Thread: Arkush: Rob Ryan [1], Ron Rivera [2] on Bears coaching list.

Originally Posted by lklrlolnlilklsox

Pass on both and give me Harbough. Rejuvenate this organization with the RIGHT football attitude and one of the best pro sets offensive schemes in college football. I love the way the guy runs Stanford, the way he communicates with the media and his players, and obviously you have to love the pedigree. It could just be that I'm sick of the recycled crap of the NFL rolling through town, though.

I like the thought of bringing in an offensive minded coach for a change. I've never been thrilled with Martz as an OC regardless of his previous success. His style just doesn't fit with Chicago football. Harbaugh has experienced Chicago football first hand and I think he would have far more successful during his Bears career had Ditka not been such an asshole in the way he handled QB's. Hiring Harbaugh if Lovie can't return to his winning ways makes a lot of sense to me. It also allows for the possibility of retaining Marinelli as the DC. The defense is performing well and the players seem to be very motivated to play under him.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

I don't like the idea of a college coach coaching the Chicago Bears.

There's a rather giant difference between your typical successful college coach to NFL candidate and a guy who started at the most important position on the field in the NFL for 14 season. He knows the NFL, he knows first hand what it takes to control the respect of the locker-room at that level. He will be an NFL coach some day, and I have no reason to believe he won't find success there just as he has his entire life.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

The only college coaches who ever went on to be successful were Dick Vermeil, Jimmy Johnson, and Barry Switzer. You might could throw in John McKay and John Robinson since they won division titles with their respective teams. Pete Carroll has been God awful, Lane Kiffin a joke and a marked man here in the city of Knoxville, Steve Spurrier experienced mediocrity, and I think even Lou Holtz took his turn at coaching in the pros back in the day. But the first three coaches - Vermeil, Johnson, and Switzer - won Super Bowls, though Switzer did so with the players that were drafted on Jimmy Johnson's watch.

There's a guy in NY with a Super Bowl ring who would beg to argue with that list and Pete Carroll has turned his team from worst to first in the division in one offseason. It's not like Jim is entrenched in the college system to the point where it's about gimmick systems like every other coach who makes the jump. He's only been working in it full-time since '04, before which he was a QB coach in the NFL and a player for 14 years. Not to mention he's doing it with one of the most truly pro offensive schemes in the game while coaching mostly fringe talent and turning them into winners. He's not your typical college candidate at all, not even close.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

I don't count Tom Coughlin because he was not a head coach. He was an assistant at Boston College from what I've been able to dig up.

He spent 14 years at the college ranks before was a journeyman WR coach in the NFL for six years between his college coordinating days, and his three year stint as HC of BC. His roots are very much in college football.