On Friday, CSN Chicago’s John Mullin reported that Lovie Smith will be back for the 2010 season:

That has been my take of the situation for some weeks before this. Now two highly placed individuals within the organization have separately indicated that there will not be a change at the top of the on-field org chart, due in some measure to the looming prospect of a strike/lockout. The same assurances were not there with respect to changes on the staffs for offense and defense.

Don’t look for any announcement one way or the other, by the way. Organizations typically do not issue statements that nothing is happening. But this is the first time that I’ve been able to find something close to “statement” on Smith’s future, which is now all but certain to be coaching the 2010 Chicago Bears.

Yesterday, before the Bears-Ravens game, GM Jerry Angelo said this:

“At the end of the year we’ll talk. I know we’re not in the playoffs and obviously didn’t meet expectations. We did have some problems and I want to make sure I focus on that first and foremost.

“I don’t look at money in those times. It’s not about money. It’s about doing what we need to do to be a good football team.”

[ ... ]

“I don’t know where the report came from, again, speculation,” Angelo said. “At the end of the year we sit down and talk. I’m not going to talk about anything prematurely…. At the end of the year we’ll sit down and talk about everything. The protocol won’t change.”

So yeah: we have one reporter saying Smith will be back, but the same can’t be said for the rest of the coaching staff, while the team’s GM is saying no decision has been made yet, and they’ll sit down and have a nice chat once this mess of a season is over.

So who to believe? Well, as Mullin notes, the team isn’t going to come out and make some statement about this. Angelo is simply playing the company line here: by saying nothing is going to happen either way until after the season, it seeks to curb speculation. And really, it’s just the prudent thing to do here. If they’ve indeed decided to keep Smith, talking about it now during the depths of the season is only going to fuel Smith criticism. Really, they are going to keep him even through another bad game?

After the season is over, and the boo birds have quieted down a bit, that’s the best time to reveal Smith is still the coach of this team, if that is indeed the case.