is that being the head coach of a football team is a completely different job than being an offensive or defensive coordinator. One just simply does not equate to the other.

The most successful head coaches in the NFL are those who see the big picture. Yes, they make the game plan. But they do so in a process by which the head coach coaches the assistant coaches, and the assistant coaches coach the players. A head coach is as much administrator as he is a hands-on coach.

The simple fact is that being an assistant coach and being a head coach are two entirely different jobs. And it just doesn’t automatically work that someone who may be great hands-on working with offensive or defensive personnel and schemes, can step into what amounts to an administrative position.

Try this on for an out-of-my-mind analogy. I don’t want a podiatrist who’s got foot fungus all figured out, running the hospital.

In the case of Kyle Shanahan, maybe he’s the future of coaching in the NFL. His approach is, “I’m the head coach and defensively I’m a delegator. Get me a defensive genius who can operate independently, and I’ll take care of everything else.” Note: That philosophy has failed him the last couple of years.

Until this coming season, Kyle won’t have had an “offensive coordinator.” He was it. Now Kyle Kubiak has been anointed in that role. But most assuredly, that “role” is still as an understudy.

Sean McVay has employed a similar organizational chart with the Rams, and like Shanahan’s it’s been mostly successful. Maybe it’s the future of head coach hiring. But right now there’s still management’s idea that if you were good at either putting points on the board or stopping the other guys from doing so, you’re a head coaching prospect. An extremely outdated thought in my humble opinion.

The 49ers themselves could be the gold standard of learning by their mistakes. To that end, I offer you four words: Jim Tomsula, Chip Kelly. Great tacticians both. Head coaching failures both.

Maybe the model for being a successful head coach in the NFL now follows the model of long ago.

Shanahan and McVay are two successful head coaches whose playing careers could be best labeled as mediocre.

Andy Reid, who is generally referred to as the best out there, hardly saw the field as a player at BYU, but was in coach Lavell Edwards’ ear so much that he hired him as a grad assistant and acknowledged that he knew more about game tactics not playing than he would have being an NFL prospect.

Longtime Cowboys head coach Tom Landry was a punter.

Bill Belichick played football at Wesleyan College, but also lettered in Lacrosse, and Squash.

Like Shanahan and McVay’s collegiate accomplishments, Dolphins head coach and former 49ers’ aide Mike McDaniel was a 5’9” wide receiver at Yale.

Maybe Ben Johnson, this years’ most sought after young genius, will be the next under-the-radar assistant to be named head man and join the Rams and 49ers head coaching legacy. Or, maybe not.

Which finally brings me to Robert Saleh. It seems he’s Kyle Shanahan’s choice as the defensive coordinator he’d like back. And, why not. He’s a known success in that role. He got the head coaching job with the New York Jets, but I’m not willing to think that he’s part of the Peter Principle of coaching.

Working for the Jets is like being a contestant on Squid Game. You know you’re going to get killed, and it’s always going to be for the wrong reasons. I wouldn’t believe it coming from anywhere but the Jets, but rumor had it that personnel decisions were being dictated by the teenage son of the owner who gets his information from Madden Football. The owner denied it. All the more reason I think it’s true.

Saleh may yet get another head coaching job before this cycle is over. Maybe even before you read this column. He may be that rare guy who can be both a worker bee and an administrator. But, I’d love to have him back as a worker bee.

And, speaking of coaching success, before I get out of Dodge this week I want to mention Charmin Smith. She’s a Tara VanDerveer disciple who’s now coaching the women’s game at Cal.

We’re in a tough stretch of rooting interest in terms of our local sports heroes these days, but if you’re hungering for an inexpensive look at a local sports success story, go on over to Berkeley and catch the Cal women. They’re 16-2, ranked No. 18 in the country, and coached by a woman who’s earned the respect. Check ’em out.

Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native. Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.