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Head Coach Candidate (Lovie Smith Hired) 2/7/22

Jack Burton

Veteran
So, the Texans had these head coaching candidates available to start their search:
Brian Daboll - helped turn Josh Allen into a very good QB
Matt Eberflus - helped turn the Colts defense into a top 10 defense
Nathaniel Hackett - helped Blake Bortles and the Jags get to the AFCCG
Mike McDaniel - assisted Shanahan in developing solid running games, something the Texans have struggled with since AF
Josh McDaniels
Kevin O'Connell
Doug Pederson - won a Super Bowl as HC of the Eagles with Foles and Wentz as his QB's
Josh McCown - high school coach
Flores

Now it's down to Lovie (not even a consideration at the beginning of the head coaching search) and Flores, a guy who has made himself NFL enemy #1.
Was McClown a high school coach?
 

austins23

Hall of Fame
So…. Lemme see if I get this straight.
Nick wanted Gannon but they couldn’t agree on coaching hires?

If Nick thinks Gannon is the shiznit, why wouldn’t he let him (Gannon) choose his coaching staff? Folks he is comfortable with (I refuse to use the word “aligned”) Makes more sense to let the HC choose his own staff. If not, seems to me Nick would be trying to ram the square peg into the round hole.

And if Gannon was the choice of Nick he should have been confident in him enough to let him choose his staff. To let him develop Mills. To let him coach!!

This all stinks to high heaven. We had a Lovie Smith already. Why go through all this crapola to just do the same thing??

Ugh! Just bad. Bad.
 

Jack Burton

Veteran
I see a lot of negativity about this Lovie Smith appointment but seriously, how often does a (struggling) team get to bring in a two time SB winning HC?
We will also quickly see an identity for Texans - defense!
Edit! - Lovie went twice, but lost both times.
In a weird way, the whole fiasco with Flores sort of took the actual fustercluck that was hiring a HC out of the braintrust of tards hands at the top in HOU.
Their hairbrained schemes and ideas for a HC we’re miraculously taken away from them and they were left with just taking the grown adult who’s done it before and was already on staff.
And while I don’t necessarily care for Lovie, I also realize that this is most obviously for the best with these idiot owners and their weird, pseudo religious power structure.

God works in mysterious ways my friends…….
If you believe in that stuff…
 
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nut

Veteran
Super Bowl Odds at Caesars for 2023 last week: Texans bet $100, win $20,000. Same @ Circa in downtown LV. If you like our chances, betting $1,000 will win you $200,000. If you bet 1K at Fanduel as of 4 days ago, you'll only win $180,000. Make sure you get your best deal. Good luck to all.
 
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thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
I know, right?
Everyone was pumped when JAX hired Peterson, a coach with a SB win under his belt. All the Sport Hacks made a big deal that they scored a SB winning coach! Seems like Lovie should reside in that same thin air, reputation wise.
I honestly think Lovie sits well in the group of AFCSouth coaches.

I think Flores would have as well.

I don't know how Gannon, O'Connell, or Demeco Ryans would do but there's good reason to believe they'd have sat well in that group.

I believe there's good reason to believe we'd have been at a deficit with Culley or McCown.

Doesn't mean I'm happy they settled on Lovie. I'm happy they didn't settle on McCown.
 

KA4Texan

Woof!
Contributor's Club
Well, I have to give the Texans credit.

If they wanted me to be on board wit Lovie... narrowing the search down like they did.... that's how you do it.

IMO you could do worse, but I was hoping for better. Given who they narrowed it down to... I'd say this is the safer of gambles and not the worst thing to happen.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
for me it’s big to keep the 4-3 defense. Also I wanted to see D at the HC position. Lovie just didn’t have the horses last year but he developed his rookie players, he preached for and coached the defense to about a threefold increase in takeaways and really with his roster and about zero help from the offense he was up against a tough challenge. When the offense played well his D looked better.
Will starters at round 1 and round 2 be enough on defense to show significant Improvement?
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
Like Kubiak. Its nice to know one side of the ball has a clearly defined identity and we know what types of players will work for the system. Lets hope Pep and maybe Mccown can bring the same thing to the offense!
What is the difference in 2021 defense and what we think will be 22 defense that gives 2022 such a clear up identity over the year before?
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
Agreed but that was foolish. DW was gone and they couldn’t get it thru their skulls he was checked out.
To be fair at that particular moment in time no one else knew what DW allegedly had done or how far this would go. They were clutching at straws no matter how weak that straw appeared to be.
 

Mangler

Toro de España
I hope we can get those 3rd round compensatory picks for pulling Lovie from DC to HC. We need decent pass rushers BAD!
 

thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
From my sources, I can now say for sure that Caserio wanted Gannon. But things didn't work out.
When things didn't work out with Gannon defensive background coach (and I haven't yet confirmed this, but believe from some things I've heard that Cal insisted on Lovie being kept on as the DC), things went south then
This is not good when an owner repeatedly does a grab of his GM and HC decision making
I've got mixed feelings here. I have to believe Nick sold Cal on stability in coaching, if he was "hiring" coaching staff. Lovie/Kelly for Culley. O'Connell for Gannon, Pep for Flores...

If I'm Cal & he starts talking about getting rid of Lovie while keeping Pep, I'm going to call Nick on it & hold him to the original plan. Going forward with Pep & Lovie on the team.

I understand Neither were supposed to be HC. We were supposed to get a Tomlin. So either start the process over, or go with the new plan B.
 

leebigeztx

Keep it Movin!
What is the difference in 2021 defense and what we think will be 22 defense that gives 2022 such a clear up identity over the year before?
They have a particular system that has proven to be effective. If the 2020 Texans had the 2021 defense, they would've made the playoffs. The 2020 defense was so bad, it was one of the worse in the history of nfl. The offense of 2020 was 12 in points I think despite being terrible running the ball. Lovie knows the exact body type and players that fit his defense. Even though I wish he had a bigger defense, its what it is.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
what in the hell does Janice know about football? Like seriously, other than the bank account what do any of the McNairs know about football. Suddenly they are qualified to hire GM’s and coaches because of the size of their bank account?
Owning any business or company does not mean that said owner, CEO or other title is qualified to hire certain employees. They need to know how to make money. The McNairs were not only owners Making questionable decision. Visit any Washington, Jaguars, dolphin, Detroit, and Panthers as well as Eagles fan forum. Each think their team's ownership or GM or coach is NFL worst.
 

CloakNNNdagger

Hall of Fame
The darn owner had to step in and I commend him for doing just that. He showed some freaking balls. It’s his freaking team and both Caserio and the Pastor could not get on the same darn page and make a decision.
Technically, Caserio and Easterby don't need to be on the same page..........nor does Caserio and Cal. As an owner, Cal hired Caserio as GM...............to make these decisions. But Cal cannot help himself but to be influenced by Easterby and to take away the final decision making from Caserio.

It's hard to do your job, when you don't know where it's coming from next................
1644296304937.png

1644296408126.png
 

Mr teX

Hall of Fame
Owning any business or company does not mean that said owner, CEO or other title is qualified to hire certain employees. They need to know how to make money. The McNairs were not only owners Making questionable decision. Visit any Washington, Jaguars, dolphin, Detroit, and Panthers as well as Eagles fan forum. Each think their team's ownership or GM or coach is NFL worst.
it really does boggle my mind how people here actually think McNair is any different from all these other owners.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
Oh boy do we always have to be Debbie? I mean we all know the current state of this freaking team. But dang no matter what they do a certain few will complain and only speak negativity. Joker complained about the lack of talent we had all across the board. Beat that dead horse to death :deadhorse:deadhorse. So we are really going to say Lovie’s defense last season wasn’t good? Even though that darn talentless defense did better than expected. Especially when the freaking offense was straight up trash for 80% of the games.

I’m sorry I just don’t understand some fans logic around here.
I think lovey's defense in 2021 was 31 out of 32? Is that not bad no matter what the reason? What players in the offseason are going to make us much better?
 

Mr teX

Hall of Fame
Technically, Caserio and Easterby don't need to be on the same page..........nor does Caserio and Cal. As an owner, Cal hired Caserio as GM...............to make these decisions. But Cal cannot help himself but to be influenced by Easterby and to take away the final decision making from Caserio.

It's hard to do your job, when you don't know where it's coming from next................
View attachment 9718

View attachment 9719
Every owner reserves that right to take away the decision of his GM…and most all of them have done it at 1 point or another. Fans just get upset & want owners to be all hands on when they want them to be and hands off when they want….and most of them dont live and die with the team like we do. The 1 owner who does (Jones) gets criticized relentlessly too.

So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But it’s silly as hell for fans to criticize the guy for making a “safe” pick.
 

CloakNNNdagger

Hall of Fame
So…. Lemme see if I get this straight.
Nick wanted Gannon but they couldn’t agree on coaching hires?

If Nick thinks Gannon is the shiznit, why wouldn’t he let him (Gannon) choose his coaching staff? Folks he is comfortable with (I refuse to use the word “aligned”) Makes more sense to let the HC choose his own staff. If not, seems to me Nick would be trying to ram the square peg into the round hole.

And if Gannon was the choice of Nick he should have been confident in him enough to let him choose his staff. To let him develop Mills. To let him coach!!

This all stinks to high heaven. We had a Lovie Smith already. Why go through all this crapola to just do the same thing??

Ugh! Just bad. Bad.
You obviously have not read my post concerning this. Gannon wanted to choose his own staff, especially DC........Cal wanted Lovie to be retained.............Nick was overruled.............Gannon walked.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
Just like the Culley hire, Lovie's hire was strictly a Cal decision.......not Caserio's. Cal cannot take any responsibility for anything. He made sure that Caserio would be responsible for firing Culley, as he will now make Caserio responsible for any failure of Lovie's.

From my sources, I can now say for sure that Caserio wanted Gannon. But things didn't work out. Meanwhile, Easterby was pushing hard in Cal's ear for McCown who was also in favor of McCown, but was totally gunshy of the criticism the Texas would incur because of McCown's inexperience. When things didn't work out with Gannon defensive background coach (and I haven't yet confirmed this, but believe from some things I've heard that Cal insisted on Lovie being kept on as the DC), things went south then. When the Flores lawsuit was revealed, it put a monkey wrench into everything. No one felt comfortable with hiring Flores. Easterby was still pushing Cal hard to choose McCown. But Cal essentially ignored Caserio's advice to pump the brakes. Cal, as he did with Culley, bypassed Caserio's advice and went with the "safe hand"............Lovie.

This is not good when an owner repeatedly does a grab of his GM and HC decision making. At least Jerry Jones as the owner/GM usually takes responsibility and heat for his "interventions," whether they turn out good or bad.
Am I reading you correctly in that if Gannon had been the head coach hire that Lovie Smith would be gone? I thought the two might conflict.

Edit: you answered this in another post
 
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CloakNNNdagger

Hall of Fame
Every owner reserves that right to take away the decision of his GM…and most all of them have done it at 1 point or another. Fans just get upset & want owners to be all hands on when they want them to be and hands off when they want….and most of them dont live and die with the team like we do. The 1 owner who does (Jones) gets criticized relentlessly too.

So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But it’s silly as hell for fans to criticize the guy for making a “safe” pick.
Not as often as Cal has in his short time as owner. If you don't trust who you hired to do the job then fire him, but don't keep undermining him and then let him take the blame for the problems you created.
 

maverick512000

Hall of Fame
Am I reading you correctly in that if Gannon had been the head coach hire that Lovie Smith would be gone? I thought the two might conflict.
Which is why I can’t really be that upset at Cal. Gannon didn’t really impress me with Eagles defense and Lovie has shown he can make chicken salad.
 

Texansballer74

The Marine
I think lovey's defense in 2021 was 31 out of 32? Is that not bad no matter what the reason? What players in the offseason are going to make us much better?
But the thing is when you have an offense that couldn’t get past the 50 yard line in more than half the games in a season, the defense will suffer. Why because they’re on the field 80% of the time and fatigue will set in. This is why I tell people to tell the full story. That talentless defense can out to play in most of those games. They forced turnovers on a pretty solid clip. Unfortunately the offense couldn’t generate anything off of them.
 

Texansballer74

The Marine
Not as often as Cal has in his short time as owner. If you don't trust who you hired to do the job then fire him, but don't keep undermining him and then let him take the blame for the problems you created.
Everyone on here knows Cal is a pushover. Bill O’Brien gave people the blueprint to how to run all over him. So it was pretty darn refreshing to see Cal step up and make a freaking decision.
 

thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
Not as often as Cal has in his short time as owner. If you don't trust who you hired to do the job then fire him, but don't keep undermining him and then let him take the blame for the problems you created.
I don't want Cal making any football decisions other than, "yep/nope this guy can/can't run my football team."

But this time I agree with him & I'm glad he stepped in.

He just dropped $20M because Culley wasn't on board with Nick's offensive staff. Doesn't make sense to change the rules & hire someone not on board with Nick's defensive staff.

They started out looking for a Tomlin to come in at the top & coach "our" coaches.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
But the thing is when you have an offense that couldn’t get past the 50 yard line in more than half the games in a season, the defense will suffer. Why because they’re on the field 80% of the time and fatigue will set in. This is why I tell people to tell the full story. That talentless defense can out to play in most of those games. They forced turnovers on a pretty solid clip. Unfortunately the offense couldn’t generate anything off of them.
I get what you were saying and do recognize that Lovie had difficulty with the injuries. However watching play calling by Mister Smith and how veteran defensive players performed I was not thrilled. Frequently players were out of position and often looked more confused than I do.

If that changes this season I will be thrilled.
 

Corrosion

Idealist
Staff member
Is this brilliant or what? Scare the crapola out of the fan base with the possibility of a giving a backup QB with zero coaching experience the head coach job. Only to pull the old switcharoo with another 65 year old assistant coach. And everyone is happy instead of scratching their heads?
You know as soon as they fire Lovie we'll be right back at hiring Josh McCown again, that is assuming Caserio & Janice are still part of the decision making process.
 
You know as soon as they fire Lovie we'll be right back at hiring Josh McCown again, that is assuming Caserio & Janice are still part of the decision making process.
Honestly just having a HC hold a playbook again has placated me

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk
 

Corrosion

Idealist
Staff member
Where'd you get that?

I think they dumped Culley because they wanted Flores. That fell through & they pursued Gannon, that fell through & are working on plan C.

I'd have liked if they would have called Flores & offered him the job that week before they fired Culley. Then we could have avoided all this drama


They were never going to hire Flores. Not with Mulugheta as his agent. They had every intention to hire Josh McCown until Cal finally won a power struggle .....

He was their Rooney Rule candidate.


The Texans (and most other teams) will avoid doing business with Mulugheta as much as is humanly possible. It won't be long before that guy is out of the league. His constantly making race an issue does not sit well with the people who write the checks .....
 

Dejaview

All Pro
Will starters at round 1 and round 2 be enough on defense to show significant Improvement?
They will be rookie starters if our draft goes that way. Let’s look at the FA’s too. I’m hoping Lovie can get Jacob Martin to stay. The right DC can go a long way. As crazy as it sounds I believe the Texans made strides last year towards improvement. OB was gone. IMO there was a different type of energy being infused. Both sides of the ball still were shells but they were coached to where they can see who sticks and they can start putting meat on the bones of that roster. That was a vital first step...scrub the roster, promote Pep, find the right DC, keep the 4-3. Should see improvements.
 

welsh texan

You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one
I’m starting to get a vibe that rather than stepping up to a full GM role out of Bellichicks shadow, Caserio is actually positioning himself in the Bellichick role.

Serious candidates have turned away from having him managing the coaching staff, headset on and active on game day.

Lovie, I understand not many get a 3rd shot and he is a decade from being considered as HC by any NFL team, the rest of the candidates have either leaked that they didn’t like the control being exerted or were under qualified.
 

Mr teX

Hall of Fame
Not as often as Cal has in his short time as owner. If you don't trust who you hired to do the job then fire him, but don't keep undermining him and then let him take the blame for the problems you created.
well that’s in essence what happened after he promoted BoB to GM… Like I’ve said, all these owners do it, fans just want what they want when they want it….
 

Speedy

Former Yeller Dweller
Doesn't mean I'm happy they settled on Lovie. I'm happy they didn't settle on McCown.
And that’s the thing. With hiring McCown being the dumbest thing they could possibly do, we end up happy with whew, at least they didn’t do that. And we gladly mediocre along.

As I’ve said, I have no issue with Lovie, but then I was OK with Culley for another year. This roster is still garbage, and I don’t care what HC would have been brought in, there’s going to be a lot more losing to come. So Culley, Lovie, who cares? It isn’t making much difference right now.

Now in a couple of years when the roster is up to competing for something (hopefully) and we’re in the HC search again, I want someone with experience, someone who has put the time in and earned his dues and is rising through the ranks. Whether that’s Gannon, DeMeco, Lombardi, or whoever the hot prospects are in a year or 2, I don’t care. Just enough of the damn drama bullshit the Texans do when they do a freaking search.
 

austins23

Hall of Fame
You obviously have not read my post concerning this. Gannon wanted to choose his own staff, especially DC........Cal wanted Lovie to be retained.............Nick was overruled.............Gannon walked.
Got ya, but it still reinforces my point, kind of. None of those clowns are “aligned”.
Cal hired Nick to do a job. He was doing it and Cal cut him off at the knees wanting to keep Smith. So Cal was the one trying to ram the square peg into the round hole.
These guys are oblivious.

And I read all your posts Doc, my reading retention isn’t what it used to be.
 

djohn2oo8

All Pro
They were never going to hire Flores. Not with Mulugheta as his agent. They had every intention to hire Josh McCown until Cal finally won a power struggle .....

He was their Rooney Rule candidate.


The Texans (and most other teams) will avoid doing business with Mulugheta as much as is humanly possible. It won't be long before that guy is out of the league. His constantly making race an issue does not sit well with the people who write the checks .....
I won’t be surprised if they try to go the “retaliation” route now. Seems like that’s already started.
 

Earl34

Hall of Fame
Which is why I can’t really be that upset at Cal. Gannon didn’t really impress me with Eagles defense and Lovie has shown he can make chicken salad.
My first thought when Gannon was mentioned as a strong contender and his game plan defense approach was from a defensive philosophy standpoint, it appeared him and Lovie would not be a match. IMHO, Caserio should have known that if they wanted to keep Lovie as DC, any potential defensive minded HC might not want that scheme. Especially a younger defensive minded HC who likes the hybrids and wide 9 type defenses. You cannot hire a guy and force an existing scheme on him when his career might depend on said scheme
 

thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
They were never going to hire Flores. Not with Mulugheta as his agent. They had every intention to hire Josh McCown until Cal finally won a power struggle .....

He was their Rooney Rule candidate.


The Texans (and most other teams) will avoid doing business with Mulugheta as much as is humanly possible. It won't be long before that guy is out of the league. His constantly making race an issue does not sit well with the people who write the checks .....
I don’t want to believe that. Nick Caserio can’t be an idiot of such proportions.

I’m trying to hold on to hope that he can lead this organization to a Super Bowl.

If I get to the point of thinking he really wanted to hire McCown as HC, there’s no hope we’ll have a winning record
 

Earl34

Hall of Fame
Technically, Caserio and Easterby don't need to be on the same page..........nor does Caserio and Cal. As an owner, Cal hired Caserio as GM...............to make these decisions. But Cal cannot help himself but to be influenced by Easterby and to take away the final decision making from Caserio.

It's hard to do your job, when you don't know where it's coming from next................
At times, I know the fans and media can go overboard. But based on what you have heard and/or seen, are the concerns about Easterby's influence in NRG justified?
 
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IDEXAN

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
I wonder why Demeco wasn't given a real look.
I'm a big DeMeco fan myself so asked this same question in another thread when SteelB reminded me that Texans ownership was the defendant in a lawsuit involving DEMeco who sued them alleging their NRG turf was a factor in his lesfrac injury.
 
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