BC-FBN-BEARS-SMITH:TB — sports (550 words)
Moving trucks backed up to the Bears locker room Sunday before the final practice at Olivet Nazarene University. For parts of five weeks, coach Matt Nagy’s team worked here to forge an identity — creative and diverse on offense and tough and assignment-sound on defense. That process continues as the Bears transition to the second phase of the preseason.
To that end, the convoy pulled out of Bourbonnais, Ill., with a lighter load than the team had hoped. They moved only 89 players back to team headquarters in Lake Forest, Ill. Training camp came and went with one glaring absence from the 90-man roster.