HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- Romeo Crennel is adjusting to his new role as the Texans' interim head coach.
It's been a while since he led an NFL team. Crennel was last a head coach with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012, where he'd also become the interim in the prior season.
Crennel spoke Wednesday morning about being a straight-shooter with standards and expectations for the players.
He said the remaining Texans coaches will emphasize technique, fundamentals, and work to solve the issues in their running game, which ranks at the bottom of the league.
"I think just like any other head coach, you have control of the team," Crennel said. "The game plan goes through me. The play-calling also goes through me. And we're going to try to make the best of it, whether it's special teams, offense, or defense."
Texans CEO Cal McNair fired Bill O'Brien as head coach and general manager Monday after an 0-4 start to the season.
O'Brien announced his dismissal to the team and personally recommended Crennel, who'd been the associate head coach and previously defensive coordinator.
"I was told I can be the guy if I'd like to be the guy," Crennel said of becoming the interim head coach. "And so I told them I wanted to be the guy because it's been going on seven years here. I have relationships with a lot of these players. I know sometimes change is difficult, particularly when you bring somebody from the outside in. I want to do as much for these guys as I can, see if we can finish this season on a good note and have some stability."
An anxious part about changing a head coach during the season is how it could impact players who may have been close to the coach and now wonder about their standing with the team, Crennel said.
Crennel said honesty is the best way to deal with it, and that he hopes the Texans' attitude and energy are different when they host the AFC South rival Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
"And then I hope that our performance is different," Crennel said. "You're not going to come in and put in a new offense, or a new defense just overnight because it takes time if you're going to do that. So we're going to have to work with what we have and then try to get our players to play it better than we've been playing it, and more consistently. That's part our problem, we're not as consistent as we need to be.
"I think that we have ability. If the ability and the coaching can put it all together, I think we can start winning. And then once you start winning, I think attitudes change, outlooks change, guys play better. Then, only time will tell where you can go and what you can get to."
