Dick Jauron, Bears. (Coach Of The Year).(Chicago Bears)(Brief Article)

Before the season, the expectations were that Dick Jauron might be updating his resume this month fired as coach of the Bears.

But the only updating Jauron needs to do is to include THE SPORTING NEWS NFL Coach of the year.

Jauron received 13 of the 28 votes cast by his fellow NFL head coaches to beat out San Francisco's Steve Mariucci, who had four votes. Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher and New England's Bill Belichick each received three.

"I really am flattered, in particular because it was voted on by my colleagues," Jauron says.

The pressure had been on Jauron, who produced an 11-21 record and a pair of fifth-place finishes in his first two years, and he responded by leading the Bears to a 13-3 regular season. Jauron's future became more of an issue in June, when the Bears hired Jerry Angelo as general manager. But Jauron knew he had to win to remain head coach, regardless of what happened in the front office.

"There was no way not to know it was there, but going into the season it didn't make any sense to focus on it," says Jauron, 51. "All your attention had to be directed to the team, to getting ready to play the season."

Jauron never doubted the Bears would be a vastly improved team and attributes the turnaround mostly to his players and assistant coaches. He also credits the off season additions of punter Brad Maynard, special teams ace Larry Whigham, tight end Fred Baxter, defensive tackles Ted ...