Let the rumors begin. The Houston Texans fired head coach Gary Kubiak on Friday morning after an embarrassing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night, on national television, in front of the whole country. The Texans loss brings them a game below the Jaguars to 2-11, the worst record in the NFL.
It’s especially difficult considering the Texans were thought of as front-runners to win the AFC South this season. Texans CEO, Bob McNair, had this to say about firing Kubiak. “We felt that a change was needed at the head coach position and Gary Kubiak is no longer the head coach. To have this string of losses that we sustained is just totally unacceptable and it’s not what this organization is about, We’re about winning and accountability. Even though we normally would wait until the end of the year to evaluate our coaching staff and our players, under these extreme circumstances, we decided it was in the best interest of the organization to go ahead and start that evaluation process now.”
Former Dallas Cowboy head coach Wade Phillips will serve as the interim coach while the Texans figure out their next move. Of course, rumors are already beginning to swirl. One very sexy name that has come up is former Super Bowl Champion head coach and current ESPN Monday Night Football Color Commentator, John Gruden.
But Gruden says not so fast. “I’m just trying to do my job. I’m not going to address every little rumor or supposed conversation that takes place, according to these so-called sources. There are a lot of good coaches out there available to coach these teams. I’m just hoping ESPN likes the job I’m doing. That’s my focus.”
It looks like Gruden will stay up in the booth for the remainder of this year and the 2014 football season. The Texans will need to fill their vacancy sooner than that. Also in the conversation is Tony Dungy and Bill Cower, names that always seem to come up when there is a head coach vacancy.
Gruden, also affectionately known as “Chuckie,” for the mean faces he was known to make along the sidelines, had a 95-81 record as head coach for both the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His Super Bowl victory with the Bucs was their only championship in team history.
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