Lovie Smith was fired today by the Bears. Photo by Bearhanded.
Monday morning the Bears announced they have fired Lovie Smith after nine seasons as head coach. The Bears failed to miss the playoffs with a record of 10-6 after starting the season 7-1.
Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006 but lost to Peyton Manning and the Colts. Since then, the Bears have made the playoffs just one time when they reached the NFC Championship game and lost to the Packers.
Smith had an overall record of 83-66 with the Bears, including a 3-3 record in the playoffs.
When GM Phil Emery took over this year one of the restrictions set before the season was Smith was going to be head coach entering 2012. This year was somewhat of an audition for Smith to impress his new boss and to see if he would be retained. As we all know, everything started well this year but the Bears second half collapse probably cost Lovie his job.
There have also been rumors that Emery is not a believer in Lovie’s Cover 2 scheme. His drafting of Shea McClellin also sparked thoughts that Emery has a vision of 3-4 defense in the Bears future due to McClellin being more suited as an outside rush backer. That remains to be seen.
Do you agree with the firing of Lovie? Who do you want to replace him?