College coaches, including LSU’s Nick Saban, did not particularly want the job the Bears gave Lovie Smith because, for many, the NFL no longer is the dream job Smith said it is for him.
That’s what the search told Bears President Ted Phillips and general manager Jerry Angelo, who blamed the changes and pressures on the league as a whole more than they blamed the Bears.
“Not one college coach said, `You know what? Your Bears job stinks,'” Phillips said.
So at least Smith has that going for him.
“I pursued four guys,” Angelo said, referring to Saban, Cal’s Jeff Tedford, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen. All but Tedford had NFL experience. “It’s tough. They look at our game. They see what it is. They’re watching the stuff under the goal post (New Orleans’ Joe Horn and his cell phone). They’re watching Keyshawn Johnson.”
Added Phillips: “The reality is the environment in those colleges is an awful sweet one for some. They see when they come to the NFL 70 percent of the coaches get fired after three years.”
But the time-tested lures of money and power still talk and walk regardless of venue, and Phillips and Angelo acknowledged Thursday they weren’t going to give up much of either.
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Angelo controls Smith’s 53-man roster, something Saban wouldn’t abide. It means if Angelo wants one player and Smith wants another when it comes down to final cuts, Angelo gets his man. Angelo said it’s because GMs always have to keep the club’s long-term welfare in mind. He also said he never has had a confrontation, so it’s no big deal.
But here is why one NFL head coach says it is a big deal.
“The bottom line is players need to know the buck stops with the coach,” the coach said. “If they are not performing or giving effort or showing up on time, they have to know they’re not going to make the team and there’s no politics involved. The player has to know the coach is the guy if he’s not getting the job done.”
That’s why the Bears’ current vertical structure is so important. For the first time, the Bears have an owner, Virginia McCaskey, who hired a president, Phillips, who hired a general manager, Angelo, who hired the coach. If the organization is not on the same page now, it’s only because they have the wrong people, not a counterproductive structure.
“The next autopsy is going to be mine,” Angelo said.
Because Angelo didn’t hire Dick Jauron, there was always an undercurrent of miscommunication, if not mistrust, as when running back Adrian Peterson was placed on injured reserve without much input from coaches.
Shared authority is what the Bears like to call the arrangement. Even though the term sounds oxymoronic, it works when you win. Angelo was reluctant to talk about control Thursday on such a happy occasion for Smith, but it is the issue all NFL teams somehow must resolve and one issue that cautions college coaches.
As for naming assistants, Angelo told Smith: “Your coaches are your hires, and you’re accountable to me.”
Smith told everybody: “I see it as a team. I have no problem with the structure.”
Said Phillips: “We’ll put Lovie’s contract in a drawer. If we ever have to pull the contract out and look at it, we have a problem.”
If there is a difference between Smith and predecessors Jauron and Dave Wannstedt, it is in Smith’s total acceptance of and comfort with the system. Jauron didn’t have much choice as he worked under two different personnel director/general manager types, neither of whom hired him. Wannstedt, who arrived at the dawn of free agency, found a franchise so ill-equipped to deal with the new system it had nobody in charge of scouting pro personnel.
With the average salary of NFL head coaches more than $2 million, Smith’s $1.4 million ranks among the bottom third.
“One thing we said is we were not going to get someone to come here based on dollars,” Phillips said.
Told that might sound like the Bears are cheap, Phillips responded: “Who else went after Nick Saban? Who else put any money in front of him?”
Phillips said colleges have become competitive financially in the last three or four years. And as Angelo pointed out, “A million here is worth two million there.”
Angelo said he wasn’t surprised he got a reluctant reception from college coaches, but he still wanted to check.
“They didn’t agree the NFL is the greatest situation in the world, like it was when we hired Tony Dungy [for Tampa Bay in 1996],” Angelo said.
Angelo also said he researched eight NFL coaches with backgrounds on offense and didn’t even bother to interview them.
“If it were even, I’d go offense,” Angelo said. “I didn’t want to hire a head coach to be an offensive coordinator. I wanted to hire a coach to lead the team.
“I made it clear to everybody that I believe this is the best job in football. I went in there a little arrogant, not in terms of who I was but in terms of who the Chicago Bears are.”