As expected, the Texans have hired Lovie Smith as their new head coach. The team announced that their defensive coordinator has earned the promotion to HC. We heard earlier today that the organization was moving towards hiring Smith as their next head coach.
“The last couple of seasons have been disappointing, but I believe in the vision Nick Caserio has for our football team moving forward and I see the pieces coming together,” said Texans Chair and Chief Executive Officer Cal McNair (via the team’s website). “Our goal here is to create an environment that’s conducive to winning on a day-to-day basis and compete for championships. I’ve had an extreme amount of respect for Lovie for years now and that only grew with the work he did last season and throughout this process. I’m excited for him and his family as we continue to evolve as an organization.”
Smith brings a wealth of experience to the table, having been a head coach for 16 of the past 18 years between the NFL and NCAA ranks. His longest stint on any one sideline was as HC of the Bears between 2004 and 2012. That stretch included a Coach of The Year award, along with a Super Bowl appearance not long after. From then on, though, his time in Chicago generally went downhill; an unsuccessful two years as the HC in Tampa Bay (which came after interviewing in Houston) certainly didn’t help his chances of another opportunity to lead an NFL team. 2021 was his first and only season as the DC in Houston, a year in which the defense did show signs of improvement.
Smith wasn’t initially considered to be a candidate for the gig, with Dolphins HC Brian Flores, Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and recently retired quarterback Josh McCown all considered as favorites at one point. Smith only emerged as a legitimate candidate this past week.
The team also announced that they’ve promoted Pep Hamilton to offensive coordinator and will retain Frank Ross as their special teams coordinator. Hamilton, 47, has had a long coaching career, including a three-year stint as the Colts offensive coordinator. He joined the Texans last offseason, catching on as the team’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was considered for the OC job in Jacksonville this offseason.
Last second candidate gets the hire? Why?
It wasn’t last-second – it just wasn’t public until today. I’m sure they’ve been in talks with Lovie for a while now. They prolly didn’t need to do an official interview cause they already were familiar with him and stuff.
I’m guessing with Flores mess they didn’t want to touch and josh maybe not ready they probably took on him. So they can hire josh to take over one day is my guess
Josh becomes OC and HC in waiting?
Good hire. They needed a seasoned HC to get this thing back on track. Easy when its already an inhouse.
Maybe this time they’ll retain a coach for TWO years.
Who’s going to be the defensive coordinator?
Forget all the other coaches he competed against that would have been more deserving. Why fire Culley for Smith?
I have no idea. I mean, theoretically Smith is a better coach, and he’s 6 years younger, but Culley did well with a terrible Texans squad. This whole thing is weird.
Culley had no prior experience as a HC and the franchise is going to deal Watson this offseason. They’ll need a seasoned HC to weather the storm. He’s not the answer, he’s a stopgap. Also it’s a change in mindset – Offensive vs Defensive minded coach.
But Smith came from Culley’s staff, so even if all of that were true (which I don’t believe considering that there is no need for a new coach to “weather the storm” when your old one was a stopgap to begin with), you could have had both with zero transition if you just retained Culley.
I think it makes more sense that the Texans either wanted McCown and got scared by Flores’ suit, or that they wanted Flores and got scared by Flores’ suit. The only possibility I can think of is that they wanted McDaniels before he went to L.V. But I just don’t see a way that Smith was anything other than a last minute escape plan for a strategy that didn’t follow through.
So Texas is tanking.
What a coincidence that the NFL gets hit with a lawsuit alleging discrimination in its hiring practices and then a bunch of minority candidates surprisingly get hired across the league. Super weird timing, you guys.
“…a bunch of minority candidates surprisingly get hired across the league.”
What are you talking about? 2/9 of the
new head coaches are minorities. That’s not a statistically significant number in either direction. People will complain about anything these days
Not just head coaches. Look at the coordinator jobs that have been filled recently as well. Even some executive positions were filled by PoC. The same league that made famous firing minority head coaches after finishing with a winning record or after only a year or two on the job. Lovie happens to be a member of both of those clubs.
Always going to be some moron who finds something suspicious about a black man getting a prominent job.
Somebody always has to bring up race. Any chance that Lonnie Smith was better than any of the other candidates?
Lonnie Smith was a great center fielder, but I don’t think he’s qualified to coach football.
He has the same amount of NFL and college coaching experiences Mcnown though, so who knows.
You guys are missing the point entirely. Goodell works for the owners and stewards the PR direction of the league. Flores’ lawsuit has statistical merit and supporting evidence in communications among league officials.
The owners face SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL LIABILITY regarding this lawsuit. Think about how hiring Josh McCown, with exactly zero coaching experience, would play in the media/public regarding this lawsuit when the other two finalists were Lovie and Flores.
Yeah, not great. Now, it’s obviously the NFL’s intent to blackball Flores for the foreseeable future, for stepping out, leaving Lovie as the only legitimate option.
I’m not saying Lovie isn’t a deserving NFL head coach. I’m a Bears fan and he’s my favorite NFL head coach of all-time. I’m saying the Texans never would have made this decision if the league wasn’t staring down the gun barrel of Flores’ lawsuit. They’re trying to hide their previous intent/motives in order to save money in a future settlement.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Weird timing? Flores sued the NFL while HCs were being hired. Regardless of the mix of hired individual’s skin color, you would’ve already been convinced it was weird.
If they’re serious about turning Josh McCown into a coach, and he’s willing to pay his dues, then I suspect he’ll be the next QB’s coach for the Texans. Sure would like to see Mike Munchak running the O-line. I guess the DC job is wide open.
If he wants to pay his dues, he needs to take a job in college or work as a quality control coach.
Not only wasn’t he qualified to be a head coach, he’s not qualified to be a position coach. He literally has no coaching experience.
If I’m Lovie, I would have said I’m not taking this job if I can’t hire my own staff. And then I would tell McCown to hit the arches and go coach at Sam Houston State, and work his way up like everyone else.
Except Lovie has not had HC position in NFL for a while. He probably gave a little in regards to staff decisions in order to secure the job.
He has no obligation to give them anything.
He bailed them out of a PR nightmare of their own making. You think he’s going to agree to hire a person who they wanted to have the job in the first place?
So he can end up like Culley if they have a bad season? Lovie is not a fool.
Let me guess josh will come in as oc or Qb coach to one day take over
Texans should pull the trigger on Watson. Giants have (2) 1sts, Eagles have (3) 1sts, Jets have (2) 1sts. Skins, Panthers, and Broncos all potential landing spots.
Takes 2 to tango. Not altogether sure there is that much interest in a guy who’s undoubtedly going to be serving a significant suspension as on enough. Especially at the cost that Texans have asked. Just say no
I hope Mills gets the start next year.
The Texans clearly have more money than brains. They paid a QB $10+ million to sit out the year, two head coaches tens of $millions not to be head coaches anymore, and now have promoted a defensive coordinator whose defense was next to last in total yards given up and opponent yards per play to be the next head coach.
Texans are still a dumpster fire but I really think they could have done worse. At least they can build a culture. Hopefully he isn’t just a scapegoat for the season like Culley was.
lovie smith gets a hc job but jim tomsula still on the outs. this country.