Mike Nolan wanted this job. He wanted to be head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, just like his father Dick once was. He wanted to take over this 2-14 team even when others were asking compelling questions about the competency of owners John and Denise Debartolo York.

As if turning around a franchise that has become a league-wide laughing stock wasn’t enough, now comes Nolan's latest challenge: putting the death of lineman Thomas Herrion in perspective? How do you prepare for the most important season of your life when you suddenly realize how unimportant football really is?

Now that football and life have collided in the wake of Herrion’s death last week, Nolan faces a decision that makes the most experienced coach pause. When is the right time to tell players to move on?

Monday was supposed to be the last day of two-a-day practices, but the 49ers met in the morning and practiced once in the afternoon instead. A memorial service was held Tuesday, and the team tried to resume a normal schedule Wednesday.

“I do think that being on the field is therapeutic to coaches and players alike, but not right away," Nolan said this week. "We have some issues to talk about, so that everybody can come to some understanding in their minds of what happened.”

Nolan has already begun changing attitudes around team headquarters. He handled the weeks leading up to the NFL draft like a crafty veteran, letting everyone believe he was going to draft California quarterback Aaron Rodgers No. 1 overall and then Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards, thus maximizing the pick’s overall value, but settled on Utah quarterback Alex Smith.

Nolan has established himself as the new voice and face of the franchise in the wake of the release of an embarrassing training video that resulted in the firing of a highly respected media relations director.

49ERS LINEMAN HERRION DIES Herrion’s family had history of heart trouble WP: Herrion’s death simply tragic, stupid Commentary: Nolan faces toughest job yet Analysis: Obviously football still deadly

He’s handled the budding quarterback controversy between Smith, who has struggled in his first two exhibition games, and incumbent Tim Rattay with logic and professionalism.

Now comes the hard part. Every coach worries about what he’s going to say to the team. But how do you stand in front of 25 elite athletes, many of them multimillionaires, and put the death of a 23-year-old teammate in perspective?

What happened in the locker room last week could be the more important moments of Nolan’s rookie season. You never know how a team will react when tragedy strikes. How he handles himself in the wake of Herrion’s death will help determine the level of respect he earns from players.

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That it might take three to six weeks for toxicology reports to determine why the 6-foot-3, 315-pound Herrion prayed with his teammates after the game and then, as linebacker Julian Peterson told the San Jose Mercury news, “toppled over.”

Players and coaches will look to Nolan to make sense of all this. The head coach sets the tone. This preseason is an important first step in the organization’s rebuilding process but now fate has pressed the pause button. Everything has stopped. It’s Nolan who has decide where and when and how to proceed and this decision is much more important than any game-day decision because this is real life and everybody in the room is waiting and watching to see what the rookie coach does next.