The Houston Texans’ coaching search appeared that it was going to end with a candidate younger than 45 years old.
The Texans were taking a look at Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, and even former NFL quarterback Josh McCown, who had no coaching experience.
Instead the Texans transitioned from 66-year-old David Culley to 63-year-old Lovie Smith, who was the defensive coordinator and associate head coach last year.
General manager Nick Caserio went on “The Jim Rome Show” Feb. 15 to talk about how the Texans ended up promoting Smith after taking almost a month to find the right candidate.
“It’s long, winding road,” said Caserio. “You don’t go directly from point A to point B. So, had the opportunity to talk to a lot of good coaches throughout the course of the league. I think the way the league sets up the processes for coaches and candidates, who you’re interviewing, who you don’t interview. Sometimes it gets a little jaded and a little misguided. But we talked to different coaches throughout the course of the process and Lovie was somebody that obviously having been here last year, having been in our building, certainly respect his viewpoint and opinion of our team.”
With Smith adding his perspective on the team throughout the hiring process, the former 2005 NFL Coach of the Year unwittingly became a candidate as the Texans’ fifth full-time coach in team history.
“So, as we worked through it, he was a good resource on a number of different topics. Had the opportunity to sit with him at different points and get his 50,000 feet view maybe of our team, where we were, some of the things that happened from a program standpoint.
“So, a lot of this is taking a lot of information and processing information and arrived at an endpoint that we feel makes the most sense. And that’s really kind of where we ended up at the end with Lovie.”
Smith last coached in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2014-15, compiling records of 2-14 and 6-10. Smith’s most memorable coaching gig came with the Chicago Bears from 2004-12 when he led the NFC North club to three division titles, two NFC Championship Game appearances, and a Super Bowl berth at the end of the 2006 campaign.