Source: Lovie Will Be Back In 2010 (Update)
Well, that will take a little suspense out of the upcoming offseason. CSN’s John Mullin was just on Chicago Tribune Live and it appears, according to his “pretty high-up sources”, Lovie Smith will indeed be coming back to coach the Bears next year. Sigh. Surely, more to come …
(Update) Here is the link, courtesy of Mullin’s blog. Apparently, per Mullin, a consideration for deciding to bring Lovie back is the potential strike/lock out that threatens the league. Um, someone please explain that one to me.
The good news in all of this is that the same sources did not assure any of the other coaching positions (read: It’s all over for Ron Turner). So, that’s something.
Reactions?
This makes no sense. So in essence we are going to Rex Grossman Jay Cutler with 4 different coordinators in 4 years.
This is why we need a clean frigging sweep. If Mr. Angelo buys off on this he deserves to be fired. I am praying he is fighting like hell to remove Lovie on down.
We are not trying to win, we are trying to save a damn buck.
That is all.
Uncle Meatball
Of course JA deserves to be fired. He is the biggest problem with the organization!
So in essence we are going to Rex Grossman Jay Cutler with 4 different coordinators in 4 years.
I was talking to Gavin, who also writes for Blog Down, and he brought up an interesting point:
Since it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Turner has three games left as the Bears OC, we’ll be looking at Lovie paired with a new OC in 2010. Then, if Lovie is fired after next season, we’ll be looking at a new head coach paired with another new OC in 2011 … That’s got to be great for Cutler’s progression.
This is one of those critical franchise-changing moments, and it’s clear that the decision-makers aren’t looking at this in terms of long-term ramifications.
If it’s true, it’s just a really sad indictment of where we’re currently at. Now, I’m not entirely convinced that if we lose the last three games, we won’t see the possibility of Lovie going. Especially if we get embarassed in one of those contests.
I’m not unhappy Smith with be back. The Bears have a lot of problems, but the head coach isn’t at the top of the list.
That doesn’t excuse his participation in several disastrous decisions like firing Ron Rivera or thinking Devin Hester could be a #1 receiver. But if you go out and get a Mike Shanahan or Bill Cowher, I doubt the Bear’s record would be much better than it is now.
The basic problems are an aging defense, a completely outdated philosophy of “We’re a running team first” and an ownership group that’s too cheap to go out and buy talent on the O-line or the receiving spots. Until you address those issues, it doesn’t matter who the coach is.
To quote the late great legal mind Jackie Chiles, “It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous.”
If Lovie does come back there needs to be some changes to his philosophy. Surely even Lovie can see that his defense can’t work with the talent he has and will have. I vote for change.
Clarence, you make some good points. However, I’d like to bring up some counterarguments.
1) Aging defense? Sure. Bad defensive scheme? You better believe it. As long as Lovie’s here, we’ll be running the crappy Cover-2. That’s reason enough to fire him.
2) The running philosophy isn’t necessarily bad. We couldn’t run this year because of an awful offensive line. I agree that we need to be more pass-oriented with Cutler, but we do need to have a good running game to balance that.
3) The ownership is not cheap. Two years ago, we spent a ton of money to re-up with our own guys. You can argue that they spend a lot of bad money, but they’re not cheap. You can also argue that Jerry has done a horrific job of drafting OL. But ownership isn’t cheap by any stretch.
Good points, Gavin. Definitely some things to consider.
I think it’s telling, though, that the last time the Bears were a top 10 running team was the Super Bowl year 2005 (they were 8th). And you have to go back to 1990 (20 years!) to find a year when the Bears were a top 5 rushing team. Can you really call yourself a Run First team with those stats?
Maybe “cheap” isn’t the right word to describe management’s philosophy, but I’ve been following the team closely for over a decade, and in that time Jay Cutler is the only veteran I can remember them signing who can be called an impact player and who wasn’t on the back side of his career when he joined.
I totally agree, Clarence. When Lovie gives his “get off the bus running” bit, he’s pandering to the lowest meatball Bears fans. Which, tangentially, continues the Dumbest Bear Arguments of All Time, including “fire and passion,” “Bear weather,” and “Chicago tough.”
You’ll have no argument from me re the free agent signings. Management has done a consistently poor job of drafting players and evaluating talent. I’m really starting to worry that Cutler won’t progress at all during his time here because we’ll keep trotting out horrible excuses for offensive lines and wide receivers.
haha, “fire and passion”. sounds familiar. well reading this sort of news about retaining lovie is kind of expected yet still unpleasant to read about. i agree that there really, really needs to be some major changes up at halas hall. cutting turner is really just like treating one symptom of a debilitating disease.
i always thought it was a bad thing when casual fans like myself could guess what play was about to be run more often than not. then again with the cast of clownshoes on the o line, what plays will consistently work? i’m ready for the offseason already just to see what they are going to do (or not do) to help this team suck less.