By Kevin Patra, Senior News Writer
The Tennessee Titans have fired head coach Brian Callahan following a 1-5 start to his second season, the team announced on Monday.
“After extended conversations with our owner and general manager, we met with Brian Callahan this morning to tell him we are making a change at head coach,” president of football operations Chad Brinker said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy, and they become more difficult when they involve people of great character. We are grateful for Brian’s investment in the Titans and Tennessee community during his tenure as head coach. We thank him and his family for being exemplary ambassadors of the Tennessee Titans.
“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth. Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”
Callahan ends his career in Tennessee with a 4-19 record. The Titans went 3-14 in his first season before stumbling to a 1-5 start this year.
The Titans later named senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy the interim head coach. McCoy previously was the Chargers head coach from 2013 to 2016, during which he went 27-37.
The Titans host former head coach Mike Vrabel and the 4-2 New England Patriots in Week 7.
Why make an early-season move in Tennessee?
A year ago, Callahan’s club struggled mightily with consistency. It was mostly excused by poor quarterback play, which led to the Titans earning the No. 1 draft pick.
A year later, the same concerns remained. Callahan regularly made avoidable coaching errors. The onset of the season portended the epic failures that would dissolve the Titans’ season before it got off the ground.
In Week 1, Callahan failed to challenge an incomplete ruling in a close game in Denver, after which he didn’t seem to understand the rules. In Week 3, he mismanaged an end-of-half field goal situation by taking too long to decide on a plan, which caused a delay of game and a blocked attempt.
Even handing off the play-calling to quarterback coach Bo Hardegree did not help the Titans offense or Callahan’s management.
The coach had poor responses when rookie quarterback Cam Ward chided his own team’s play. Then this week, the rotten cherry on top came with veteran Jeffery Simmons, the club’s best player, admitting after Sunday’s loss in Las Vegas that the Titans had a terrible week of practice.
If a coaching staff can’t get its players ready after a win, there is no future.