Lovie Smith fought till the bitter finish to assist the Houston Texans to a win within the finale of a dismal season, together with his destiny probably already sealed.
Hours later he was out of a job.
Smith was fired as coach of the Texans on Sunday night time after only one season through which the workforce went 3-13-1.
It’s the second straight season through which the Texans have fired a coach after one yr. They parted methods with David Culley final January after he went 4-13 in his solely season.
“I’m continually evaluating our soccer operation and consider that is one of the best resolution for us at the moment,” common supervisor Nick Caserio mentioned in an announcement saying the workforce parting methods with Smith. “It’s my accountability to construct a complete and aggressive program that may maintain success over a protracted time period. We aren’t there proper now, nevertheless, with the help of the (workforce proprietor) McNair household and the assets accessible to us, I’m assured within the route of our soccer program transferring ahead.”
Smith was requested about his future after Sunday’s win at Indianapolis and appeared assured that he’d return subsequent season.
“We perceive the totality of the season,” he mentioned. “Do I anticipate to be again? Yeah, I anticipate to be again, completely.”
The Texans had the league’s worst file for a lot of the season, however received two of their final three video games, capped by Sunday’s win over the Colts that price the workforce the No. 1 general choose in subsequent yr’s draft. The 32-31 victory over Indianapolis gave Chicago the highest choose and left Houston to decide on second in April’s draft.
Davis Mills related with Jordan Akins on a 28-yard landing move with 50 seconds left Sunday in opposition to the Colts. Mills then discovered Akins once more for the 2-point conversion to place the Texans on prime for good.
Smith was requested in regards to the win ruining Houston’s likelihood to get the highest choose within the draft.
“So, you’re saying, hey, guys, enjoying this last game, all that you just’ve been working for all of your life, you play to win, neglect that, lose the sport on function,” Smith mentioned. “I feel that may be a tough one to get by. They wouldn’t anticipate me to say that. I didn’t. Every week our recreation plan to be to win the sport. It’s sort of easy as that. That’s what we adopted by on right now.”
The 64-year-old Smith was one of many few Black coaches within the NFL together with Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Miami’s Mike McDaniel, who’s biracial. The league requires groups to interview no less than one minority candidate for head teaching positions, however has lengthy fallen in need of its objective to extend the variety of Black coaches in a league the place the vast majority of gamers are Black.
Culley, who can also be Black, spent greater than 40 years as a university and NFL assistant earlier than being employed to teach the Texans.
The Texans transfer to chop ties with two coaches – every after only one season — was met with swift criticism. Each coaches have been working with rosters devoid of any stars and missing a lot established expertise. In addition they needed to take care of an inexperienced younger quarterback in Mills with Deshaun Watson sitting out final season after requesting a commerce earlier than his sexual misconduct allegations surfaced after which being traded to Cleveland earlier than this season.
Corridor of Famer Tony Dungy, the primary Black coach to win a Tremendous Bowl who compiled a 148-79 file in 13 seasons as an NFL coach, questioned who would need to take Houston’s head teaching place transferring ahead.
“What are the Texans doing,” Dungy tweeted Sunday night time. “What sort of operation is that this the place you don’t have any convictions about supporting the coaches you rent. Who’s going to need to coach there should you would possibly solely get one yr to implement your plans. Two years in a row is ridiculous.”
Robert Griffin III, the second general choose of the 2012 draft who led Washington to a division title, tweeted: “The Houston Texans have fired Lovie Smith after 1 yr. Utilizing 2 Black Head Coaches to tank after which firing them after 1 yr shouldn’t sit proper with anybody.”
And, Fred Taylor, who performed 13 years within the NFL, directed his ire on the Texas, posting on Twitter that hiring Smith was executed to save lots of face after they obtained criticism following stories that they deliberate to rent Josh McCown, a former NFL quarterback with no teaching expertise.
“Hiring Lovie Smith to a particularly untalented Texans workforce was solely executed to save lots of face, guidelines the Rooney rule, and erase the racial accusations it confronted lower than a yr in the past,” Taylor tweeted. “And to fireside him lower than a yr into rebuilding its franchise exhibits they’re stuffed with crap. Loopy!
It’s the third time for the reason that merger {that a} workforce has fired its head coach in consecutive years after only one season. The 49ers fired Monte Clark, Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley in consecutive seasons from 1976-78 earlier than the workforce fired Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly in 2015 and 2016.
Smith was promoted to go coach after serving because the workforce’s defensive coordinator for one season. The 2022 season was his twelfth as a head coach, and he has a 92-100-1 file in his profession that included 9 seasons with the Bears and two with Tampa Bay.
Texans proprietor Cal McNair mentioned in an announcement that he and Caserio knowledgeable Smith of the transfer Sunday night time and thanked him for his “contributions during the last two seasons.”
“We’re grateful for his management and character, and we want him one of the best transferring ahead,” McNair mentioned. “Whereas we perceive the outcomes haven’t been what we had hoped for, we’re dedicated to constructing a program that produces long-term, sustainable success. Our followers and metropolis deserve a workforce that they are often happy with. I’ll work alongside Nick Caserio all through this course of and I’m assured we are going to discover the correct chief for our soccer workforce.”
His firing will give the Texans a fourth head coach in as a few years. Culley was employed after coach Invoice O’Brien was fired after shedding the primary 4 video games in 2020 in his seventh season in Houston.
That is the second time the Texans have fired a coach after only one yr. Dom Capers was the workforce’s first coach and spent 4 seasons on the helm earlier than being let go. Gary Kubiak took over, and he was fired in his eighth season.
This season was Houston’s third with a shedding file after the workforce went 4-12 in 2020. That season got here after they received AFC South within the earlier two seasons.