As long as I’ve covered Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand -- and this dates back to the late 1990s when he served as Illinois’ line coach for Ron Turner -- his offensive linemen have been the last unit off the practice field.
While part of that devotion is a work-ethic thing, part of it is simply due to the fact that the O-Line needs more time to get everything right.
In any case, I caught up with Hiestand after Wednesday’s practice (he had just finished tackles Orlando Pace and Chris Williams for some technique work) and we had a six-minute chat on the state of the Bears’ line.
Rather than try to spin the 50-year-old coach’s thoughts or set them up with ledes and transitions and opinions, I thought I’d present them as-is.
While I didn't need to censor Hiestand's speech -- making the "unexpurgated" title a little misleading -- feel free to stick with this as the Bears' fifth-year OL coach soon warms to the task:
Joe Sports: “I think fans want quick fixes at any position _ at every position. How does an offensive line realistically progress from one week to the next? Do you focus on 10 things? Do you focus on two things?”
Harry Hiestand: “The number one thing is what we do in practice and what we do in meetings and our attention to detail. There’s continuous work on fundamentals _ and it’s coming. There’s a lot of people that have a lot of opinions on what’s happening and what (the line) is doing. Some know more than others. But what we’re seeing is, we’re seeing a group of guys that are continually working, that really care about what they do, are great professionals that are giving their best effort. We will continue to work to get better. It’s a daily/weekly process that we’re after, but we can’t ask for any more than what they’re doing. We need to play better. That’s what we’re out here to do. That’s our job. That’s our profession. They’re proud men that work very hard at what they do.”
JS: “Do the guys know, ‘OK, it’s Wednesday. We’re going to do the exact same thing in practice as last Wednesday?’ Or is it tweaked from week-to-week?’
HH: “It changes by the defense that we’re seeing. Their techniques, their alignments change every week. It’s different every week. It’s a constantly changing thing, so maybe three weeks ago we saw something similar to what we’re seeing this week. We go from a pure “two-gap,” two guards uncovered front to a much different defense this week. Maybe we saw a little bit of that a month ago.”
(Note: Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt comes from the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching tree and switched the Cardinals this year to the 3-4, which is what the Bears saw in Week 2 from the Steelers).
JS: “As you grade on a weekly basis, in general are your guys’ grades going up each week…or is it more of a roller coaster?”
HH: “Well, it depends on…there’s no real highs or real lows. There’s technique (where) there’s a few things where we’ve got to do better on a particular assignment here and there. It’s a constant emphasis on fundamentals and improving our technique.”
JS: “Are they graded in multiple areas? Not just you give them, say, an overall 82? There’s one for technique, one for assignments…”
HH: “Right, right.”
JS: “Who’s been consistently the best?”
HH (wasting no time): “Olin (Kreutz). And you know, somebody told me -- because I don’t pay attention to it -- what (Cleveland Browns nose tackle) Shaun Rogers did. I guess there was a comment made (in a newspaper) that Shaun Rogers had his footprint on Olin’s chest. This is a statistic league. A lot of people talk about stats. So, just for the heck of it, I checked the stats. If somebody checks the stats of what Shaun Rogers did in that game, he had 1 tackle, 1 assist and 2 quarterback hits. That’s (out of) 50-some plays. I’d say the footprint was the other way.
“I don’t know. You tell me. If you have 2 tackles and you run into the quarterback twice in 50-some plays, you guys would be ripping him if he was a Bear. Saying he’s not productive.”
JS: “Did Josh Beekman give you what you were looking for?”
HH: “Josh was solid.”
JS: “Is he better at pass-pro or run-blocking?”
HH: “He’s steady. A steady, consistent player.”
JS: “I don’t know as much about football as others. I was listening to John Jurkovic on WMVP radio the other day and he said Orlando (Pace) doesn’t have his knee bend anymore. A, is he correct? B, Is that an age thing where if he were 23…”
HH: “All I know is the guy’s busting his tail, doing the best job he can.”
JS: “How’s Chris Williams doing, considering he had virtually no experience coming into this season?”
HH: “He’s making progress. A little inconsistent at times like all of us. Our No. 1 thing is we’ve got to be more consistent across the board. We’ve got to get the same play…five guys doing what they’re supposed to do fundamentally on the same play. That’s our biggest challenge. We’ve been up and down. I think I saw progress this week and we need to keep progressing. That’s the No. 1 thing: Consistent. No doubt. Because one thing goes wrong, one guy’s out of whack, the whole thing looks bad to everybody. That’s our big challenge right now.”
