Vols Make Offer to Lovie Smith?

[wab]

Wouldn't hurt my feelings in the least...

Nov. 16--GREEN BAY -- Halas Hall was the wrong place for the University of Tennessee football program to come looking for Volunteers.

Approached recently to gauge his interest in becoming a candidate to replace Phillip Fulmer as the Vols head football coach, Lovie Smith politely said thanks but no thanks.

A team source confirmed to the Tribune after Sunday's Bears-Packers game that a representative of the Volunteer football program approached Smith to see if there was any chance of prying him away from the Bears, contact first reported Sunday by ESPN.com.

Smith spent two seasons as an assistant coach on Fulmer's staff in 1993-94. Fulmer announced Nov. 3 he was resigning at the end of this season. The ESPN report also mentioned Tennessee, as part of a national search, had gauged interest from Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden.

Smith signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension with the Bears in February 2007.

To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Chicago Tribune

[UOK]

Smith signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension with the Bears in February 2007.

[gaba]

He'd probably be far better off in Tennessee because he IS NOT a good NFL coach. The NFL is just too good for his lame-ass gimmick of a defense.

[Ormazd]

Expect to be stuck with Lubbie another couple years. The McCaskeys are way too cheap to pay him off.

[wab]

Expect to be stuck with Lubbie another couple years. The McCaskeys are way too cheap to pay him off.

They don't have to if he takes another job.

[UOK]

Lovie's not going anywhere. Unless the Bears management takes the initiative and lets him go this season, he'll finish out the next 2 years on his deal. He's getting paid too much to be a lame duck head coach. Plus unless there's a sure-shot candidate on the market for the job, they're not going to buy his contract out. It's just bad business.

The worst part is guys like Harris, Hester? These guys got paid big coin and have earned precisely $0 since signing their contracts. And now especially with Harris, he has little to no trade value. He's a high-contract player with a low-percentage of payoff.

[Pagan]

Agreed. Talking about replacing Lovie Smith as HC with someone else is a nice way to vent- but isnt going to happen. Lovie has too many years and too much money tied up for anyone to let him go early. Not going to happen.

Babich and Turner- theres a topic worth our time.

pagan

[makaur]

I say fire him and then rehire him for minimum wage. He seemed to understand coaching fundamentals when he was making league minimum......

[Fumblebuck]

Babich and Turner- theres a topic worth our time.

If Lovie were to get rid of Babich, isn't that the equivalent Lovie giving up on his Tampa 2 scheme. I'm sure every defensive game plan, defensive personnel move, everything defensive has Lovies finger prints all over it. Babich is Lovies hand choosen puppet, brought in to do his wishes and run his defense. If Babich goes I can't see Lovie far behind.

Frankly, if Angelo pushed for Babich's removal I could see this becoming a version of Jauron/Shoop.

[gaba]

Agreed. Talking about replacing Lovie Smith as HC with someone else is a nice way to vent- but isnt going to happen.

That's not going to stop me from complaining about it. He's clearly incapable of comprehending the mess he's made of this team. If everyone has this "it won't do any good" attitude the higher ups could just decide the fans like him and keep him around for a few more years. Lovie is completely worthless and I won't be cutting him any slack no matter how futile my complaints may be.

F*&k him. F*&K him in his bald, slack-jawed Texas ass.

[Bad Flanders]

This is just like everyone complaining about Jauron, their ability to coach isn't the problem I don't think. Both Jauron and Smith are good coaches, they just can't find good coordinators, neither of them. I don't think they should have to either, they should do their thing and let someone else like Angelo find the coordinators. The best schemes this year are all combinations of other schemes and that's what the Bears had when these very same D players took us to the superbowl.....remember that? It was less than 2 years ago!!!!

The last thing we need is to completely retool the entire team again, but I really think they should consider bringing back Chico or another guy who "doesn't fit" just like him. I don't know why but it seems to work to have the different viewpoints at the same time.

I don't know what's gonna happen in SF but right now it doesn't appear that Mike S. is a sure thing and maybe we'd be able to bring him in as a DC. It would be a crazy show to put those two personalities together and Lubie would have some pressure you know because there would always be people calling for Mike to be the HC.

Then we'd have a stable system with Turner still as OC and they might just keep this consistency thing going for more than a half a season. And we'd have the tension there that the defense seems to need to keep from becoming complacent. Best of both worlds?




BTW, you remember the last time Turner was OC? Salaam's first year, Kramer was great...this offensive that hadn't really worked since the late 80's at best and all of a sudden they clicked and they put up some serious #'s. What happened? The previously decent defense fell apart and hemorrhaged all year......

Sound familiar? I think Turner is probably wondering what it is he did to deserve this same treatment all over again!!!!

[gaba]

I have to disagree BF. That may have been the problem for Jauron (although I honestly just think his ability would only take him to a certain level at which point he was just out of his league) but I don't think it's the case with Lovie. Lovie seems completely clueless right now. He will not admit there's a problem and I'm starting to worry that he's not just lying to the fans and media... he might actually believe that if they tough it out things will somehow just get better.

"We know what works. It's worked for us before. If we just wait long enough, it'll work for us again." I don't think it matters who the coordinators are. If the head coach has his head up his ass, nothing is going to change.

[floridabear]

I see us having to endure another year with lovie, so that then he'll be through 3 of 4 years in his contract...and then we can him if he doesn't get his act together.

Jauron's blind and retarded faith in john shoop cost him significant credibility with the fans, his lack of continual winning cost him his job (angelo came in and fired him once he got the chance). lovie's undoing is going to be his blind and retarded faith in never changing a game plan from week to week imo.

[Otis Day]

Look at JaMoron now. Started the season 4-1 and now he is 5-5. Got too damn conservative last night and it cost them the game. Teams win in spite of JaMoron. He got his extension though, dumbass bills.

[UOK]

Jauron is a C grade coach. Never will win a title, but will occassionaly manage his teams well enough to get a .500 or slightly better team. Nothing's changed since he left town. The Bills are Bears east.

[gaba]

The difference is that teams CAN win in spite of Jauron. He's not a very good game coach, but he's at least got his guys ready to play. They're capable of winning even if the game plan sucks. Lovie's guys aren't interested in anything but their next paycheck (as evidence by the sheer number of them demanding a new contract every year).

[swami]

The Bears are still an oft-penalized team (though not as bad as they've been in the past). To me, this team lost it when Lovie went easy on them in training camp. He turned the team around because he got them in shape and focused with a tough TC. Now we run one of the lamest TCs out there and you can see the results.

[gaba]

The Bears are still an oft-penalized team (though not as bad as they've been in the past). To me, this team lost it when Lovie went easy on them in training camp. He turned the team around because he got them in shape and focused with a tough TC. Now we run one of the lamest TCs out there and you can see the results.

Very good point. Just a couple years ago Rusty was a freaking hero. Now he's invisible.

[wab]

Once you get them in shape it's not as hard to keep them in shape...so that's why camp isn't as tough. I really just wish I knoew what the hell is going on with this team...

[swami]

I understand lightening up a bit, but we may run one of the softest camps in the NFL. Vets are constantly missing due to "general soreness", scheduling is easy, etc. I tend to think that TC is where you really get a team to focus on the upcoming season and we haven't done so in the past few years.

[wab]

agreed