LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Mike Tice was at Halas Hall Thursday interviewing for an offensive coaching position with the Bears.

Tice, 50, has 28 years of NFL experience, 14 as a player and 14 as a coach. He has spent the past four seasons as assistant head coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, doubling as tight ends coach the last three years.

Jaguars assistant Mike Tice has 28 years of NFL experience, 14 as a player and 14 as a coach.

Prior to joining the Jaguars, Tice spent 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings as a player and coach. After playing tight end for three seasons (1992-93, ’95), he worked as tight ends coach in 1996 and offensive line coach from 1997-2001 before being promoted to head coach.

Tice compiled a 33-34 record as head coach, including 1-1 in the playoffs. In his first year in that role in 2002, Minnesota led the NFL in rushing for the first time in franchise history with 2,507 yards.

As an offensive line coach, Tice tutored five players—Matt Birk, Jeff Christy, Randall McDaniel, Todd Steussie and Korey Stringer—to 10 Pro Bowl appearances. In 1998, when the Vikings scored an NFL-record 556 points, three Minnesota offensive linemen started in the Pro Bowl.

In Tice’s first two seasons in Jacksonville, the Jaguars rushing attack had the two most productive seasons in team history, gaining 2,541 yards in 2006 and 2,391 yards in 2007. Jacksonville set franchise records in 2007 for points (411), average yards per play (5.6) and touchdowns (50).

As a player, Tice appeared in 177 games, catching 107 passes for 894 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Seattle Seahawks (1981-88, 1990-91), Washington Redskins (1989) and Vikings.

Tice is the third assistant coach the Bears have interviewed this week. They spoke with former Bills interim head coach Perry Fewell about the defensive coordinator position Monday and Bengals quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese about the offensive coordinator job Tuesday.

While some media reports have indicated that former Broncos quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates and Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements were the Bears’ top two choices for the offensive coordinator position, that is not true. They were simply among the first coaches who were available to discuss the job.

The Bears are bringing multiple candidates to interview at Halas Hall and will then formulate a pecking order after meeting with those qualified individuals.