the Bears go after Mike Leach for OC.

Here’s why:
1. He’s one of the great offensive minds in college football.
2. He’s available.
3. Given the bad pub. he’s had recently, we probably wouldn’t get in a bidding war for him.
4. It would allow the owners to keep Lovie for a year or two while we decide if Leach is HC material.
He’d be coming into a program with a franchise qb, a young roster, and an offense that has vast room for improvement, which would probably be appealing to him.

The only downside, imo, is the negative publicity and somewhat tarnished image he has right now. In a couple months, that will fade, and the Bears would be getting a heck of a coach that they normally wouldn’t be able to get.

As far as Jay calling his own audibles… I wouldnt doubt it one bit if he decided to do it for this game. Think about it, he knew the stage was on Favre and Childress with their whole audible fiasco goin on, and Jay, not knowing him but just telling by his demeanor, and his comments in previous interviews (not really backing Turner), was like, "im takin this into my own hands, what more can we lose, I’ll be here regardless," probably is why we had as much success offensively. I can completely see Turner insisting throughout the season that Jay stick to the game plan and only moderatly check out of called plays. Jay’s expressions, both body an facial tells you all you need to know about the QB and coaches’ relationship and confidence in each other.
As far as the defense goes, well Lovie is the blame here. He took over the D after last season because he felt he could do better and didnt, so he should be held accountable. Due to it being his system, we now have players who are only really fit for his style of play (DBacks who can only play zone coverage, or they struggle in man coverage(exception Bowman) ), which essentially makes it difficult to adjust during games when plan A (the Tampa 2) doesnt work. Once Urlacher got hurt for the year, so did the scheme. Most D’s that use it has a very good to great MLB (Brooks, Urlacher, Fletcher-Baker). Although I do feel he will be back, just forced to change Coord’s, appoint someone to run the D, so he could "focus" more on the atmosphere of the overall team(JA and managements logic), and we will see the same thing we’ve seen for a few years now, just with a little seasoning on it because of the newly appointed Coord aka "Jay’s stregnth caterer". And a new defensive philosophy.
My opinion, dont fire him, you’ve got to pay him anyways. Demote him to Linebackers coach, and Let a new coach come in with his Coords until Lovie’s contract is up. I mean, he is a very good specialty coach/Coord, he just doesnt have the head coaching capability, IMO.

An OC can make a lateral move if he willing to default from his current contract and run the risk of being sued. Remember this is america and there is no forced servitude.

Jim Zorn when he gets fire from the redskins. I have read that he is a good OC.

nice read ,but i think the cupboard is bare.

the 4th option is hire a new head coach, smith is a dinosaur. with a QB like cutler you would want to run a pass first type of offense, and that’s not the kinda coach lovie is.with all of the new rules turning the NFL into a track-meet,he is ill suited to coach in today’s climate

Will certainly make things interesting/exciting around Bears Fanland… Until then…

IMHO, Lovie stays. Turner, among other offensive coaches go…

Essentially we would need someone that just wants to work as an OC and somewhat desperate for a job (considering the shaky ground that Lovie and Angelo currently stand on). A couple of coaches that I feel fit that mold:

I’m not Anti-Weis. He’s had a solid offense everywhere he’s been.

Al Saunders may be worth bringing in, to see if he’d be interested in returning as an OC.
(He’s currently an offensive consultant for Baltimore)

Neither get me too excited… Come Black Monday, many more choices, there will be…

as the ‘Assistant HC/OC’ would be under the assumption that if/when Lovie is fired he’d be next in line as the new HC.

As far as how often does a coach leave via the Assistant HC route Mike Singletary did just that when he left Baltimore for SF. He was the LB coach under Mike Nolan in both places and that was the only way to make the move.

It happens.

You state: “Why leave that team for a team that has a GM and head coach on shaky ground, a history of being frugal, an offensive line in flux, a young and inexperienced group of receivers, and a notoriously cheap organization? Did I point out their penny-pinching ways twice?”

As reported by Mule Train yesterday on this site, the Bears have the 5th highest player payroll in the NFL. That’s not what I call cheap. Bad decisions on how to spend it, no doubt. But cheap? I don’t think so.

The Bear organization needs to do some research on the whole football scenerio and if and when Turner is axed, look for the best fit as far as an individual that has the track record and consistency with his offensive plays and the imagination of confusing defenses and having confidence in his Qb to audible when necessary.