(SportsRadio 610) - Texans general manager Nick Caserio said publicly he did not hire Lovie Smith, an experienced Black head coach, in response to a lawsuit filed last week highlighting the league's failure to diversify the racial makeup of its coaches.
The timing of it, and the Texans' own public narrative of supposed finalists for the job, is difficult to reconcile.
But as retired NFL veteran and former Texans Pro Bowl offensive lineman Wade Smith (no relation) said, you don't have to sell legit. Lovie Smith, who helped lead the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl and won Coach of the Year in 2005, has a resume that speaks for itself.
Still, with Caserio joining Payne & Pendergast on Wednesday morning, it was worth hearing from him why Lovie Smith, who was their defensive coordinator last year, is suddenly the answer at head coach.
"Lovie's a good coach, very well-respected," Caserio said. "Last year, he came in, put his system in place. Defensively, we really made some progress in some areas. I think the big thing Lovie's always emphasized are the takeaways and you saw that kind of put into action in the way we played and performed. There were some things that we did, you know, we certainly can improved. I think the goal here this year and the offseason is to try improve the team as best we can, put ourselves in a decent position, try to have a good offseason and then get ready to go for training camp.
"Now that we have the coaching hire behind us, I think now we can turn the page and start to transition to the team-building aspect, which will be a pretty important part of what we're doing this offseason. I think the way Lovie handles himself on a day-to-day basis, his consistency, the way he communicates with the players, the players like playing for him. The players believe in what he's doing and what he brings to the table."
Smith's 4-3 base defense, which runs a lot of Cover-2, was one Caserio admits he was not as familiar with from his time in New England. So he learned a lot about the concepts from the coach, even where they did not always agree.
"I certainly learned a lot from Lovie last year," Caserio said. "Systematically, this was a different defense or different structure that I was accustomed to. But it gave me an opportunity to learn something a little bit different. I'd say Lovie and I had some constructive conversations during the course of the season. We could friendly agree to disagree on some different things, but also have an understanding of why that is, or why we do things a certain way. But the good thing about Lovie, he's open-minded. Even though he's old school, he's still open-minded and he listens. I think those are really good qualities to have, not only in your head coach, but a lot of people throughout the building."
Caserio said while there were six head coach finalists named by the team, he probably talked to 10-12 coaches in various capacities.
Lovie Smith was part of that entire process, not necessarily as a candidate, but an advisor.
His input throughout was valuable, Caserio said.
"There was a lot of discussion in different ways with Lovie throughout the process," he added. "I think that was pretty consistent. I think his viewpoint and perspective on the program after a year, those thoughts certainly resonate and they carry some weight. One thing we said from the beginning, we weren't going to necessarily put a timetable on this. Whenever we started, however long it took us to get to the end point, fairly or unfairly, maybe it took a little longer than everyone would've hoped. ...
"In the end, you just have to take the information in, try to assess it and just try to make the right decision."
Brandon Scott is the senior digital content coordinator for SportsRadio610.com. Follow him on Twitter @brandonkscott.
