David Culley wanted Lovie Smith on his coaching staff.
When the Texans head coach was asked Thursday about pursuing his new defensive coordinator, Culley pointed to Smith's track record in the NFL.
"Obviously, Lovie is someone that has had a great track record in this league," Culley said. "He's someone that he's been a head coach. He's had a great track record as a defensive coordinator. He's someone that I've known for a long time and being able to get him here was very very important simply because I felt like he's the kind of guy that you want to be able to have on your team to be able to have success.
"That was the reason that he is here and we're very fortunate to be able to have him here."
Overall, Smith is 92-90 as an NFL head coach, including a 3-3 record in the postseason. In college, Smith's record is 17-39.
Smith spent the past five seasons as head coach for the University of Illinois before he was fired last December.
Prior to that, Smith had been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach in 2014 and 2015.
Most notably, Smith was the Chicago Bears' head coach from 2004 to 2012, winning NFL Coach of the Year honors in 2005, then making a Super Bowl appearance in his third season.
Smith also helped develop the Tampa 2 defense as the Bucs' linebackers under Tony Dungy from 1996 to 2000, before earning his first NFL defensive coordinator job with the St. Louis Rams in 2001.
Smith replaces Anthony Weaver, who was the Texans' defensive coordinator for one season before leaving to become the Baltimore Ravens' defensive line coach.