Marc Trestman Named New Bears Head Coach

At 4:17am this morning, the Chicago Bears officially announced that Marc Trestman had been named the franchise’s new Head Coach, beating 12 other candidates to the job.

Trestman will be the 14^th Head Coach in Bears history, replacing Lovie Smith who was fired two weeks ago after nine seasons in Chicago.

For the last five years Trestman has been the Head Coach of CFL team the Montreal Alouettes, where he guided them to four East Division Championships in five seasons, and two Grey Cups in 2009 and 2010. He finished with a regular season record of 59-31.

In the 2008 and 2009 seasons he won back-to-back CFL Coach of the Year awards, whilst also coaching the league’s MVP in the same seasons – QB Anthony Calvillo.

The 57-year-old coached for 17 years in the NFL, before he moved to the Canadian game. In 2002 as offensive co-ordinator of the Oakland Raiders he guided them to Superbowl XXXVII whilst having the number one ranked passing offense in the league.

That was the second time he had coached on a team that was number one in passing, achieving the same feat as offensive co-ordinator of the San Francisco 49ers in 1995. This was also the year that Jerry Rice set NFL records with 1,848 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

Many people around the NFL have given glowing recommendations of Trestman, Jerry Rice said: “He’s one of those guys that you want to go out and lay it on the line for. He is totally committed, and players are going to want to play for a guy like that.”

Jon Gruden, former Superbowl winning coach, said of Trestman: “I think he is one of the most creative minds in football, and he probably isn’t getting enough credit for what he has done as an offensive strategist in the NFL.”

2002 NFL MVP Rich Gannon, was coached by Trestman when he was with the Raiders, and this is what he had to say about his offensive co-ordinator: “The thing I like about Marc is his aggressiveness. I feel like he’s always in attack mode, and as players, we respond to that.”

The Bears have gotten themselves a coach which they believe can turn this faltering offense around, and his coaching history certainly suggests that he may be the man to do that.