Rod Marinelli

[Wesson44]

Rejoining Smith with Bears the perfect situation for Marinelli

By: Larry Mayer | Last Updated: 1/16/2009 4:07 PM

 

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Rod Marinelli leans forward in his chair, remote in hand, staring intently at a big-screen television in his Halas Hall office while breaking down tape of the Bears defensive line.

 

Spend a few minutes talking to the team’s new defensive line coach and assistant head coach and it’s clear that there’s no place he’d rather be. Marinelli interviewed with the Seahawks and Texans but couldn’t pass up the chance to work with Lovie Smith in a defensive system they learned together in Tampa Bay a decade ago.

 

 

Rod Marinelli brings 13 years of NFL experience to Lovie Smith's coaching staff.

“It starts with the head coach,” Marinelli said Friday in his first interview since being hired by the Bears last Saturday. “To me, the most important factor is [to work for] somebody you believe in, and I believe in Lovie—what he stands for, what he does and how he does it.

 

“Second is the defensive system. I love it, and it’s something I believe in. It’s built on fundamentals and execution, and for a coach, that’s something you should embrace—embrace the ability to go out and teach every day.”

 

Marinelli joins the Bears with 13 years of NFL experience, having served as a highly-regarded defensive line coach on Tony Dungy’s staff with the Buccaneers from 1996-2005 before spending the past three seasons as head coach of the Detroit Lions.

 

Smith coached linebackers with Tampa Bay from 1996-2000. He and Marinelli both came to the Buccaneers from the college ranks, and formed an instant bond while rooming together in a Holiday Inn Express for a few months after both were hired.

 

“It was awesome,” Marinelli said. “It would be hard to ever duplicate something like that. He came from Ohio State and I came from USC. Every day we went through the system. We would learn the rules, and stay up late and talk about it. It was an all-day thing in the offseason. We learned it and then we kind of put our own handprint on it.”

 

Tampa Bay’s defensive line compiled 328½ sacks in Marinelli’s 10 seasons, tops in the NFL during that span among defensive fronts. The Buccaneers ranked in the top 10 in total defense in each of his last nine seasons, and won the Super Bowl in 2002 behind a defense that permitted the fewest points and total yards in the league.

Marinelli hopes to experience similar success in Chicago and has been busy familiarizing himself with the Bears defensive line by watching videotape cutups.

 

“I’m just looking at how they play different techniques and what they’re doing,” Marinelli said. “I always love to introduce myself to a player on tape first and then meet him.”

 

What are his early impressions of the Bears defensive line?

 

“There’s very good talent,” Marinelli said. “Tommie [Harris] is special. That’s what you’ve got to have at the ‘under tackle,’ and you’ve got good ends here and a couple guys that can go in and play that nose position.”

 

 

Rod Marinelli is an intense, hands-on coach who enjoys working with defensive linemen.

The key player on the Bears defense is Harris, a three-time Pro Bowler who has been slowed by injuries and off-the-field issues the past two seasons.

 

Asked about Harris, Marinelli said: “I see a guy that can disrupt a game. This defense is about the under tackle. He’s the engine that drives the front, and the front’s got to drive it all.”

While there was some speculation that Marinelli would become a defensive coordinator after being fired by the Lions, he wanted to return to his roots and coach the defensive line.

 

“I love the front and I wanted to get back to that,” he said. “The one thing I didn’t like as much [as a head coach] is when you’re walking around all the time and you’re telling the guy who’s doing it instead of doing it yourself. I’m very hands-on. I missed that day-in and day-out grind in the meeting room teaching. I love that part of the game.”

As Lions coach, Marinelli suffered through the first 0-16 season in NFL history in 2008. Yet despite Detroit’s porous record, he remained upbeat throughout the year.

 

“It was not hard to be positive when you believe in the game of football,” he said. “There are three ways to look at adversity: There are people who are in adversity and they don’t know they’re in it, so there’s no growth. There’s somebody who’s in adversity and fights it and they put their head down and they digress. And then you know you’re in adversity and you embrace it. You’re positive and you make the most out of everybody around it.

 

“I wouldn’t trade that last year for anything. It was one of my best years ever in football because you really find out what kind of coach you are. My goal was that we were going to finish everything we started: how we practiced, how we played, how hard we played, and we played hard. I had to find the guys who could hang on with me at the end.”

 

As he prepares to tackle his next challenge with the Bears, Marinelli can’t wait to get on the field.

 

“I love practice,” he said. “I adore practice. I relish it. I love the tempo and the pace and I love teaching. I’ve just got to find guys that love [football] as much as I do, and there are a lot of guys here that do.”

[azbearsfan]

Rejoining Smith with Bears the perfect situation for Marinelli

By: Larry Mayer | Last Updated: 1/16/2009 4:07 PM

 

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Rod Marinelli leans forward in his chair, remote in hand, staring intently at a big-screen television in his Halas Hall office while breaking down tape of the Bears defensive line.

 

Spend a few minutes talking to the team’s new defensive line coach and assistant head coach and it’s clear that there’s no place he’d rather be. Marinelli interviewed with the Seahawks and Texans but couldn’t pass up the chance to work with Lovie Smith in a defensive system they learned together in Tampa Bay a decade ago.

 

 

Rod Marinelli brings 13 years of NFL experience to Lovie Smith's coaching staff.

“It starts with the head coach,” Marinelli said Friday in his first interview since being hired by the Bears last Saturday. “To me, the most important factor is [to work for] somebody you believe in, and I believe in Lovie—what he stands for, what he does and how he does it.

 

“Second is the defensive system. I love it, and it’s something I believe in. It’s built on fundamentals and execution, and for a coach, that’s something you should embrace—embrace the ability to go out and teach every day.”

 

Marinelli joins the Bears with 13 years of NFL experience, having served as a highly-regarded defensive line coach on Tony Dungy’s staff with the Buccaneers from 1996-2005 before spending the past three seasons as head coach of the Detroit Lions.

 

Smith coached linebackers with Tampa Bay from 1996-2000. He and Marinelli both came to the Buccaneers from the college ranks, and formed an instant bond while rooming together in a Holiday Inn Express for a few months after both were hired.

 

“It was awesome,” Marinelli said. “It would be hard to ever duplicate something like that. He came from Ohio State and I came from USC. Every day we went through the system. We would learn the rules, and stay up late and talk about it. It was an all-day thing in the offseason. We learned it and then we kind of put our own handprint on it.”

 

Tampa Bay’s defensive line compiled 328½ sacks in Marinelli’s 10 seasons, tops in the NFL during that span among defensive fronts. The Buccaneers ranked in the top 10 in total defense in each of his last nine seasons, and won the Super Bowl in 2002 behind a defense that permitted the fewest points and total yards in the league.

Marinelli hopes to experience similar success in Chicago and has been busy familiarizing himself with the Bears defensive line by watching videotape cutups.

 

“I’m just looking at how they play different techniques and what they’re doing,” Marinelli said. “I always love to introduce myself to a player on tape first and then meet him.”

 

What are his early impressions of the Bears defensive line?

 

“There’s very good talent,” Marinelli said. “Tommie [Harris] is special. That’s what you’ve got to have at the ‘under tackle,’ and you’ve got good ends here and a couple guys that can go in and play that nose position.”

 

 

Rod Marinelli is an intense, hands-on coach who enjoys working with defensive linemen.

The key player on the Bears defense is Harris, a three-time Pro Bowler who has been slowed by injuries and off-the-field issues the past two seasons.

 

Asked about Harris, Marinelli said: “I see a guy that can disrupt a game. This defense is about the under tackle. He’s the engine that drives the front, and the front’s got to drive it all.”

While there was some speculation that Marinelli would become a defensive coordinator after being fired by the Lions, he wanted to return to his roots and coach the defensive line.

 

“I love the front and I wanted to get back to that,” he said. “The one thing I didn’t like as much [as a head coach] is when you’re walking around all the time and you’re telling the guy who’s doing it instead of doing it yourself. I’m very hands-on. I missed that day-in and day-out grind in the meeting room teaching. I love that part of the game.”

As Lions coach, Marinelli suffered through the first 0-16 season in NFL history in 2008. Yet despite Detroit’s porous record, he remained upbeat throughout the year.

 

“It was not hard to be positive when you believe in the game of football,” he said. “There are three ways to look at adversity: There are people who are in adversity and they don’t know they’re in it, so there’s no growth. There’s somebody who’s in adversity and fights it and they put their head down and they digress. And then you know you’re in adversity and you embrace it. You’re positive and you make the most out of everybody around it.

 

“I wouldn’t trade that last year for anything. It was one of my best years ever in football because you really find out what kind of coach you are. My goal was that we were going to finish everything we started: how we practiced, how we played, how hard we played, and we played hard. I had to find the guys who could hang on with me at the end.”

 

As he prepares to tackle his next challenge with the Bears, Marinelli can’t wait to get on the field.

 

“I love practice,” he said. “I adore practice. I relish it. I love the tempo and the pace and I love teaching. I’ve just got to find guys that love [football] as much as I do, and there are a lot of guys here that do.”

 

 

Sounds good to me. I've said that alot of the problems defensively can be fixed if the DL gets its act together. We shall see...

[AZ54]

Just "a couple guys and play that nose position"? Doesn't sound to positive to me but I like what he says about practice.