In a few days, Mike Singletary will mark his one-year anniversary as the 49ers' head coach.

There will be no balloons or parties.

You might recall that line. It was Singletary's most recent instamatic slogan. He uttered it last week when rookie wide receiver Michael Crabtree finally signed after his long holdout. Singletary informed Crabtree that he would be reporting to work without fanfare. No balloons. No parties.

The same will go for Singletary on Tuesday. It was on the morning of Oct. 20, 2008, that he walked into 49ers headquarters in Santa Clara with no idea he would be offered the team's interim head-coaching job after his friend, Mike Nolan, had been dismissed. Singletary spoke with Nolan, then accepted.

And you must admit, the 12 months since that moment have been quite eventful.

Singletary has compiled an 8-6 won-lost record, tying him for the fourth-best start by a 49ers head coach. There have been ups and downs (insert pants-dropping joke here), screaming spells, inspirational talks, intermittently impressive victories and lousy losses.

So the logical question to ask Singletary, as he sat the other day in his office, was this: What does he know today about being a head coach in the NFL that he didn't know that morning a year ago?

Singletary thought for a few seconds.

"What I didn't know about this job," he said, "is the responsibility toward the media. That's about it."

Wait. He was totally ready for the job otherwise?

"I wouldn't say that I was ready," Singletary said. "I feel I'm still learning some things. I'm still . . . I guess the best way to put it is, I'm still growing in this position. But I feel like I've been here before. I really do."

Been here before? In the deja vu sense? No, said Singletary. It's more that, as a football player at every level, he was a captain. A leader.

"And I think that's what being a head coach is," he said. "It's more than football. . . . It's kind of like raising your kids. Up until the time they're teenagers, you got it all figured out. You can basically say what they're going to do, tell them what they're going to do. But once they get to be teenagers, it's different. Now, you really find out how good a parent you are. You get to find out, you're constantly asking, 'Is it the kid? Or is it me? Is it my parenting? Or is it the way they're wired up?'"

Spending time with Singletary in his upstairs retreat at 49ers headquarters would probably be a jolt to the team's fans who think he speaks exclusively in loud sound bites. In front of groups, Singletary can indeed bring his motivational heat. But one-on-one, he is quiet and almost pensive. He knows what he has done right, knows what he has done wrong.

However, using his own analogy, Singletary very much is the doting parent regarding his team. And the 49ers, at this point, are still very much teenagers on the brink of deciding how to spend their weekends. Are they going to act like fully focused grown-ups? Or easily distracted kids?

Singletary seems to think about that question, every minute of every working day. If you were giving him a grade card, Singletary probably deserves a solid "B'' for his efforts so far. As promised, he has everybody in the organization on the same page. There are no longer any nagging side issues (what's up with Alex Smith's arm health?) or weird time-wasting tangents (negotiations with the NFL over sideline suit attire), as happened under Nolan.

Also as promised, Singletary is doggedly pursuing his vision for what he wants his team to look like. Among his more eye-opening statements when he took the 49ers' job was that one day, he was going to be the best coach in NFL history. And that the 49ers could again be a special team.

What did he mean by that, exactly? Singletary pointed to one wall of his office, where half the floor space is taken up by exercise machines. The wall contained a framed white homemade poster, outlining the records of all the great NFL coaches — Bill Walsh, Don Shula, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll and a dozen more.

Singletary then was pressed to name specific teams that most represent his mind's-eye picture of where he wants his 49ers to get. Singletary chose the 49ers teams of the '80s coached by Walsh and Noll's great Pittsburgh teams of the '70s.

Good choices. But could such near-perfection really happen again here? Or anywhere? In today's NFL, no team seems to match the crispness and consistency of those two dynasties. Singletary nods in agreement with that statement. But he is adamant about his 49ers vision.

"I'll tell you what," he said, "this team will be a very special team. This team will be a throwback team. This team will be about character, about winning. We're going to win championships. That's all I know. Whether it will be like the Steelers, whether it will be like other teams of the past, I don't know. But I know what winning looks like. I know what it feels like. I know what you have to have. . . . . We're going to have that here. We are."

Happy anniversary to Singletary. We'll know whether to celebrate it by January.