FOXBORO -- We have no desire to talk about the former defensive coordinator. Truth be told, after more than a week, we're almost sick of hearing about him. No offense to the man, it was just overkill.

We'd much rather talk about the current defensive coordinator. After all, he's the one who oversaw the defense that statistically is the best the Patriots have ever had. And under such a defensive-minded coach like Bill Belichick and given the success New England has had in recent seasons, that's saying something.

So meet Dean Pees.

A married father of six and grandfather of one, Pees has actually been coaching football longer than Belichick -- this is his 34th season on the sidelines, to 32 for Belichick. An Ohio native, Pees had spent almost his entire career in the Midwest before coming to the Pats three years ago, the result of an off-the-cuff comment made during a phone call.

Pees first met Belichick in 1987, when he was secondary coach at Navy under Elliott Uzelac and Steve Belichick was in his final seasons with the Midshipmen. That summer, the three men traveled to Giants mini-camp, where Bill Belichick was defensive coordinator. Pees asked the younger Belichick a few questions about defense, and the two visited sporadically after that, Pees traveling to Cleveland once in while when Belichick (and Nick Saban, who hired Pees as his defensive coordinator at Michigan State) was with the Browns and he was at Toledo and then Notre Dame.

Pees' first impressions of the man who is now his boss?

"Just incredibly smart and thorough and just . . . incredibly smart," he said with a chuckle after practice on Friday. "He's inherited some of his father's very common-sense approach to some things. His father Steve was the most common-sense coach I've ever met in my life. I'd call him and he'd make me feel like an idiot because I asked a question. I'd get done (with the call) thinking, 'why didn't I think of that.' Bill has inherited a little of that."

Pees also called Belichick once in a great while looking for advice or instruction, and one call three years ago, when he was head coach at Kent State, ended up leading to his coming to Foxboro and his first job in the professional ranks.

"It was something about coverage that I had seen him do on TV, and I wanted to know about it. We got to talking and he asked me how things are going, and I said the last of my six children is graduating from college and I said, 'If you ever have an opening on your staff, boy, I would really be interested,' " Pees recalled. "He said, 'Geez, I never knew that you'd be interested in the NFL.' I said, 'I really think I would be.' "

As it turned out, Belichick had an opening at just that moment. Rob Ryan, Belichick's linebackers coach, had just been hired as Oakland's defensive coordinator.

"I promise you, I did not know. This was not a call knowing he had an opening. I didn't know Rob had left and gone to Oakland; I didn't even know Rob was on the staff," Pees said.

Belichick invited Pees to the Combine in Indianapolis, they talked, and he offered him the job.

Pees had been thinking about moving on for a couple of years, but was scared because he and wife Melody's four youngest children (it is a blended family; this is the second marriage for both) were all in college at the same time, and were getting free tuition at Kent State while he was employed there. It also meant they were all quite close. But once the youngest was graduating, Pees felt it was as good a time as any to take on a new challenge.

Though he had coached the 3-4 defense, and a modified version of Belichick's 3-4 scheme -- passed from Belichick to Saban to Pees -- for many years, that first meeting with his new charges was an interesting one for Pees.

"For me, it was like a head coach standing in front of his staff. They're all very, very into it, very smart, you don't have to tell 'em a whole lot of things, they already know it," he said. "It was like coaching coaches -- they understand it that well. The first year I got here, Bru (Tedy Bruschi) and (Mike) Vrabel knew the defense better than I knew the defense."

Clearly, Pees had little trouble with the New England defense. Just days after the Patriots' season ended last year, he was named defensive coordinator, replacing What's His Name, who had left for New York.

Despite key injuries from nearly the moment the season began -- Randall Gay, Tedy Bruschi, Eugene Wilson, Junior Seau, Rodney Harrison -- Pees oversaw a unit that has been the strength of the team all year. Not only that, but it established a new team record for points allowed in a 16-game season, with 237 (14.81 points per game).

"I said something to the team last week -- and then we moved on -- but I'm really proud of that," Pees said. "We had a bunch of guys that you almost kind of forget because they've been out so long, and then one week Ellis (Hobbs) would be out and one week Chad (Scott) would be out and one week 'Zant (Asante Samuel) would be out, and it was just kind of rolling. But to the guys' credit, everybody just jumped in there and we didn't make a big deal out of it. Life goes on, and let's keep this thing going."

smanza@projo.com / (401) 277-7340