Titans to interview Falcons’ Mike Mularkey for head coach
The Tennessee Titans still need to fill their vacant head coaching position after the team fired head coach Jeff Fisher last week. Fisher’s sacking came as a complete surprise to most people, seeing as he was the longest serving coach for a single team.
He had been the head coach for 17 years and many players, including Titans running back Chris Johnson, were stunned.
"It was a surprise," said Johnson. "I thought it was going to be the quarterback (Vince Young) or the head coach and it was actually both of them.”
Titans’ owner Bud Adams had said earlier that he would be trading or releasing Young by 5th February but would be keeping Fisher. Two days later, he was fired.
Now, the Titans are looking for a new head coach. They have already conducted two interviews within the team with offensive line coach Mike Munchak and offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger.
League sources also said that the team would be interviewing Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell for the position. Fewell does not have a set date for an interview but Mularkey is scheduled
to be interviewed on Friday, according to a local newspaper in Tennessee.
Munchak seems to be the top candidate for the job because of his great relationship with Adams, but they must not rule Mularkey out. He had been head coach for the Buffalo Bills for two years, in 2004 and 2005, before resigning because of “philosophical
differences” with the front office. He had a two-year record of 14-18 and led the Bills to their first season over .500 in five years with a 9-7 record in 2004.
Mularkey has worked hard with Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan for three seasons now, and had been with the Pittsburgh Steelers for eight years with then head coach Bill Cowher. For three of those eight seasons he served as offensive coordinator.
He had also been interviewed for the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns before they hired Pat Shurmur. Mularkey was scheduled for an interview for the same post with the Denver Broncos, but cancelled it because the Falcons were going to the playoffs.
The job later went to John Fox.
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