Can Mularkey succeed where others failed?
Mike Mularkey was stunned when his close friend and boss was fired Tuesday morning — and he was handed the job.
“I needed to just take a step back and catch my breath here a little bit,” he said.
The people who sign the paychecks took a major step in cleaning up the mess known as the Tennessee Titans when they swept head coach Ken Whisenhunt out the door less than halfway through the second season of a five-year contract.
Mularkey, who was the assistant head coach/tight ends and had additional oversight in the running game, was named interim head coach and has nine games to prove he deserves to keep the position, which he wants. But he doesn’t have an extensive track record of success. Mularkey owns a 16-32 record in three seasons as an NFL head coach. He went 14-18 with the Buffalo Bills from 2004 to ’05 and led the Jacksonville Jaguars to a 2-14 record in 2012.
Who is interim coach Mike Mularkey?
Whisenhunt lost 20 of 23 games as Titans coach, including 16 of the last 17. But the Titans (1-6), despite their current six-game skid, are only 1½ games out of first place in the woeful AFC South with nine games to play.
“We’re still in contention for our division championship, despite where we are in the standings,” interim team president and CEO Steve Underwood said. “The season is not over. … I don’t want to put too much pressure on our new head coach, but we’re not out of the race at all.”
Mariota's health a factor in Titans firing Whisenhunt
Mathematically, that’s true. But actually making a run at that division title is another matter.
The Titans haven’t scored more than 13 points in any of their past four games and could easily lose their next few — they have four days to prepare to visit the New Orleans Saints, who have won three straight, then host the undefeated Carolina Panthers before traveling to face the Jaguars on a short week for a nationally televised Thursday night game.
They haven’t beaten an AFC opponent since edging the Jaguars 16-14 on Oct. 12, 2014, in Nashville, Whisenhunt’s only victory at Nissan Stadium.
“We keep saying ‘we’re close,’” Mularkey said. “We have been close in a lot of these games. … I’m not going to change the whole offense, but we’re going to do things philosophically different to help us.”
Rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, a Heisman Trophy winner and the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, is expected to return this week from a knee injury that sidelined him the past two games.
The presence of a young franchise quarterback and a terrible division should combine to make the Titans an attractive job for head coaching candidates.
Tennessee is also more than $20 million under the salary cap — more than every other team in the NFL, except the Jaguars — and has an ownership group unafraid to spend money, as evidenced by their willingness to eat Whisenhunt’s contract.
Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk will hire the next head coach, Underwood said.
Whisenhunt was hired by former team president Tommy Smith.
Ruston Webster, in his fourth season as Titans general manager, was not made available to answer questions Tuesday but has the support of ownership and will have input in the coaching search, Underwood said.
Titans players ready for a change with Mularkey
Underwood was team president when Mike Munchak, who went 22-26 in three seasons, was hired as Titans coach in 2011. The Titans began that coaching search with a list of about 100 potential candidates, Underwood said. They chopped the list to less than 10 and then narrowed it to four finalists, a group that included Mularkey.
Underwood said the organization will take a similar approach this time.
“We’ll do a very wide search looking among all kinds of candidates, people who are coordinators, people who are former head coaches and not working, people who are head coaches and may lose their job, college coaches,” Underwood said. “We’ll have a group of candidates organized into categories, and then sort of narrow that down. Because we’ve already made a decision about our former head coach, we can start that process a little earlier. You can’t talk to the guys that are still working, but you can certainly put them on the list and try to evaluate them that way internally.”
Underwood’s interim job title presents another issue the franchise needs to address. He said he’s had no discussions with Strunk about remaining in his position, but said he’d stay if asked.
Poll: Who should be the next Titans coach?
The Titans’ on-field struggles have hit ownership where it hurts — in the pocket.
“You have some attrition in your season ticket sales, it affects your suite business, and it affects how interested your fans are in the game,” Underwood said. “Really, I have to say this, our fans have been very loyal. Our PSL (personal seat license) holders have really hung in there. We’re still having great crowds this year. There has been some effect and we know it, we hear from them, our ticket service personnel hear from them. All of those things have an effect on your television ratings, on people that are listening on the radio, and you have to pay attention to that. That is a part of our business.”
Underwood shot down rumors that ownership was looking to cash out.
“The team is not for sale,” he said. “It’s never been for sale.”
Mularkey said he plans to mold a “tough, physical football team” that doesn’t beat itself with turnovers, penalties and mental errors, and that emphasizes a run-pass balance.
Offensive coordinator Jason Michael will call plays, a job that used to belong to Whisenhunt. Arthur Smith, who was assistant tight ends coach, is now in charge of the group.
Protecting Mariota is the Titans’ top priority.
“I don’t care how good the rest of your team is,” Underwood said. “If you don’t have the right kind of quarterback, it’s hard to succeed long-term. We now have another rookie quarterback who is very promising, and I think our future is bright.”
Mariota sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on a late hit by Miami defensive end Olivier Vernon in the second quarter of a loss to the Dolphins on Oct. 18 in Nashville. He remained in the game and committed four turnovers before being replaced in the final minutes by backup Zach Mettenberger.
Mariota has been sacked 19 times in five games — including five times in the first half against the Dolphins, a team that had one sack in its first four games combined. In Whisenhunt’s final game as coach, the Texans matched a single-game franchise record by sacking Mettenberger seven times. It was the second time this season the Titans allowed seven sacks in a game.
Mularkey said there could be personnel changes along the offensive line.
“Change is never easy,” Underwood said. “Changing head coaches is never easy. It’s always a difficult thing to do, but I think it’s a positive thing for our organization and for our fans.”
Reach Jason Wolf at jwolf@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf and on Instagram at TitansBeat.
UP NEXT?
The Titans are working on a list of more than 100 coaching candidates, considering those from the college ranks to coordinators to current and former NFL head coaches. With that in mind, here are a handful of names likely to make the list.
Mike Mularkey
He’s been the head coach of the Bills and Jaguars, and the Titans are giving him a nine-game tryout as the interim coach. If he fares well, he’d make the most sense in terms of consistency. Otherwise, Marcus Mariota will enter his second season in the NFL with a third head coach.
Jim Caldwell
The Lions' head coach is 1-7 this season but led the Colts from 2009-11. Indianapolis posted a 14-2 record and reached the Super Bowl in his first season. But the Colts went 2-14 in his final season, without Peyton Manning.
Chip Kelly
It seems like the Eagles’ coach is connected to every coaching vacancy. But he’d be able to reunite with Mariota, his quarterback at Oregon.
Jeff Fisher
Could the Rams’ head coach be lured back to Nashville? Fisher was head coach of the Oilers/Titans from 1994 through 2010 and led them to the Super Bowl in the 1999 season.
Sean Payton
The longtime Saints coach could be on his way out of the Big Easy after this season. How often does a Super Bowl-winning coach hit the market?
