Lovie Smith introduced his complete Bears coaching staff Tuesday–to each other as well as to the media.
He read names off a card. It took a while. Including two “quality control” coaches, it is the biggest staff in Bears history, with 17 members, and one of the biggest in the league if Washington’s Joe Gibbs is through hiring.
It is also the most inexperienced coaching staff in the league. The Bears will be the only team whose head coach and offensive and defensive coordinators are doing their new jobs for the first time.
Smith never has been a head coach. Terry Shea never has been an offensive coordinator. Ron Rivera never has been a defensive coordinator. Dave Toub never has been a special teams coordinator.
The offensive line coach, the most vital position coach, is Pete Hoener. He has one year of NFL experience at his current job, last season in Arizona.
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Ten of the coaches will be doing their jobs for the first time on this level. The most experienced coach at his position is Vance Bedford, a holdover from Dick Jauron’s staff who has tutored defensive backs for five years. The 17 coaches have a total of 38 years NFL coaching experience, led by Smith’s eight seasons. No other NFL staff is as untested.
The question is whether any NFL experience was wanted. Smith comes from the college coaching ranks. When he first joined Tony Dungy’s staff in Tampa Bay out of Ohio State in 1996, he learned and remembered how important it was to have college coaches on an NFL staff.
“I wanted at least half the staff from college,” Smith said.
Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo believe they have assembled a teaching staff.
“There will be no coaches with their hands in their pockets,” Smith said.
Teaching has been rediscovered as the most important aspect of NFL coaching. It seems to have moved ahead of other duties such as monitoring, baby-sitting, scheming, overseeing and disciplining.
There are two reasons for this. Colleges have reduced the number of practice hours allowed, leaving some pro players short on fundamentals. Free agency has reduced the number of years pro players and coaches have to produce. Therefore, coaches have to make sure players quickly understand schemes. (It is also why simple schemes like Smith’s favored cover 2 defense are effective.)
Teams must find out within three years whether a player is worth whatever he may count under the salary cap. Coaches who don’t win or show considerable promise of winning in three years rarely get four.
If there is a trend toward hiring college coaches over experienced pro coaches, however, the Bears have taken it to the extreme.
There were seven head-coaching openings and four were filled by recycled former NFL head coaches: Washington’s Gibbs; the New York Giants’ Tom Coughlin; the Arizona Cardinals’ Dennis Green; and the Oakland Raiders’ Norv Turner.
The two other first-time head coaches–Buffalo’s Mike Mularkey and Atlanta’s Jim Mora–both have more NFL coaching experience than Smith.
All except Green hired coordinators with NFL coordinating experience. Mularkey and Mora also landed two of the most renowned offensive line coaches, the Bills’ Jim McNally and the Falcons’ Alex Gibbs, to design protection for quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe and Michael Vick.
Smith’s eight years in the NFL certainly are enough to qualify him for a top job. Although Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick, the reigning league genius, has been in the NFL for 29 years, Smith has more NFL experience than Green Bay’s Mike Sherman (seven years). Sherman had been around the NFL for only three years before Green Bay anointed him.
Likewise, Detroit’s Steve Mariucci had only four years of NFL experience before the San Francisco 49ers made him their head coach. Minnesota’s Mike Tice had been coaching for only six years before the Vikings elevated him, although Tice played in the league for 14 years.
Experience is not necessarily the key to success any more than inexperience is an excuse for failure. If the Bears win, Smith and Angelo will be hailed as visionaries able to provide exactly what their players required. If they lose, they will be criticized as neophytes unable to impart the coveted knowledge and skill that experience brings.
This much is certain: They start with no baggage of expectation. They will not be burdened by having to live up to past accomplishments. Gibbs, for example, has to pick up where he left off and win Super Bowls immediately.
Lovie Smith and his enthusiastic band of innocents must carve out a track record all their own.
Lacking experience
The Bears coaching staff with NFL playing years (PY), NFL coaching years (CY) and years they’ve coached the position they’re in (YIP)
NAME PRESENT TITLE PY CY YIP
Lovie Smith Head coach 0 8 0
Ron Rivera Defensive coordinator 9 7 0
Terry Shea Offensive coordinator 0 3 0
Dave Toub Special teams coordinator 0 3 0
Pete Hoener Offensive line 0 5 1
Darryl Drake Wide receivers 2 0 0
Karl Dunbar Defensive line 5 0 0
Tim Spencer Running backs 5 0 0
Harold Goodwin Assistant, offensive line 0 0 0
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Rob Boras Tight ends 0 0 0
Wade Wilson Quarterbacks 19 3 3
Vance Bedford Defensive backs 1 5 5
Bob Babich Linebackers 0 1 1
Torrian Gray Assistant, defensive backs 4 0 0
Charlie Coiner Assistant, special teams 0 3 3
Mike Bajakian Offensive quality control 0 0 0
Lloyd Lee Defensive quality control 0 0 0
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