The Houston Texans tabbed Lovie Smith as their new head coach, promoting the defensive coordinator and associate head coach on Monday after a lengthy search.
"I had a great job last year being the defensive coordinator here," Smith said Tuesday in his introductory news conference. "I got to see the potential of what we could do here. When an opportunity of course presented itself to me late in the game, I was just excited for it, because I know what we can be around here."
The 63-year-old enters his third head coaching stint in the NFL. He went 81-63 in nine seasons with the Chicago Bears and 8-24 in two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to his coordinator role in Houston, Smith spent five years as the head coach at the University of Illinois.
"I don't know if there's a guy that looks like me that's had a chance to do that," Smith, who is Black, said of getting a third chance to lead an NFL team.
Smith appeared to be a late entrant for the vacancy, after the Texans had narrowed down its candidates to include ex-Dolphins coach Brian Flores, Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and former NFL QB Josh McCown.
Texans general manager Nick Caserio said Tuesday that the Texans' coaching search was never considered a straight-line approach.
"I probably talked to more than six finalists or candidates, different head coaches, different discussions, different dialogue," he said. "Again, I think that's just part of the process you have to go through as you're working through these things. There's not a direct line, and there's no straight way to get there from A to B, sometimes you just got to take in a lot of information and work through it. After the season there were times when Lovie had the opportunity to visit with [Texans CEO Cal McNair and Hannah McNair] and talk about our program and share his thoughts on that. The most important thing is to just kind of keep the dialogue moving and it's a very fluid process, and that's just how some of these things go.
"Fair or not, you guys can blame me for taking as long as we did, because everybody was kind of sitting on the end of their chair on pins and needles, but again, my responsibility is to the McNair family, to be as thoughtful and resourceful as possible, and ultimately it's to just make the right decision for the organization, and that's where we ended up with Lovie."
Smith said he plans to call the defensive plays for Houston. The Texans promoted Pep Hamilton from passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.
"Coach Smith is one of the most respected figures in the league, he's well respected throughout the league, he's well respected in the halls of NRG (Stadium)," Caserio said. "I think a lot of us were able to see that this year. So as we worked through this, as I worked through this and got to the end point, I realized the best decision and the best opportunity for this organization moving forward was with the choice of Lovie Smith as the next head coach."
Smith's hiring comes after Flores filed a lawsuit last week in Manhattan federal court against the NFL and three of its teams -- the Broncos, Dolphins and Giants -- alleging a pattern of racist hiring practices and racial discrimination.
Caserio said Flores' lawsuit had no impact on his candidacy for the Texans' opening.
"Didn't affect us at all," Caserio said of the lawsuit. "Speaking specific to Brian, I've known Brian a long time. Personally and professionally, I have a lot of respect for Brian as a coach and a person. He was a part of this process. He's been a good coach in this league for a number of years. Part of my responsibility was to spend time with as many quality candidates as possible, and Brian was one of those. As it pertains to the individual lawsuit, I would say from the beginning of when we started our process, call it January 14 to now, there was multiple conversations throughout the course of, say, the last few weeks with a number of different candidates. That was pretty fluid. This process, in and of itself, was very fluid. This process is pretty fluid, right? You have to take information in. I would say (whatever) conversations with Brian after that took place, so they didn't really affect the process at all. A lot of it was me taking information, processing a lot of information, talking to various, different people in different parties, different candidates, and ultimately arriving at an end point that I thought made the most sense for our organization. And that's what we did."
Of the nine head coach openings this cycle two of them were filled by minorities, the Dolphins' Mike McDaniel, who is multi-racial, and Smith. The two new hires join Ron Rivera, Robert Saleh and Mike Tomlin as the league's only minority coaches.
"Well, I don't know nothing about the lawsuit," Smith said. "This is what I can speak on. I realize the amount of Black head coaches that are in the National Football League. There's Mike Tomlin, and I think there's me. I don't know of many more. So there's a problem. … But after there's a problem, what are you going to do about it? There's a lot of different talk about how and what you should do. I always think it comes down to action a little bit. I know one person that wanted to do something about it -- it's just not about the color of your skin or who you wanted leading your program. I know Cal and Hannah (McNair), of course, they said … there's a problem, this is what we're gonna do for it. I'm here. What we're doing, and it's not just about me being here right now, how head coaches are selected … a lot of it is a lot of offensive coaches are leading our programs right now. Two Super Bowl participants had guys that have made their living with offensive football. I understand that. I know as we go forward a little bit, I see Pep Hamilton right here and I see his color, and he's going to be calling plays for us. Maybe it's about getting guys in the position for people to see exactly who they are and what they can do. I understand the problem. I know the Houston Texans are doing something about it to make it better."