PRO FOOTBALL

Chalk up another one for the buddy system.

A day after Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera was sent on his way by coach Lovie Smith, thereby severing the final tie to the 1986 Super Bowl championship team, Smith named long-time friend Bob Babich as Rivera's replacement.

Babich just completed his fourth season with the Bears, the last three as Smith's assistant head coach in charge of linebackers.

"I was approached by the Buffalo Bills after the 2005 season to be their defensive coordinator, but just the fact I loved coaching the players I was coaching, loved the organization, loved coaching for Coach Smith, and was very excited about the opportunity they had given me to move up (from linebackers coach) made it difficult to leave," said Babich, a native of Aliquippa, Pa. -- the same city where Mike Ditka was raised.

"One of our mantras this year was 'finishing' ballgames and obviously we didn't," Babich said. "We wanted to win the Super Bowl, so we're going to go back and figure out what we could do better to get ourselves in a position to win it next year."

Babich and Smith go way back, having coached together with the St. Louis Rams and at the University of Tulsa. Babich, unlike Rivera, is a big fan of the Tampa 2 defense, which Smith favors.

Throughout his time in Chicago, Babich was responsible for signaling the defensive play-calls from the sideline and the Bears responded by leading the NFL in percentage of points off turnovers, total defensive takeaways, third-down defense and opponent quarterback rating.

They also were second in defensive red-zone touchdown ratio, defensive touchdowns and interceptions.

Under his tutelage, Babich fashioned the NFL's most productive linebacking corps with Brian Urlacher, franchise player Lance Briggs and Hunter Hillenmeyer.

Urlacher was the 2005 defensive player of the year, Briggs the team runner-up to Urlacher in total tackles the last two seasons, and Hillenmeyer has averaged nearly 80 tackles in his three seasons as a starter.

Briggs and Urlacher were Pro Bowl selections the last two seasons, the first time since 1987 the Bears had a pair of linebackers chosen.

Babich was the only person to speak at Tuesday's conference call and said the working relationship Rivera had with him and Smith was a smooth one.

"I think we had good harmony on our staff," said Babich, the first hire by Smith when he became head coach. "We worked together to form a plan and Ron stuck to that plan.

"I feel no added pressure (replacing him). The key to handling pressure is feeling you're prepared for the situation. I feel I'm prepared. I'm very comfortable with the position I'm in."