Imrem: Trestman's nice-guy approach not getting it done

Two examples surfaced recently to reinforce my ongoing notion that Marc Trestman should harden his coaching style.

One involves Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald and the other New England coach Bill Belichick.

The conclusion is that the answer to the Bears' struggles is as simple as switching breakfast products.

Trestman should wake up this morning, reach into a kitchen cabinet, and pull out a big box of Fiber-Fortified Fitzgerald Flakes.

Fitzgerald did something last month that would serve Trestman well as Bears coach right now.

After NU lost to California and Northern Illinois, Fitzgerald hardened his approach and in the process strengthened the Wildcats.

NU's players responded to the tough love by winning their next three games, including the last two in the Big Ten over Penn State and Wisconsin.

Fitzgerald wasn't only disgusted with the Wildcats, he expressed as much publicly and declared what he was going to do about it.

Meanwhile, maybe Trestman also should open the refrigerator and drink from a carton of Belichick Condensed O.G.

Yes, O.G. rather than O.J.

"(Belichick is) an O.G.," analyst Michael Irvin said on NFL Network over the weekend. "He's an original gangster."

Trestman did make a reference to "Twitter terrorists" on Monday - that's another story - but do you ever get the impression that Bears players fear Trestman as an "original gangster"?

Publicly, anyway, Trestman appears to be as calm, measured and steady now with the Bears' record at 2-3 as when they were 2-1.

Go crazy, man, even if it's just to comfort me. Please, shout at somebody. Demonstrate a pulse, an anger, a sense of urgency.

Not with big schoolbook words, either. With street talk. Trade in the analysis for emotion. Create some creative tension.

Let Lamarr Houston know one-on-one that tweeting insults to Bears fans is dumb. Get into Jay Cutler's face for all his mistakes. Tell Brandon Marshall to dummy up on Showtime and make some noise on Sunday.

Challenge the entire team to compete with more passion instead of looking like they're robots cleaning restrooms.

I prefer a football coach who fills the room. Trestman by nature isn't that guy. The Bears haven't had that guy for a couple of decades. Their coaches have allowed, at least outside closed doors, the room to fill them.

For a franchise with the Bears' rough-and-tumble tradition, a coach like this will be tolerated by fans when he wins but be intolerable when he loses.

Like, Lovie Smith was almost tolerable while getting the Bears to the Super Bowl eight years ago and Marc Trestman is verging on intolerable after losing to Carolina on Sunday.

Certainly there's a difference between Fitzgerald coaching in college and Trestman coaching in the NFL.

Professionals can't be treated like collegians can be. Some of the former are 38-year-old athletes and some of the latter are 18-year-old student-athletes.

But even pros in this gentler era need to be reminded that this still is football. An edge is required to compete in this game. A head coach can be as edgy as it takes to get through to players that they need to be edgier.

Ideally, teammates would toughen up teammates, but the Bears' leaders are either hurt (like Charles Tillman) or not playing well enough (like Cutler).

That leaves it to the Bears' head coach to set the physical, mental and emotional tone.

If the worst thing said about a person is that he's too nice, that's great. If it's said about a football coach, that's not so great.

Like Pat Fitzgerald and Bill "O.G." Belichick do, Marc Trestman has to realize what he has to become before this salvageable season becomes a lost cause.