Titans go with Callahan as coach
Whatever may come of the Tennessee Titans’ next coach, know this: They didn’t settle for him.
He wasn’t their third choice or their fifth. They didn’t bother waiting in case there was someone better, and they didn’t risk another franchise seeing what they already saw. The Titans wanted Brian Callahan so badly that they didn’t let the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator leave for other interviews before starting work on a deal Monday.
The first outside hire of this year’s NFL coaching carousel was made with conviction, and that alone speaks well of the Titans’ choice to replace Mike Vrabel. Truth is, though, you don’t have to travel far to hear someone speak highly of Callahan.
“I couldn’t be more excited for our city and the Titans organization,” Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea told The Tennessean. “They have selected an excellent coach and an even better person.”
Lea would know. He and Callahan are close friends. Have been for years, going back to when they were both graduate assistants in 2006 at UCLA. Callahan was a part of Lea’s wedding. How’s that for a small world? “I look forward to welcoming Brian and his family to Nashville,” Lea said, “as well as to future opportunities for us to engage our community together.”
Coaching hires in the NFL get measured over years, not hours. We won’t know for a while. But a successful job search in any field is one in which you land a candidate you truly want.
The Titans were so serious about Callahan, according to The Athletic’s Paul Dehner, that they sent an airplane to pick him up with weather causing travel problems in Cincinnati, thus saving Callahan from having to drive to Nashville.