Harbaugh, Rivera look back at days with Ditka

INDIANAPOLIS — The off-season hirings of Leslie Frazier in Minnesota, Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco and Ron Rivera in Carolina brought to five the number of NFL head coaches who played for the Bears under Mike Ditka.

Coincidentally, the other two, the Tennessee Titans’ Jeff Fisher and the 49ers’ Mike Singletary, Harbaugh’s predecessor, were fired at the end of the 2010 season.

Rivera faces a major rebuilding program with the Panthers, who were an NFL-worst 2-14 last season.

But he’s excited to have an opportunity to run his own program after interviewing several times in the past few years for other head-coaching jobs.

He will bring with him some of the things he learned playing for Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.

“The one thing about Mike was that he never expected us to do anything that he hadn’t done as a (perennial Pro Bowl) player, so his expectations were high,” Rivera said Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“I know I will carry that with me and keep those expectations high. Some things I wasn’t capable of doing, but I know some of these guys are, and so I’ll be able to hold them to a higher standard.”

Then there was the Ryan influence.

“With Buddy, I don’t want to say (it was) arrogance,” Rivera said, “but confidence. That was one thing that he instilled in us was a tremendous amount of confidence.

“You’ve seen his two sons (New York Jets head coach Rex and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob), the way they coach. They coach with a lot of confidence, and that spills over to their players.”

Harbaugh was the hottest commodity of all the head-coaching candidates this year after a successful run at Stanford. He was mentioned as the front-runner for top jobs with the Miami Dolphins and at Michigan, his alma mater.

“On a lot of levels, I wanted to do it,” Harbaugh said of returning to Michigan. “But ultimately I wanted to coach in the NFL, the highest level of football and to have that challenge, that competitiveness.”

He says his seven years with the Bears (1987-93), the first six of which were under Ditka, helped prepare him for the task of turning around the 49ers, who finished 6-10 last season.

“I got great training under Mike Ditka, and a lot of (it came from) his teachings and the competitive nature with how he structured our team,” said Harbaugh, who played eight more years in the NFL after leaving the Bears, including the first four with the Indianapolis Colts.

“He was a great role model, and I was lucky to be able to play for him and use a lot of the things that he taught me.”

Harbaugh also experienced some tough coaching from Ditka, most famously when he audibled against the coach’s orders in the fourth quarter of a 1992 game against the Minnesota Vikings in the noisy Metrodome with the Bears leading 20-0.

His pass was picked off and returned for a touchdown in a game the Bears lost 21-20. Harbaugh didn’t even make it to the sideline before an agitated Ditka began berating him.

“Apparently we have a player who’s smarter than the coach,” Ditka began his postgame news conference.

Even though Harbaugh and his 49ers staff will have a more difficult time implementing new schemes if an expected lockout keeps the players away for any length of time, he’s not planning to take baby steps in resurrecting the Niners.

“We were a 6-10 ballclub last year; we’re not looking to go 8-8 next year,” Harbaugh said. “We’re looking to make the jump all the way to the Super Bowl, like every other team in the NFL.”

While Harbaugh’s ascension to the top rung of the coaching ladder was fairly sudden, it seemed Rivera had been on the verge of a head-coaching gig since he guided the Bears’ defense as coordinator in the 2006 Super Bowl season.

At 49, he’s two years older than Harbaugh, who was his teammate in Chicago for six years.

“The fit and the timing weren’t right,” Rivera said of his earlier interviews that did not end with a head-coaching offer.

“I lost out a couple times because we were still in the playoffs (with the Bears and then the Chargers), and I lost out to former head coaches and offensive coordinators.

“This was probably the first opportunity where I wasn’t in the playoffs, and (the Panthers) were looking for a defensive coach.”

It was a long wait, but it was worth it.

“I was frustrated a couple times,” Rivera said. “It’s always been a goal of mine. It’s like winning a Super Bowl was a goal of mine. You keep working and hammering away, you’ll get that opportunity.”

ŸFollow Bob’s Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials, at dailyherald.com.