New Bears coach has supporters, detractors
Who exactly is Marc Trestman, the Bears' new head coach?
The smartest guy in the room?
Too laid-back and quiet to lead a team?
An offensive mastermind?
A quarterback guru?
Depending on who's doing the talking, any of those comments could describe Trestman. He was officially announced as the 14th head coach in franchise history in the early morning hours Wednesday, one day after his 57th birthday.
“I was shocked. I never saw him as a head coach,” former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown told ESPN Radio. “He's a very smart guy, he knows football like the back of his hand, but you have to be able to handle players. It's going to be interesting to see how (Bears quarterback) Jay Cutler and him get along.”
Brown admits he didn't see eye to eye with his coach when Trestman was the Raiders' offensive coordinator in 2002 and '03. Part of the reason is that Jerry Rice, arguably the greatest receiver in NFL history, played a bigger role in the passing game than Brown, who could join Rice in the Hall of Fame Super Bowl weekend.
“We had some interesting words about it,” Brown said. “He was sort of a quiet guy. He'll speak with you, but he has kind of a monotone-like voice. The whole situation is going to be interesting because I never saw him as a head coach. A great offensive coordinator? Absolutely. No doubt about it. But it's such a big step.”
Almost everyone else who has worked with Trestman believes it's a step he's ready to take after five years as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. That was preceded by 17 years as an assistant coach in the NFL, mostly working with quarterbacks and as an offensive coordinator.
According to Alouettes general manager Jim Popp, Trestman's boss for the past five years, the Bears are getting a well-rounded head coach. Among other accomplishments, Trestman has a law degree from the University of Miami and has been a member of the Florida bar since 1983.
“The Bears are getting an extremely intelligent man who is very well organized, will approach a game and dissect it like he's preparing for a battle in a courtroom,” Popp said. “He coaches his coaches. He grinds them hard because, if they can't X and O and they can't communicate with the players and they can't articulate to them and cover every aspect of the game before they hit the field, they won't coach for him.”
Trestman is similar to fired Bears coach Lovie Smith in that he isn't loud, emotional or demonstrative.
“He's very calm and collected; very calculated,” Popp said. “He can raise the tone of his voice to get your attention real quick. The quarterback will be his best friend, and that quarterback will know it and he'll get the most out of him, and (Trestman) will form his team around that guy. You couldn't have a better-prepared guy to name as a head coach.”
St. Louis Rams assistant head coach Dave McGinnis, a longtime Bears assistant coach, worked on the same staff as Trestman with the Arizona Cardinals from 1998-2000.
“He's very smart, he's very bright, he's worked with and under some real productive and some real big names in this league,” McGinnis said on “The Waddle and Silvy Show” on WMVP 1000-AM. “He's very innovative. He sees the game through the quarterback's eyes because that's what he's really been. He's been a quarterback guy his whole career.”
The Bears' hope is that Trestman's expertise in developing quarterbacks pushes Cutler to reach his full potential. Some believe Cutler has barely scratched the surface of what he could be, and other critics doubt that he will reach the next level.
Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo is a Trestman believer. He was already an established CFL star when Trestman took over, but in his five years, Calvillo and the Alouettes have gone to the CFL championship three times, winning the Grey Cup twice. The 40-year-old Calvillo, who has thrown for more yards than any professional quarterback in history, has been league MVP three times, twice under Trestman.
“All I know is Marc Trestman is going to give that offense and that team the best chance to win,” Calvillo said. “They're going to be very detailed. They're going to be stepping on that field prepared. Every single person is going to know exactly what his assignment is.”
Some critics contend that Trestman's version of the West Coast Offense is too complicated, but McGinnis disagrees.
“What he's able to do with an offense is get very innovative, but at the same time get it to where the players can understand week by week what they have to do specifically to attack people and areas of weakness that the defenses present,” McGinnis said. “The Bears did a nice job in hiring him.”
Some may recall that McGinnis was the Bears' head coach for about six hours in 1999. But he bolted from Halas Hall when the Bears announced his hiring before he had agreed to a contract.
That won't happen with Trestman, who has already hired Aaron Kromer as his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach and Joe DeCamillis as special teams coordinator.
Testman's coaching career
Here's a glance at Marc Trestman's coaching career in college football, the NFL and the CFL. The Bears hired the 57-year-old Trestman as their 14th head coach Wednesday, replacing Lovie Smith:
1981-1982: University of Miami (FL) — Volunteer Assistant
1983-1984: University of Miami (FL) — Quarterbacks Coach
1985-1986: Minnesota Vikings — Running Backs Coach
1987: Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Quarterbacks Coach
1988: Cleveland Browns — Quarterbacks Coach
1989: Cleveland Browns — Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
1990-1991: Minnesota Vikings — Quarterbacks Coach
1995: San Francisco 49ers — Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
1996: San Francisco 49ers — Offensive Coordinator
1997: Detroit Lions — Quarterbacks Coach
1998-2000: Arizona Cardinals — Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
2001: Oakland Raiders — Senior Assistant
2002-2003: Oakland Raiders — Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
2004: Miami Dolphins — Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks
2005-2006: North Carolina State — Offensive Coordinator
2008-2012: Head Coach — Montreal Alouettes (CFL)
2013: Head Coach — Chicago Bears