ALLEN PARK >> Teryl Austin potentially has three head coaching interviews this week.
The Lions defensive coordinator has interviews set up with the Browns and Dolphins according to Jason LaCanfora of CBSsports.com. Also Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeted that Austin will likely meet with the Eagles too.
Austin interviewed for NFL head coaching positions last season but returned to the Lions as defensive coordinator.
He is widely recognized as one of the up-and-coming head coaches in the NFL. In 2014 in the first year with Austin the Lions’ defense was second-best in the NFL.
Even though the Lions and the defense struggled to a 1-7 start this season, they came back winning six of the last eight.
Coach Jim Caldwell thinks Austin is still a hot candidate.
Will he get a head coaching job following this season?
“Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question about it. Talented guy and I think you’ll see that there will be a lot of interest in him as well,” Caldwell said.
If Austin does leave Detroit, Caldwell said he hasn’t thought about a replacement. Although he could look on his current staff. Linebackers coach Bill Sheridan was the defensive coordinator with the Giants in 2009 and the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2012 and 2013. Also, Alan Williams, the Lions defensive backs coach, served as defensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2012 and 2013.
Five reasons why Austin could get his first chance as an NFL head coach:
1. He can draw from the interviews he had last season. “Obviously, it’s your first through, sometimes you may need a little direction. Your second through, you’ve got it down pretty well I think and have a good sense of what you’re dealing and what to expect and he’s got a lot of help in that particular area. I know my first time through, I did a two or three. The next time I had three or four and after a while you get a pretty good sense of how to go about it,” Caldwell said.
2. Austin said those interviews were a learning experience. “That process, it’s good, it makes you think about how you would, if you ever had an opportunity to run a team, how you would run it, how you handle things, a lot of different situations,” Austin said. “You find out a little bit about yourself, which you really think how you really feel about certain things that would go on in your program.”
3. Caldwell said Austin and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter possess many of the same characteristics. “It’s presence, intelligence, knowledge, courage. All those things that you need to be a good leader and the combination of precepts and perceptions is extremely important as well,” Caldwell said.
4. Authenticity is an important quality that Caldwell looks for in coaches and Austin has it. “When you’re looking at guys on your staffs and elevating from position coaches to coordinators, everybody’s a little bit different. But the big thing I think more so than anything else in this business, in this league, authenticity is key. You can’t be someone else, you have to be yourself because that resonates with the players,” Caldwell said.
5. Austin has kept it together under adverse situations this season. The Lions lost two of the key defensive components from 2014 – Ndamukong Suh to free agency and DeAndre Levy to a hip injury. “I don’t know if he’s changed much, but I think what you have an opportunity to do, you can see what happens during tough times. Is he able to dig back out of a hole that we’re in? Can he get a team turned around? A unit playing strong, when things aren’t going very well. Those are the kind of things you don’t find out and there’s some value in that,” Caldwell said. “You can see how guys react under a little bit of stress and adversity, you can see who wilts and doesn’t wilt, you can see who can bring a unit back. So, I do think that before they’ve probably seen him in a little different light because of the fact that he’s been successful and the fact of the matter is, he’s multifaceted. He can do it a number of different ways.”
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