Philadelphia Eagles coaching search: Tony Dungy, Mike Lombardi on Lovie Smith

The Eagles are interviewing Lovie Smith for their vacant head coaching position today and CSNPhilly caught up with his old boss Tony Dungy to get his thoughts on the former Bears coach.

"I think good fits are people who win," Super Bowl champion coach Tony Dungy said in an interview with CSNPhilly.com. "There aren’t that many good coaches out there, coaches that have the track records of going to the playoffs and going to the Super Bowl. That’s important.

"Getting people to play well and be in contention all the time. It’s not that easy. I know Lovie can do that. If you’re in it, you have a chance to win. Lovie is good. Wherever he lands, they will win."

Smith worked under Dungy in Tampa Bay, a place Dungy was fired from after years of fielding good teams, but not getting to a Super Bowl... not unlike Lovie himself. Dungy of course went on to win a championship with the Colts despite being a "retread." He said that after he was fired, he tried to show teams that his results weren't bad.

"Your only hope as a [retread] coach is maybe I can sell them with results. That was my strategy. That was the way I tried to do it. Eventually, I think that’s what happened to me in Tampa Bay. They felt if we had more of something else, we could win more. All you can do is run your program the way you can. I tried to win and hope the results speak for themselves."

Smith could certainly do that with his 81-63 record as a head coach as well as his trips to to 2 NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance.

Former Eagles GM and current NFL Network pundit Mike Lombardi also weighed in on Lovie.

"Lovie Smith has a proven track record, he's been to a Super Bowl and those are appealing qualities for the Eagles front office and owner Jeffrey Lurie. But he's going to have to convince them he has the right offensive staff to help this Eagles offense get going.

And Reid, 14 years as the offensive coach here in Philly as well as the head coach. So there's been a style, a standard that they're used to here in Philly in terms of helping the offense. I think Lovie is going to have to come in and prove to them that he's got the right mindset offensively, something that he has struggled with in Chicago.

That being said, Lovie gives them stability defensively and someone who knows how to do the job. This is important. Head coaches often have to trained on the job, but guys like Lovie Smith & Ken Whisenhunt know how to do the job."