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Chicago Bears Retain Head Coach Lovie Smith, Fire Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 | Chicago Bears, General, Indianapolis Colts, NFL, Notre Dame, Sports, USC Trojans | No Comments

The Chicago Bears announced that Lovie Smith will return for his 7th year as Bears head coach in 2010, but that offensive coordinator Ron Turner would be relieved of his duties.  Smith has 2 years left on his contract with the Bears and would have been owed $11 million if the Bears decided to part ways with Smith in order to go with a more high-profile coach like a Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden or Brian Billick.

Lovie Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006 against the Indianapolis Colts, a game which they lost.  But since then, things have been downright brutal on the lakefront of Chicago – 7-9, 9-7 and 7-9 – and 3 straight years without making the playoffs.  Smith assumed the defensive play-calling role in 2009, but the Bears front took that play-calling role away from him after the season.  In 2010, Smith will be the head coach, and the Bears will have a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator.

Bears President Ted Phillips had this to say about the state of affairs with the Bears: “This has been a frustrating season to say the least.  We’ve had inconsistent play on both sides of the ball.  Personally, it’s been the most frustrating year since I’ve been here… The last three years, it’s been clear nobody did a good enough job in the organization.  Nobody did… If we didn’t believe as an organization that Lovie and Jerry [Angelo - Bears' General Manager] could turn this around and get us back to our winning ways, then there would have been other changes made… We all know what we need to do.  We’re not happy.  We’re not happy with the season we had.  We’re not happy with the last three years, and the expectation is to turn it around in 2010.  At the end of 2010, we’ll go through another evaluation process and see where we’re at.”

Pretty candid.

Former Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis, former St. Louis Rams Head Coach Mike Martz and current USC Trojans offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates have thrown their names into the ring for the Bears offensive coordinator position.

On the defensive side, former Detroits Lions Head Coach and current defensive line coach Rod Marinelli could be considered for the defensive coordinator position.  But the Bears could also go outside the organization.

Also on the firing line were quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton, tight ends coach Rob Boras, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, and assistant coaches Luke Butkus and Charles London.

We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything from the Bears about the hiring of their new offensive and defensive coordinators.

Tags: Charlie Weis, Jeremy Bates, Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith, Mike Martz, Rod Marinelli, Ron Turner, Ted Phillips