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LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Despite the great success the Bears have enjoyed on special teams, Dave Toub swears that he doesn’t own an assembly line that churns out players who excel in that phase of the game.

Asked if special teams standouts are made or born, the Bears coordinator said: “They have to have innate ability with toughness, instincts and speed. So I think you’re born with most of the traits to be a good special teams player.”

That perspective makes Toub more of a gardener than a mad scientist in terms of weeding out the players who don’t have the ability to contribute on special teams and honing the skills of those who do.

Many players entering the NFL only participated on special teams early in their college careers before cementing starting positions on offense or defense.

“When we’re evaluating players we have to go back to their freshman and sophomore tape or just try to project a guy by looking at his senior tape on offense or defense to see what kind of traits he has,” Toub said.

“You look for someone who’s not afraid to stick their head in there; people who are tenacious when they block and finish their blocks. You’re looking for someone who plays hard every down. They have to jump off the tape.”

The toughest challenge Toub faces with novices is teaching an offensive player how to tackle.

“It’s something that they’re not used to,” he said. “You have to revert back all the way to when they were in fifth or sixth grade. The hardest part is being able to break down and wrap up and tackle in space.”

One of the Bears’ greatest success stories is Garrett Wolfe. A record-breaking running back at Northern Illinois, the diminutive 5-7, 186-pounder has developed into a special teams standout in the NFL after never having played that phase of the game in college.

A 2007 third-round draft pick, Wolfe initially balked at playing special teams.

“It’s one of those things that you’ve got to want to do,” said Wolfe, who became the 12th player in NCAA Division I-A history to rush for over 5,000 yards. “Having a successful college career like I had, that wasn’t something I wanted to do.  I wasn’t interested in it. And then a couple games in, I just got tired of not being able to help the team win. I dressed every game, but things weren’t going too well as far as the running back rotation.

“Toub came to me and asked me to play ‘punt protector’ and I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve been playing special teams ever since and I love it.”

In 2008, Wolfe led the Bears with 21 special-teams tackles despite missing the final three games with an injury. Last season he recorded nine special-teams stops in eight contests before being placed on injured reserve with a lacerated kidney he sustained in a loss to the Cardinals.

“Special teams is all attitude,” Wolfe said. “It’s like being a pass blocker as a running back. You’ve got to want to do it. If you don’t want to do it, you’re not going to get it done.

“I remember one time in the preseason my rookie year when a guy was running right at me one-on-one. Those are situations that I dream of now on kickoffs. But then I was backing up, trying to create some space to get somebody else to come over because tackling wasn’t something I was very familiar with.

“Like I said, you’ve got to want to do it. You’ve got to have an attitude, a chip on your shoulder, and just want to go in there and make something happen. That’s why I love it. You get pretty much free reign to do whatever you want as long as you make the tackle.”

There’s a stigma with some players, who believe that special teams is “below them” and not as important as contributing on offense or defense. But that’s not the case with the Bears, who have been ranked near the top of the league in special teams since Toub arrived as part of coach Lovie Smith’s original staff in 2004.

“They might have had that attitude in college, but once they get here we try to stamp that out,” Toub said. “During rookie camp we have a nice speech for them about how important special teams are for us.

“And then once they get around our veteran players, they see that there’s a pride about special teams here and it kind of carries over. It infiltrates those guys and they know how important it is.”