NASHVILLE — Mike McCoy is leaning on his years of NFL experience, including four as head coach of the Chargers when they were still in San Diego, as he takes over for a friend as the interim coach of the Tennessee Titans.
“It’s invaluable,” McCoy said Tuesday. “Because nobody knows until you’re in this role. You think you’re ready. You’re not ready. There’s so many things that come up on a daily basis that you have to deal with.”
The 53-year-old San Francisco native and former quarterback took over Monday after the Titans fired Brian Callahan, whose 1-5 start to his second season in Nashville left his overall record leading Tennessee at 4-19.
McCoy joined the Titans in March as a senior offensive assistant — only to replace the man who brought him to Tennessee. In terms of NFL head coaching experience, McCoy was the only legitimate on-staff option to replace Callahan, with the distant runner-up special teams coordinator John Fassel, who spent three games as the interim coach of the Los Angeles Rams in 2016.
Getting another chance as an NFL head coach was not on McCoy’s mind.
“This was the last thing I thought I’d be doing,” he said.
The only other coach with NFL head coaching experience on Tennessee’s staff was offensive line coach Bill Callahan — who was head coach of the Oakland Raiders for two seasons (2002-03) as well as interim coach of the Washington Redskins for the final 11 games of the 2019 season — but he was never a possible replacement once his son was fired. McCoy said Tuesday that the Titans “parted ways” with the elder Callahan, whose name was removed from the coaching roster on Tennessee’s website during the interim coach’s news conference.
Scott Fuchs and Matt Jones will now oversee the offensive line, while quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree will continue calling plays for the offense during games. Callahan was the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator for five seasons before being hired by the Titans but had never called plays on game day until coming to Tennessee, and after an 0-3 start to this season, he handed that responsibility over to Hardegree.
McCoy went 27-37 from 2013-16 in his four seasons head coach of the Chargers, who moved from San Diego to their current home in Los Angeles ahead of the 2017 season. The Chargers were 9-7 in each of McCoy’s first two seasons, and they reached the playoffs his first season and won a wild-card game on the road, but they never finished higher than third of four teams in the AFC West Division during his tenure. With losses in 23 of his final 32 games, McCoy was fired an hour after the 2016 season finale, but he wasn’t out of work for long.
He was the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2017 — the same job he had from 2009 to 2012 — though he didn’t last the season, getting fired in late November with the team 3-7 after losing six games in a row. He was the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator in 2018 but got fired in late October with the team off to a 1-6 start and having scored more than 17 points in a game just once.
McCoy took a break after that to spend time with his family, then spent the past three seasons as quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, one of Tennessee’s rivals in the AFC South. He worked with Trevor Lawrence, who put together consecutive 4,000-yard passing seasons with a combined 46 touchdown passes in 2022-23. Injuries limited Lawrence to 10 games in 2024, when he compiled 2,000-plus passing yards and 11 touchdowns.
With the Jaguars, McCoy was also part of a staff that included Nick Holz, who was Jacksonville’s passing game coordinator in 2023 and came to Tennessee in 2024 as offensive coordinator.
And now McCoy has 11 games left to show what he can do, with Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker saying Monday that he would be given the chance to lose the interim label and continue as head coach beyond this season. Since the 2021 season, when the Titans repeated as division champions with a 12-5 regular-season record to secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed, they’ve won fewer games each season since and now need two wins to at least match last year’s 3-14 record that led to Tennessee having the No. 1 pick of this year’s NFL draft.
McCoy also has to work with rookie quarterback Cam Ward, who was taken with that top pick. Ward has been sacked 25 times already this season, more than any other quarterback in the league, and he ranks 22nd with 1,101 passing yards. He has only three touchdown passes with four interceptions and a 67.3 passer rating, having completed just 55% (111 of 202) of his passes.
McCoy has worked with some of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, including Philip Rivers and Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, and he said the focus right now is making sure Tennessee coaches know what fits Ward best to help the rookie be more efficient and have more success.
“It’s not just him,” McCoy said. “There’s 10 other guys in the field with him that have got to do their jobs better, too.”
McCoy’s first game as head coach of the Titans is Sunday against the New England Patriots, who are off to a 4-2 start in their first season under Mike Vrabel, who coached the Titans from 2018 to 2023.
Vrabel told reporters Monday that his return to Tennessee will be very interesting.
“I think it’ll be nice to see some people that I haven’t seen in a few years that helped us win — players and staff,” Vrabel said. “But we’ve got a huge job here to do as we prepare for them.”