Redskins New Head Coach Bracket: (3) Lovie Smith vs. (14) Mike Singletary

First Round of The Washington Redskins Next Head Coach Tournament

By P_Hazard Dec 16, 2013, 5:04pm EST

Began his coaching career at Big Sandy High School (1980 defensive coordinator), and had stints at Tulsa (1983-1986 Linebackers Coach), University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987 Linebackers Coach), Arizona State University (1988-1991 Linebackers Coach), Kentucky (1992 Linebackers Coach), Tennessee (1993-1994 (Defensive Backs Coach), and Ohio State (1995 Defensive Backs Coach)
From 1996-2003, Smith worked as a Linebackers Coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Working under Tony Dungy, he helped develop the "Tampa 2" defense
Was hired as a Defensive Coordinator for the St. Louis Rams in 2001. He took a defense that was giving up 29.4 points per game in 2000 (league worst), and under Smith, only gave up 17.1 per game in 2001. Rams won the NFC Championship that year and advanced to the Super Bowl
Lovie was hired as the Head Coach of the Chicago Bears in 2004. Bears defense immediately went from ranked 22nd in 2003 to ranked 13th in 2004
In 2005, Lovie's 2nd year with the Bears, he turned the Bears around finishing the season with an 11-5 record and won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award
In 2006, the Bears finished with a 13-3 record with Rex Grossman as quarterback. They earned the NFC's top playoff seed. The Bears finished with the 2nd ranked scoring offense and 5th ranked overall defense
Smith was the first African-American coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl
In Week 13 of the 2012 season, the Bears recorded their 300th takeaway under Smith

After a Hall-of-Fame playing career, Singletary began his coaching career in 2003 as a Linebackers Coach for the Baltimore Ravens
In 2004, when Ravens Defensive Coordinator Mike Nolan was hired to be the Head Coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he brought Mike Singletary with him. Singletary worked as a Linebackers Coach and Assistant Head Coach
In 2007, Singletary interviewed for the Head Coaching positions with the Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers
Also in 2007, Singletary appeared to be the leading candidate to be the new Head Coach for Baylor University. Baylor's athletic director flew to San Francisco to interview Singletary. Mike eventually turned down the job (I wonder how different things would be right now if he had taken the job)
Mike Nolan was fired as Head Coach of the 49ers in the middle of the 2008 season. Singletary was named the interim Head Coach. He took a 2-5 team, and lead them to 5-4 in their remaining games and was offered the 49ers Head Coach position. He accepted
In 2009, Singletary lead the 49ers to an 8-8 record. Their first non-losing record since 2002. Five players from his team were named to the Pro Bowl
In 2011, he was named the Linebackers/Assistant Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings

Feel free to add any additional information/stories about either candidate in the comments section and it may be added to their bio.

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