A innovative coach needs resources

the Bears have very little of those resources focused on the offense

If the Bears continue to have a good defense for the next 5 years and have an offense that goes from one of the worst to just below average and the Bears continue to not get "over the hump" will they allow the head coach/front office to continue in the direction they were going?

In fact, there's rumblings they might even keep Marinelli around as DC.

I think they definitely can improve on defense.

Man, gone are the days when college coaches stayed at the same college for decades.

I think they definitely can improve on defense.

Football Outsiders has them as the #1 defense.

And by leaps and bounds. The difference between them and SF in #2, is about the same as the gap from #2 to #13. You aren't getting any better on defense. The best you can hope for is to not get worse.

Wiki lists 71 college football coaches with 200 or more wins. Of those, 27 stayed (or have stayed) at their original school. Of those, the only easily recognizable names are Eddie Robinson, Joe Paterno, Tom Osborne, Jake Gaither, and Vince Dooley, and only three of them coached at big time Division I schools. Knute Rockne could be added even though he didn't coach long enough to get 200 wins, but the overwhelming majority of these coaches are either still coaching or retired only in the past 10 or 15 years.

That's awfully suspicious since he apparently knew one of the perpetrators, Tuiasosopo.

That's awfully suspicious since he apparently knew one of the perpetrators, Tuiasosopo

ND says he was the victim of a hoax.

This is weird. If Te'o is not in on it, then who was the girl he met? Who was he talking to on the phone every night? Who texted his father?

He's in on it. No idea why the family played this, but they're all in on it.

He claims he met her, in the stories from before this came out. What exactly is he claming was the hoax?

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.

I suppose (and note, I'm not claiming this is what I believe) that Tuiasosopo had a girl in on it as well, who actually did meet Te'o, and act the part.

A different girl from the one in the pictures?

If that's the conventional wisdom, I agree with it. I think the Patriots certainly deserve to be favored, but I see it as more of a 1 score game and wouldn't be schocked if the Raven won. Something like 31-24 Patriots seems about right to me.

Manti Te'o
?@MTeo_5
Don't let your dreams stay dreams! Make them a reality!

"Somebody told me one time the hardest thing about goodbyes is that when you wake up in the morning you have to say it again, when you realize that they're not there. So every morning when I wake up and my girlfriend's not on the phone, it reminds me that she's gone, and that's the hardest part for me. I go through it every day."

"Obviously, going through what I've gone through, with my girlfriend passing away from cancer, that whole thing hit home for me,'' Te'o said in a private moment the other day, "My whole thing was just to reach out and let them know I'm here. I wrote her parents.

...On the other end of that email were Brian and Louise Smith. Brian, a Notre Dame alum and fan, and Louise, a St. Mary's alum. They had watched the Notre Dame-Michigan game with Bridget just a few weeks earlier in the University of Michigan Intensive Care Unit. On Friday, Oct. 5, they were planning to disconnect Bridget's ventilator at 3 p.m.

It would be her last day.

That morning, they casually opened their email and saw one that had come from: MANTI TE'O. He would pour out his feelings about his own losses and connect with the Smiths' world.

"We opened that letter that morning, and it was just a bright spot on the saddest day of our lives,'' Louise Smith said. "We read it to her; we shared with her what it said. They say hearing is the last thing to go. I don't know. I believe she internalized it.

Lance Armstrong was built up as the greatest human being until we found out how he bullied and cheated.

Character is revealed behind closed doors. Te'o didn't save a life, but in his grief, he gave of himself to others.

"I still constantly pray for Bridget and her family,'' Te'o said. "You know, Bridget's in a better place now. She's with my girlfriend. There's no better place to be.''

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.

SOUTH BEND -- It never felt like a chance meeting, although it probably appeared that way from the outside looking in.

Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.

I suppose (and note, I'm not claiming this is what I believe) that Tuiasosopo had a girl in on it as well, who actually did meet Te'o, and act the part.

Jason McIntyre ?@TheBigLead
Confirmed from 2 sources: ESPN has known about the Manti Te'o story for 10 days. Had been reporting it, but could not confirm.

Only ways this makes sense is if:

a) Teo was in on it for publicity
b) Teo is naive enough to think a girl he met on Twitter (that is, never) was his ’gf', or
c) Teo was in on it for cover (assumes he's gay)

Chris Mannix ?@ChrisMannixSI
South Bend Tribune quotes Brian Te'o in October saying Te'o's fake GF flew to Hawaii to hang out with Te'o.

Ray, Te'o isn't claiming that he'd never heard about the story.

Gregg Doyel ?@GreggDoyelCBS
Manti's father: "They started out as just friends. She would travel to Hawaii (when) Manti was home, so he would meet with her there."

There is no real dead girl, is there? I thought the girl whose pictures were used is still alive.

This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life. I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.

e) It was part of a Heismann campaign (if this makes sense; I don't even know who won).

Her "death" happened between the third and fourth games of the season. I don't think there was any real expectation he could become a Heisman candidate at that point.

"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."

Dude. You said you had a girlfriend. Who was passing away from cancer. And you never visited her?

I mean, he's not saying his Twitter account was hacked,

he and the school didn't go immediately to the police on December 26th

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.

His 'I'm super embarrassed' cover story is also quite obviously his only out. To say he got taken in by someone he met online will also serve to explain why he won't want to talk about it, take interviews, or press the matter further - 'hopefully others will learn from my mistakes, and be more cautious in future' straight to the combine and then the draft.

She never even alleged she was raped, so that's an odd stance.

She never even alleged she was raped, so that's an odd stance.

I realize the only damning fact you need is the university involved but it might behoove you to read a news article before throwing out wild conclusions.

At the time of her death, 10 days after reporting the attack to campus police, who have jurisdiction for even the most serious crimes on school property, investigators still had not interviewed the accused.

You'd have thought Paterno-Sandusky would have taught you people not to hold these golden calves so very high...

I heard one of the authors (Dickey) on Finebaum this afternoon, he was kind of in disbelief at how there were so many holes and easy ways to blow up this story all along if anybody had even bothered to look in the first place.

maybe it would have, but that wasn't the lesson that anyone wants to learn.

If they met in 2009 and this hoax went on for more than 3 years and Te'o wasn't in on it... holy cow, someone was really hellbent on screwing with Te'o.

maybe it would have, but that wasn't the lesson that anyone wants to learn. the lesson that people wanted to learn was that joe paterno was an evil child rapisdt and that such a terrible thing could only happen because he was king of his own little sycophantic fiefdom at penn state.

If atl can generate successes on the ground when sf is in nickel it will be a very close game.

Do we know whether Te'o actually had a grandmother?

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011. "This was before her and Manti," Mauia said Wednesday evening. "I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa." Mauia said Tuiasosopo -- whom Mauia believes is Kekua's cousin -- introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an "after-party" for all of the athletes involved in the camp. "She was tall," he said. "Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model ... " He said it is his understanding that Kekua's mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he'd never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said "No, she is real."

Maybe it's the old school in me talking, but sports don't really work that well when it's so easy to know so much about these people.