The Chicago Bears announced Marc Trestman, former head coach of CFL's Montreal Alouettes, as their new head coach late last night. There are also reports that former Saints interim head coach Aaron Kromer will take over at the Bears offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
Profile: Marc Trestman Age: 56 Current Job: Head Coach - Montreal Alouettes (CFL) -- Trestman is a 17 year NFL vet who held many offensive positions with various teams before moving on to coach in the CFL. Starting his NFL career in 1985 as the RB coach in Minnesota. He then took over as the QB coach in Tampa and went on to become OC for the Browns. Trestman has also held many offensive coaching positions in Tampa Bay, Cleveland, San Francisco, Detroit, Arizona, Oakland, and Miami. Trestman then went on to CFL as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. During his first year as head coach in 2008, he led his team all the way to the CFL championship. Although they lost, Trestman was resounded as the best coach in the league and was honored as the 2008 CFL coach of the year. In the following years, Tresman once again led his team to the CFL championship and won in back to back years (2009 and 2010). The Montreal Alouettes have won 2 Championships, won their division 4 of the 5 years, and have made the playoffs every year since Trestman took over. He has been regarded as an offensive guru in both the CFL and the NFL and has been considered for vacant head coach positions in the NFL for quite some time now. I'm pretty sure Trestman will end up as a head coach somewhere in the NFL within the next year or so. He would be a good fit for the Bears because he brings experience - championship experience, and lots of offensive expertise.
The Chicago Bears have called back Seattle Seahawks' offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, CFL's Montreal Alouettes' head coach Marc Trestman, and Indianapolis Colts' offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Bruce Arians for a 2nd interview. They are expected to announce a new head coach by the end of this week or early next week.
Phil Emery and company held interviews with 13 candidates over the last two weeks for the vacant Chicago Bears's head coach position. Adam Schefter of ESPN has spoken with two unnamed candidates who have told him that this was the toughest and most rigorous interview process that any of them have gone through for a head coach position.
Another thing to note is the Jimmy Johnson of NFL on FOX tweeted out on Friday that Marc Trestman was going to be the next coach of the Chicago Bears. It is unclear is Trestman disclosed such information with Johnson as the Bear did not announce anything publicly until tonight.
Below are mini profiles on the three finalists...
Darrell Bevell Age: 43 Current Job: Offensive Coordinator - Seattle Seahawks Bevell is a 13 year NFL vet who has spent the last 2 season with the Seahawks as they OC. Before coming to Seattle, he was Viking's OC from 2006-2010 and held a number of offensive coaching positions in Green Bay from 2000 - 2005. His most recent accomplishment is reviving the Seattle offense including helping Marshawn Lynch reach career high in rushing yards, TDs, and attempts. He has led Seattle's rookie quarter back Russell Wilson to a remarking, perhaps even ROY caliber year, and helped to get them back to playoffs after a 11-5 regular season. This season (12-13) Bevell's offense is ranked 9th in points per game. Bevell has also worked a great deal with Brett Farve at both in Green Bay as his quarterback coach and again in Minnesota as his OC. Under Bevell, Farve posted perhaps one of his best seasons in 2009 with career high QB rating, completion rate, and fewest percentage of int thrown per number of pass attempts. Bevell also have post season experience, but has never been part of a super bowl winning team.
Marc Trestman Age: 56 Current Job: Head Coach - Montreal Alouettes (CFL) Trestman is a 17 year NFL vet who held many offensive positions with various teams before moving on to coach in the CFL. Starting his NFL career in 1985 as the RB coach in Minnesota. He then took over as the QB coach in Tampa and went on to become OC for the Browns. Trestman has also held many offensive coaching positions in Tampa Bay, Cleveland, San Francisco, Detroit, Arizona, Oakland, and Miami. Trestman then went on to CFL as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. During his first year as head coach in 2008, he led his team all the way to the CFL championship. Although they lost, Trestman was resounded as the best coach in the league and was honored as the 2008 CFL coach of the year. In the following years, Tresman once again led his team to the CFL championship and won in back to back years (2009 and 2010). The Montreal Alouettes have won 2 Championships, won their division 4 of the 5 years, and have made the playoffs every year since Trestman took over. He has been regarded as an offensive guru in both the CFL and the NFL and has been considered for vacant head coach positions in the NFL for quite some time now. I'm pretty sure Trestman will end up as a head coach somewhere in the NFL within the next year or so. He would be a good fit for the Bears because he brings experience - championship experience, and lots of offensive expertise.
Bruce Arians Age: 60 years Current Job: Offensive Coordinator/ Interim Head Coach - Indianapolis Colts
Arians has spent 19 years coaching and coordinating in the NFL and this past season served as the interim head coach for the Colts while their actual coach Pagano was out due to health concerns. The Colts went 9-3 during his coaching period and posted 11-5 regular season. Arians had a chance to work with Andrew Luck this past season who threw an NFL rookie QB record 4,374 yards. Arians was also Peyton Manning's first QB coach in the late '90s when he was the QB coach for the colts. Before coming back to the Colts this past season, Arians spent 8 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers where he helped them reach 3 super bowls, and he was Roethlisberger's OC in both of his pro bowl seasons.
After 113 days of NHL's 3rd lockout in 18 years, the National Hockey League and its Players Union finally agreed on a new CBA that will shorten the 2012-2013 season to just 48 (or 50) games. Teams have started to practice today and will continue to do so on a regular basis until the season kicks off on January 19th. Although the CBA will not officially be ratified until later this week (fingers crossed), all teams have started to prepare for the season even without knowledge of their schedule.
So what does this new CBA mean..and why the hell did it take so long to reach? Well, it was finally an all or nothing ordeal. If a deal had not been reached, we would most certainly be talking about another year with no hockey.
The major key points of the new revolve around salary caps and play salaries. The deal is a 10 yr deal, with an opt-out clause by either sides after 8 years. This means that we will have guaranteed hockey through the 2019-2020 season.
The CBA deal splits revenues 50-50 with the league and players, although dropping the salary cap to $64.3 million from the current $70.2 million. It will also limit player contracts to 7-years (8 years if resigning) and the maximum salary variance from year to year can be 35% and at no point can the yearly salary be lower than 50% of it's highest yearly salary. Obviously there are other agreements and tons of fine print, but there are some of the major ideas.
--- The 2013 Blackhawks ---
The Chicago Blackhawks 2012 campaign came to an end on a 4-0 shutout loss to the Coyotes at home in late April...that now seems ages ago...
Monday morning, the team participated in a informal friendly skate that brought out Crawford, Hossa, Sharp, Bolland, Carcillo, and several others back on the ice. While they admitted that no one is in game-shape right now, it won't truly happen until they are playing in an actual game. Most of all they are all excited and anxious for the puck to finally drop.
Blackhawks went 45-26-11 last season and squeaked their way into the playoffs for the 4th straight year, including the 2012 run that ended with the championship.Vegas currently has them in a tie for 3rd as the best odds to win it all this year, behind Penguins and Rangers respectively.
The best thing about the lockout is that is that given the time for all the players to come back healthy. Hossa, Sharp, Crawford, and Toews were all battling stringers at the end of last season, all are healthy now.
Patrick Sharp has had back to back 30+ goals season and isn't showing as signs of slowing down. Hossa has the second most goals on the team last year with 29, but had team high 77 points. Both serve on possible the best line in hockey, or at least definitely one that most teams don't want to compete against.
Supporting cast of players such as Kane, Bolland, Stalberg, Keith, Seabrook and others aren't something to leave out of the conversation as many of them are also often seen on the top line and helped out the team plenty on days when tops performers haven't been playing their best.
Then there's Jonathan Toews. The best captain in all of hockey and quite possible the most valuable player in the league. He had 29 goals and 57 points in 59 games last year and lead the Blackhawks to their 4th straight playoff appearance.
All have been waiting for the season to start just as much as their fans -- the best fans in NHL. Since the 08-09 season the Blackhawks have packed the United Center more than any other NHL team. So get your hockey jersey's out and cue up "Chelsea Dagger" because hockey's back and the Blackhawks are ready to take the ice... (Puck Drop)
