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Turron Davenport
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi, despite spending 16 years in various scouting and personnel roles with the Chiefs, said he refuses to allow any previous biases to heavily influence his first opportunity to select Tennessee’s head coach.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy are among the eight candidates reported to have interviews set up for the Titans’ head coaching job. Borgonzi saw the Chiefs win three Super Bowls with Spagnuolo running the defense, two of which had Nagy as the offensive coordinator.
However, Borgonzi downplayed the impact of their prior successes on the process of finding the right coach for the Titans.
«You have to remove that piece,» Borgonzi said. «That biased opinion on anybody that you might have a relationship with. You have to make the best decision for the organization, and that’s really the bottom line. ‘Who is going to be the best leader and coach for this organization?'»
The Titans fired Brian Callahan in October and named senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy as the interim head coach. A source confirmed to ESPN that McCoy is interviewing for the head coach position on Tuesday.
The organization built a committee to identify candidates to fill the void soon after firing Callahan. The committee is composed of Borgonzi, president of football operations Chad Brinker, assistant GM Dave Ziegler, vice president/football advisor Reggie McKenzie and director of player personnel Jon Salge.
The team released a letter from controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk that pointed to Borgonzi spearheading the coaching search. Borgonzi said it’s important to get a leader who has a clear vision and isn’t afraid of conflict that can arise from holding people accountable.
It would be natural to focus on duplicating the Chiefs’ model since Borgonzi had a hand in vaulting Kansas City to one of the NFL’s most successful organizations over the last five years. Borgonzi will rely on some of the things he learned, but his goal is to establish his own blueprint.
«I’m looking to create the model for the Tennessee Titans with the people that we have here,» Borgonzi said. «I’ve taken certain things on how we evaluate players and how we work with coaches during that process, and how we do certain things. But this is our team here, and the people that we have. So, I’ve certainly learned and benefited from a lot of the stuff in the past, but I think we have a group here that’s been in different places, and we want to make it our own.»
