Thread: Your three finalists for Chicago Bears Head Coach are...

Killed off too many brain cells in my younger days, can't remember crap anymore. So I scoured the interwebs and came up with this table of interviewees for our HC position. Just for reference in case anybody else has my memory problems. I believe it's in chronological order, but the actual dates the interviews were conducted are difficult to find. Let me know if you see any errors. I'll add new or 2nd interviews as they are announced.

Name (age)	Team	Position	Interview Date	2nd Interview
Keith Armstrong (47)	Falcons	ST Coord	Tue, Jan 1
Mike Sullivan	Buccaneers	OC	Wed, Jan 2
Pete Carmichael (41)	Saints	OC	Thu, Jan 3
Joe DeCamillis (47)	Cowboys	ST Coord	Sat, Jan 5
Mike McCoy (40)	Broncos	OC	Sun, Jan 6
Marc Trestman (56)	Alouettes (CFL)	HC	Mon, Jan 7
Dave Toub (50)	Da Bears	ST Coord	Mon, Jan 7
Tom Clements (59)	Packers	OC	Thur, Jan 10
Rick Dennison (54)	Texans	OC	Fri, Jan 11
Darrell Bevell (43)	Seahawks	OC	Sat, Jan 12
Mike Singletary (54)	Vikings	LB Coach	Sat, Jan 12
Mike Priefer (46)	Vikings	ST Coord	Sat, Jan 12
Bruce Arians (60)	Colts	OC	Sun, Jan 13

Originally Posted by little bear

Why is suddenly everyone so fired up about Trestman? Ski and I seem to be the only ones who are still not sold on this guy. Yes, he has worked in the NFL before, he knows how to develop QBs etc.

But if he's so good and so qualified, why hasn't he been offered an NFL job in those five years? Isn't that suspicious that not a single team out of 32 got him a job? HC, OC, QB... Nothing!

Let me ask you something, if you were that good, would you rather stay and coach in the NFL or go waste your time in a league that absolutely nobody cares about, not even Canadiens?

Yes, we all know nothing about this and the decision making, but you can't claim that a guy who hasn't been in the NFL for five years is a better option than guys like Clements, Arians, McCoy or Dennison. Guys that actually HAVE been working with all-pro NFL players all along.

Call me a nagger if you want, but I'd rather have one of the other twelve candidates than him.

Because there is no reason for him to leave the cfl for anything short of the perfect situation. He has noted as saying he is completely comfortable living in Canada and living the less hectic lifestyle of a cfl coach vs an nfl coach. Don't be fooled, the man knows his football and has done his time in the nfl and done it successfully, but to him, living in canada as a head coach is more ideal then being an nfl quarterbacks coach.

Call me biased, but I think it would be a great hire. Pulling a successful and accomplished head coach who has worked with great QB talents (Cfl and Nfl ) from an offense heavy league to a team starved of effectively run offense headed by a quarterback who clearly needs an experienced teacher to take him to that next step. Seems like a no brainer to me

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Emery seems to be ready to move the second round of interviews. Have a feeling there is some truth to the Trestman thing, but don't see anyone getting hired this weekend.

Shark, thanks for posting that chart. I was really getting confused about it all too. That's helpful.

Originally Posted by soulman

I'd say all of the above are what's going through Emery's mind. He's not a "shoot from the hip guy" and we've all seen that from the get go. He got off to a good start as a GM skilled in player personnel matter but this next move makes or breaks him in the eyes of Bears fans and around the NFL in general.

Whenever you let a coach as successful in certain ways as Lovie Smith was go you'd better damn well be certain that whoever you replace him with can do what Lovie couldn't and that's to consistently make the playoffs and compete for a championship. You don't want to blow this one trust me.

I think he has two or three guys at the top of his list and one of those guys is still coaching a playoff team and another has battled a recent health issue so there's some concern there. The last of the three, which is how I'd go about it, could be anyone one of two or three others including Trestman, Dennison or one of the others. I don't think Toub is a serious candidate and while I hope we don't lose him it appears we may so that may be why Emery has interviewed some STC guys too. We may need a new one and the Bears pay pretty well for that position.

I'm gonna keep trusting Phil Emery until he shows any signs of not being on top of things and so far that hasn't happened.

I totally agree. It was a bit of a gutsy move to fire one of the more successful coaches in Bears history, after a 10-win season. At the moment, most Bears fans are happy with the move. But fans are fickle. Emery knows his butt is on the line here, if he brings in a guy who tanks.

And there are no "sure things" in the NFL. I wish I had a dime for every time a player or coach was touted as a "sure thing" and then flopped.

Emery is a meticulous detail guy to begin with. And we see this being played out here. But even with him being careful like this, we could still end up with a worse coach than Lovie Smith. Emery knows this. Fans don't want to believe this, but this coaching change is not a dead-bang sure thing - yet.

I'm excited about it all. But being a life-long Cubs and Bears fan, I have been down this road before. I know the outcome isn't always what fans want to believe at this point.

I have to wonder what Jimmy Johnson's motivation was to throw this rumor out there as fact. He isn't stupid. He had to know that this would reflect badly regarding Trestman. If I'm Emery, I'd be pretty ticked if I thought Trestman leaked anything to Jimmy Jones. I'd be ticked enough to take him off the candidate list if I truly believed I couldn't trust a man to keep Bears matters confidential when I instructed him to do so.

Jimmy Jones knows this.

So why did Jones do this? What's the motivation here? To take Trestman out at the knees? Or is he just an egotistical guy who wanted to puff out his chest and brag that he (Jones) is somehow the genius guy who taught these two protege's the ropes?