Mike Martz, who turned down a short-term contract extension from the Chicago Bears during the preseason, would be interested in several prominent West Coast college head-coaching positions, UCLA and Arizona State among them, according to a league source.
Those Pacific-12 Conference jobs recently came open after UCLA fired Rick Neuheisel and Arizona State let go of Dennis Erickson.
Martz, who's in the final year of his contract as the Bears' offensive coordinator, is most familiar with Arizona State, where he spent nine seasons as the Sun Devils' quarterbacks and receivers coach (1983, 1986-87) and offensive coordinator (1984, 1988-91) before jumping to the NFL with the then-Los Angeles Rams. He eventually became the Rams' head coach, after they moved to St. Louis.
Martz started his football career on the West Coast, playing at UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State and coaching at numerous colleges before leaving for the University of Minnesota for one season, then going to Arizona State.
