Over the weekend the Titans decided to stick with interim head coach Mike Mularkey in 2016. On Monday, the team held a press conference to introduce him as their head coach of the future.
The team brass- owner Amy Adams Strunk, co-owner Kenneth Adams IV, president and CEO Steve Underwood and newly named general manager Jon Robinson– are hoping that the third time is the charm for the former Bills and Jaguars coach, who started 2015 as assistant head coach/tight ends before taking over in November.
Mike Mularkey: “You will see change happen.” WATCH: https://t.co/7vaxcQbo38 pic.twitter.com/2PTJIro3tJ
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) January 18, 2016
After starting the year 1-6 the Titans fired Ken Whisenhunt, who went 3-20 in a year and a half as head coach. Mularkey, who coached 2004-5 in Buffalo and 2012 in Jacksonville and spent eight years with four teams as an offensive coordinator, took over.
Despite going 2-7 to finish the year the team showed improvement in several areas (pass protection, penalties) and the locker room had his back. A lot of speculation and rumor had him getting the permanent job, as the Titans only interviewed two outside candidates.
In three full years as head coach, Mularkey has gone 9-7, 5-11 (Buffalo, 2004-5) and 2-14 (Jacksonville, 2012). In eight years as offensive coordinator of Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay his teams made the playoffs five times. His four years with Atlanta (2008-11), where he oversaw the development of then-young quarterback Matt Ryan, probably lent his candidacy a lot credibility to Titans’ officials.
However, including 2015, Mularkey sports a career 18-39 record as head coach- which gives him the second-lowest winning percentage ever of a coach going into his third stop.
Same old Titans, right?
Right, but … anyone remember the name of the last interim Titans’coach who got the full time gig?
The year was 1994. The Houston Oilers started 1-9 before tossing the keys to the defensive coordinator and saying, here, kid,you drive.
Jeff Fisher finished the year 1-5 and four years later had the now Tennessee Titans in the Super Bowl.
Fisher might have left town tied to a rail but in hindsight for sure many fans now look back on the era Fisher engineered with nauseous nostalgia compared to the five year train wreck they’ve been witnessing since he left.
Mularkey, in his first presser on Monday as head coach, said, “You will see change happen.”
But history is heavily against him.
Fisher is the exception that proves the rule when it comes to interim-turned-head coaches. Since 1990, 10 interim coaches got the full time job. Only Fisher had a winning record, the other nine combined to go 157-250-1 (.386).
Mularkey’s career winning percentage, in three and a half seasons as head coach, is .316.
Here’s hoping that Mularkey beats the odds. More Titans News
