Chicago Bears

Yesterday new Chicago Bears head coach Marc Trestman decided not to retain former Michigan OC and Bears TE coach Mike Debord.

Debord is officially on the market.

http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1/Trestman-in-process-of-assembling-coaching-staff/4f4113be-7fad-45e3-9f02-65c7ad031dbd

FWIW Marc Trestman was a Golden Gopher QB in the late 1970s.  

Brady Hoke's older brother Jon has been position coach in the secondary for the Chicago Bears. His corps is responsible for 11 of the Bear's NFL leading 13 interceptions. There is a long article highlighting Jon Hoke in the Chicago Tribune. LINK:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-1012-bears-chicago--20121012,0,6380945.story

A few snippets from the article:

The Bears don't have a more animated position coach on staff. Hoke is firm and firmer when with players on the field in training camp. . . . It's not always an approach that works in the NFL.

"That is the way I was raised in coaching," said Hoke. . . "I had a guy tell me one time, and I do believe it: 'Encourage, correct, encourage.' ... When they come off and I am in their ear, sometimes it's correction and sometimes it's encouragement. It's always in that vein, though.

"Sometimes it's tough love. And people don't like to hear it. It's just human nature. We don't want to hear those things. But we have a wonderful group of players to coach, and we're extremely pleased with what they are doing so far."

And again, 

"He does it because he cares about us and he treats everyone the same. I don't get any preferential treatment over a practice squad guy. He's hard on everybody. He's consistent all the way around."

This is only tangentially related to Brady Hoke, but you can certainly see some similarities in their coaching style.

Seeing the Bears thus far this season I can't help but to think they are pegging off the charts on the luck scale. Just like the plot of luck given for the Big Ten teams last year and Iowa was by far the luckiest on there. I will say they did a decent job against the Cowboys but the Lions game....well we all know what happened there. Then, in this game with Cutler throwing Stanziballs all over the place but getting bailed out by penalties along with that last minute fumble rolling along the sidelines without going out of bounds. I can picture the Bears being a team where they're 7-9 and everyone is scratching their heads saying "but they started out 3-0 with a win against the Packers...."

Link here from ESPN Chicago.

Apparently since Caleb Hanie got injured in the first preseason game and Dan LeFevour threw five picks in the same game, the Bears are flying in Gutz as a potential backup. This is after a bunch of old-timers turned them down (including our own Todd Collins).

Nothing too exciting, but interesting to see that the Michigan-starting-QB-who-almost-was is still hanging around in the NFL. Good for him. I've never seen him play in the preseason before, but I'll definitely be watching him if he ends up signing.

(Figured it was OT for being pro sports and since the school he actually played at was Idaho State, yet on-topic for the Michigan connection. So... semi-OT.)

Nothing earth-shattering here. Minor gets his ankles taped, catches some footballs and talks for a few seconds about his dream of playing in the NFL.

Is anyone else watching?

As a Packers fan, I'm not too thrilled with our offense's performance so far, but I have to ask: how many interceptions before the Bears want Sexy Rexy back?