 This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans. Get a quote today at FBHP.com. My name is Mike Keith and this is Amy Wells and we're actually together. We are actually together. MGM studio. It feels good. It's good to have you back. You're technically in the Snickers hot seat but not really because you know I'll take it. You're a co-host so you can't be. I can't be in the hot seat I suppose. I mean I guess I could be. The jar's a little far but I'll find a time to get a Snickers throughout the program. Really satisfies. It really does. That's what I've heard. So last week was quite the adventure for the Tennessee Titans and the Titans staff and Titans fans for that matter. The week began with the Titans doing a couple of interviews and the second one was Brian Callahan. Brian Callahan was in the afternoon and in the one of sixty four Brian Callahan interviews that has been done since that time you have probably heard the story that he walks in to the head coach's office and sits behind the desk to see what it's like and they offer him the job and he's very excited and it's really a cool story. But kind of leading from there it got interesting. And that's what we want to take you through on this edition of the OTP pull back the curtain just a little bit and take you through what went next because this lady Amy Wells Ashley Farrell a couple other members of our staff Donald Page and Todd Gray made a trip that you're probably just now becoming aware of that added sort of a special element an extra special element if you will to the Brian Callahan piece so Monday night the word gets out Brian Callahan is going to be the coach the Titans have offered him the job he's accepted now all the things have to happen settling on a contract and that's why the Titans don't release it because while it's reported and nobody's denying it which is always your hint if people start denying it that it's not true but if the media is reporting it if several sources are reporting it it's out there but what you're learning from the time in between the report and the time in between the release is there a lot of things that have to happen right and that's standard practice I mean the Tennessee Titans always operate in that fashion and most organizations operate in that fashion where it might be out there but until things are signed sealed and delivered unless Jim here says your owner because he would not all teams operate in this manner he would normally tweet out he likes to be on the on the very very very beginning of breaking news he likes to break the news yes but a lot of organizations operate in the manner where it's until the ink is dried on paper we are not going to confirm anything because in keeping with the Colts theme they got in a situation a couple years ago where Josh McDaniel yeah it was mostly done but it wasn't completely done and then some things got hairy on the back end so you want to be sure sure and we do this in a lot of different ways with player acquisitions sure with a free agency and there's all kinds of things where you hear about it you see it but it's not done done done because there's so many things that have to happen well and we talk about this on the OTP and the OTP people know if you've listened for a long time you understand what we're really discussing here and that is that okay he's got an agent Brian Callahan has an agent and the agent hasn't said yes yet so you've got to work that out what are going to be the details here's the other part of it you got to call home right you've got to notify the family you got a job you probably want to tell your wife I accepted the job with the Titans in 1998 before I had consulted with my wife you did that it was a huge mistake Mike that's bold it was not bold it was it was very stupid it was really a dumb move you really did that I really did that whoa I really did that and the worst part was I didn't have a cell phone can't tell her till you get home no I had to pull off and use a pay phone in Crossville so fortunately Brian Callahan's a lot smarter than me he called home and just made sure that I can't believe you did that I know yeah so Brian Callahan wins in that regard he really did he told his wife but you told his parents but you do that you you've got some calls to make you're certainly going to call the Bengals if you're him you want to call Zach Taylor and let him know what's going on so he can put things in place you're going to call I would imagine the brown family who owns the Bengals and just to let them know out of respect so there are all these boxes that have to be ticked off well Amy and Ashley had come up with this great plan to do a story and it was to go with the new Titans head coach back to where they were from and to do kind of the story coming out of where they were from as they make the trip to Nashville now it worked particularly well because Cincinnati is not that far away it's not at all it's a very easy drive it's quite lovely if you had had if the Titans had hired a coach from say Seattle might not have been doable but so Tuesday you're just waiting on official word so you can leave for Cincinnati yep we what time were you prepared to leave I was ready to leave at 9 a.m. on Tuesday Ashley got the rental car at 7 actually yeah actually got the rental car at 7 a.m. so you're ready I was ready to go they were gonna swing by my house and pick me up on the way out of town 9 o'clock my bags by the front door I'm waiting I'm ready to go but we hadn't gotten word yet there's no there's no official announcement at that no official announcement not that there's anything wrong it's just it hadn't gotten the go yet we need a green light yeah that's all we needed and so we waited and then it seems like well it might be a little while there's still some stuff going on so I throw my bag in the trunk get all of my things I'll just leave from the office that's fine so you come into work you come to Ascension st. Thomas sports park yep I do and sit down at my desk don't even really get my computer out for a while because I think I'm just here for a minute and we wait and we wait and we wait and we wait some more so it's five o'clock and I've had a conversation with Amy I'm actually technically on vacation yeah well not technically no you are actually on vacation on vacation and so I get notifications shortly after five that the Titans are going to make the announcement at 9 15 central on Wednesday and I relay this immediately to Amy and you are standing where when I called you at 5 11 p.m. I get notification from Mike Keith as I am putting my hand on the handle of my car in the parking lot so you're you're in the parking garage you just figure this is in tomorrow we'll try again tomorrow they're figuring everything out I am getting ready to go home he I got a text message from you Mike mm-hmm that said we're a go and I just turned around and walked back in the building like okay now what do we do so at that point we kind of huddled the group together had a conversation about what we were going to do what the new plan was what our new timeline was going to be and then we left the next morning and I went in Charleston South Carolina and got a rental car you did and Mike got a rental car and hit the road hit the road well hit the road the next morning as did you guys you didn't have to leave so early no we didn't so so Brian Callahan and Allison Callahan his wife say yeah we'll do this feature and the plan is to do it at their home yes so what we wanted to do was we wanted to document what is a historic event for any organization the hiring of a new head coach and we wanted to do the best that we could to introduce this person in a very different way you don't usually have the opportunity to see a head coach outside of the facility sure it's just in general um you get to know them over the years you get to know their personalities that kind of thing but you don't get to see much of their lives outside of football and so we wanted to start off right from the jump really get to know this person and get to know this person in a way where they're really comfortable and that's around their family in their home um that that felt like the best way to get to know him that felt like a good way to kind of get things started off and he was gracious enough to allow us to do that all right so you get in the van you drive from Nashville to Cincinnati does he actually live in Cincinnati he lives in Cincinnati yes so not like Florence Kentucky or wherever he's in no he lives about five minutes from the Bengals stadium okay so you drive up to his house he answers the door Brian Callahan answers the door he answers the door we walk up to his house there's four of us so we troop up the front now he knows you're coming which is good he knows that we're coming I had text with him back and forth um but I've never met this person sure and um we get to the front door and what strikes me which is so strange because he's in his own house but my first thought was he's not wearing any shoes I've never seen a head coach not wearing shoes before but I mean he's at home but a lot of people don't wear shoes in their own house but it just felt in that moment I realized like oh we're actually going to pull this off this is going to be a casual comfortable thing he's not even wearing shoes I don't know why that's a thing that's stuck in my head but it felt very intimate somehow you know it felt very personal you don't see very many people without I've never seen you without shoes on like it's just a way you don't see people outside of work I guess that's true yeah it's it I hadn't thought about it for whatever reason it just oh he is in his house he's not even wearing shoes so that struck me he was very kind greeted everybody invited us in you know the first thing he did was no he offered us sandwiches what kind of sandwiches I don't know I never had a sandwich you didn't accept a sandwich from the new head coach you know it was one of those things where it was like you know we're good right now let's get our stuff down unload the car and everything and I never circle back to the sandwiches but you didn't want a sandwich not at that moment I mean don't you think I mean now thinking back about it and I think the OT people might agree I think it's rude that you didn't accept a sandwich you know honestly when I left I was thinking that because if I had food and beverages for people who were coming into my home and no one accepted them and then I had just like four sandwiches sitting in my house I'd be annoyed so coach Callahan I apologize I didn't take a sandwich I'll take one now but it was another one of those gestures that was just welcome to my home can we feed that is so nice it was very nice it was incredibly hospitable he's going to fit right in in the south I mean it was the most southern gesture to offer someone a sandwich but really it it was just another moment where I was like oh this is this is really like how he is as a person in his home he offers you food and drink so Allison is his wife yes she's originally from New Jersey she is she lived in Denver yeah um what was she like she's delightful um they have two young kids and so she is a mom who is keeping up with two young kids and is so excited for her husband um and was just the most delightful person she was incredibly accommodating of the things that we would need I mean we basically walked into their home and we're like can we rearrange some of this furniture like because you're trying to get a so what room were you in we were in the living room living room um how would you say the house is decorated beautifully okay well I mean yeah I would think you would say that but you have a style I don't know the words like a modern I don't watch modern farmhouse TV as you do it was nice the couch was white it was nice I don't know boy that's gutsy to have a white couch with kids especially with a six-year-old boy uh yeah as someone who just unloaded a white couch because kids I mean proud of them yeah like that's incredible that's strong play yeah it really is a strong play they're really good parents if they can keep a couch that look nice like that um but I mean really they were super hospitable come in what can we do how do we make this shot work can I move this plant across the room for you what if we move these six chairs to a different location like the most accommodating so you're in the new titan's head coach's house rearranging his furniture yeah rearranging his furniture he's offered you a sandwich and so what would you say we're going to play the interview oh we're going to let the ot people hear this interview that no one else has because it was in Cincinnati at his home and what and they gave it showed us around um he showed us some of the memorabilia that he has throughout his house I mean how many pictures of Peyton Manning none maybe one maybe one but it wasn't overly paid there's probably more pictures of Peyton Manning in your house than is I don't I don't think I have I mean I have a couple of autographs yeah he signed a couple of footballs that that I have very nice you don't have any pictures of Peyton Manning do I have any pictures I don't know that I have any pictures of any athletes in my house that's surprising to me I have I have things yeah most of my I mean mementos well 90 of the stuff out in my house is Titans were left a football uh the racing helmet I got to wear that Mario Andretti signed oh that's cool yeah that's my favorite piece of memorabilia yeah outside of my football that every first round pick as a Titan has signed oh yeah except you know who didn't the only one Pacman Jones he didn't sign it he did not so I never had a chance to to get him to sign it oh that's disappointing I think I'm gonna have to rectify that at some point speaking of Cincinnati I think at some point I'm gonna have to rectify that yeah no I don't think I have any pictures of of anybody huh that's surprising to me maybe Dyson scoring on the music city miracle yeah that would make I'm gonna have to look around my house yeah maybe I should go there just go home and just survey survey the wall see what you got yeah um no I mean and his house but does he have like a man cave so no he has kind of an like a rec room area okay where they had some different things and it was one of those like rooms we thought we'd use more than we do like everyone has in their home yeah like the aspirational entertaining room that you really never use right put stuff in that's kind of what they have they're just like real people they are 100% regular normal people and that's what I walked away from this whole experience with I mean there's a million stories I could tell but what really struck me is you are like I I felt very comfortable there I felt very like these people could be friends of mine the we have a lot in common yeah you could go to church with them you could do they could be friends of yours from your kid's school that that sort of thing yeah I mean very much we're talking about like kids clothes that he left in the middle of the interview because he had to go take his son to get a haircut he was gone for about 45 minutes so is that before after the interview before the interview he left he welcomed us into his home we were there for a while and then he looks as watching goes I gotta take Ronan to get his hair cut that's his son Ronan and who stole the show at the press conference Ronan is going to be a fan favorite yeah he's going to be a mainstay around Ascension st. Thomas sports park I believe and Nora as well their daughter yes both I mean just the the most delightful children and but yeah Ronan needed to get a hair his haircut so head ball coach leaves okay so 45 to an hour so you sit down to do the interview yes which we're going to hear this is the back cell you gotta love this I'm setting it up are you nervous you know I was not because I felt incredibly comfortable in that space did you write down the questions I did I had about four pages of questions so we had to I had to reign in my excitement a little bit I had my questions you know for a standard interview I've got my notebook I'm ready to go but we had been talking this whole time and having conversation so it didn't feel weird to be doing an interview and honestly I was thankful for it because you know there's those questions that you want to ask somebody but you want to be polite and well surely they don't want to talk about football so I'm not going to ask him you know about putting together a staff or this and that but for an interview I'm able to ask those questions so it was it was things that in polite conversation I probably wouldn't have asked but because I was doing an interview for a football team and this is what's top of his mind I got to ask those questions that I think people want to know but if you and I just meet at a party I'm not going to ask you too many questions about your job because that's not what we're what we're doing you know I get that so I was thankful to have the opportunity to do the interview because I got to ask him the things that were on my mind and it's like oh I'm sorry I have to it's from my job which I was great use that as your excuse I always do and he was just it was a great interview he is he's just very well spoken he's very thoughtful with the things that he is trying to get across you can tell that this is something he's been thinking about for a long time he's one of those people that you know as he's been doing his job he's been observing and thinking about how he'd do it when he got his chance and now that he has his chance this is something he takes very seriously and is very excited about and is is really really ready for all right we're ready for the interview but first we have to make sure and give everyone a chance to get Duncan go to Duncan and grab a coffee and kick off the action whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game or grabbing one to go before watching Amy's interview with Brian Callahan Duncan is always there to help you get your game on just like the pros we need to be at our best come game time or interview time which is why Duncan is the most important part of your game day ritual because it's always the best call for football America runs on Duncan so from the OTP Amy Wells Cincinnati, Ohio at the home of new Titans coach Brian Callahan enjoy this so I guess the best place to start is telling you or reminding you I should say that you're the head coach of an NFL football team that doesn't feel real yet right and it doesn't that's the question has this sunk in that the last 24 ish hours have actually happened and you are now stepping into this role no I haven't been able to process at all it's been such a you know because I went in I interviewed and then I get the job and I go to dinner and I wake up the next morning I leave and I come home and then there's just like this 48 hour period where I got to get a bunch of stuff ready to really get to work when I get back and do the press conference and you're starting the staff hiring process it's very it's like infancy stages but it's starting and so it's it's a whirlwind of things that I probably won't ever fully process it until I'm in front of the team that first time or the first OTA practice where you're it's like you're out there and you're on the grass coaching football the the rest of it up until that point feels very much like office work until you get to go coach football again so yeah I have not been able to really process all of it in the factory am I living with a camera talking about it this feels even stranger it definitely is I'm sure a whirlwind and there's not a moment to catch your breath and really think about it until you're reflecting on it so in the spirit of reflecting because you don't have time to reflect on this let's reflect on your entire career sure I can do that you have really started your career from in coaching I should say from high school coaching high school players you've gone all the way up you've seen every facet of this game and now you're finally here where you wanted to be as a head coach at what point in your career did you think I could go all the way with this I could be an NFL you know I had a good example my dad was one so just like anything you see that it's possible and I was able to envision that for myself at some point I didn't probably really want to go down that path until after I was a graduate assistant at UCLA I was wasn't sure which direction I wanted to head I wanted to be in athletics I enjoyed being around football and I didn't know which what that was going to look like for me and so eventually I went to go do the high school that coached high school for two years and that part really was enjoyable and it made me want to continue to do that and then I just the opportunity came to get in the NFL two years after I started and I was like well I'll see where this takes me but I was uncertain of what that was going to look like when I was first starting out and then once I got in the NFL I felt like you know I could I could do this I can I could end up in this seat that I'm in right now coaching is not the most glamorous of jobs once you get to the head roll it looks very glamorous but football families especially you mentioned that your dad was a coach still is a coach football families sometimes do not romanticize the the sport as much because it's taxing on the whole family yes did that influence your career choice at all that you've seen how this really works I just knew what I was entering into and when I when I first told my mom that I wanted to coach football after I was finished playing I was going to be a graduate assistant and that went two years and I said you know I think I want to do this for real and she wasn't very happy with me she's like you got you have two degrees from UCLA you can go do whatever you want why would you do this and I don't know I just love doing it but her point was there's so many other things you could do why would you choose to enter this volatile of a profession and I just love being around football and being around players and that part is what I that's what I enjoy about it the rest of it is the work part you know all the time and effort it's a ton of work there's really no shortcuts and if you don't do that part you're gonna have a hard time being successful and so there's a lot of sacrifice that gets made but ultimately it's you know I have a great wife and great family that that helps the process move smoothly but I wouldn't say that there's a lot of glamour involved in it for the most part it's it's a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice just like any jobs where you're where you're trying to do something really cool and do something collectively that we're trying to do with the Titans and there's no other way I'd know how to do it but it is not the easiest and it is not glamorous I can promise you had the opportunity to work in a lot of different places with a lot of different people have you given any thought to what your head coaching style is going to be like what pieces and bits you're going to grab from each place and kind of put together to create what will be the coach Callahan way I think that's where I am now I feel like I've been very prepared for this moment there's a lot of people that have that invested a lot in me over over the years and because of that I've probably taken bits and pieces of them throughout without even really thinking about it just things that I've liked but I think what you see now is what you're going to get I'm not going to really try to be anybody else but me and I feel really confident in that I feel good about where I am and who I am and so that part feels really easy for me and I'm pretty genuine and pretty authentic and that's not going to change you're going to you're going to get that every day for me here so I don't know that there's any other you know the influences are probably more in the work as opposed to the personality and I think I'm I'm going to be be be me it's the best I can explain it having worked your way up through the NFL you haven't taken any shortcuts you haven't done anything the easy way the quote unquote easy way yeah do you think that makes you uniquely qualified for a role like this I feel qualified for it because of that I don't know if anybody else feels that way or not but I do think there is something to be said for for taking the those steps in the journey and the journey certainly not over yet for me but doing those things in the matter in the in the sequence that they've happened for me I think is prepare me to be here I feel like I've earned my way here and I'm proud of the work I've done and all the places I've been but there's no point where I've ever felt like it was easy but it but it matters to me and I'm proud of that and and I think I'm here today because of that journey I've had thus far what do you learn from being a high school football coach yeah there's a lot you learn from being a high school football coach in particular I was a I was the freshman offensive coordinator so I get I get I call Patrick Walsh as a head coach at Sarah High School and he's one of my mentors he coached me at De La Salle High School and I was in high school and he'll be at the press conference too by the way which will be cool he said I got a job for you and I said I need a teaching job I can't just coach football I need to work at the school I have my master's in education like it fits this will be great so I get a job at the school and he says well only job I have for your coaching is the freshman offensive coordinator and after playing division one football and being a graduate assistant that was a little bit of a humbling offer that was the only offer I had was to go be the freshman football coach and when you get a bunch of 14 year olds that probably have never put shoulder pads on don't know how to buckle their helmet it really makes you refine how you teach and how you communicate with your kids how clearly you tell them what to do and so it really changed the whole foundation of what I what coaching is for me and it's it really brought it back to it's about teaching it's how you teach and that hasn't changed in 14 years in the NFL and at all the stops I've been the best coaches I've been around are great teachers and that was probably the most foundational and influential part of my early journey was coaching a bunch of 14 year olds and trying to get them to get into three-point stance and know how to get an athletic stance in general and how to communicate that and so that part was a really invaluable experience for me as a as a really young coach like I don't know everything and I better figure out how to talk to these guys or they're not gonna know anything either and so it was it was a huge part of my journey it has to be if you can get a 14 year old to run a play you can probably communicate with a professional athlete how to maybe do it at a higher level yeah and that's the that's always going to be the key to all of it is how well do you communicate individually how well do you communicate as a leader of a unit and how well do I communicate as the head coach with everybody in the building everybody on the team and you refine those communication styles and techniques with your teaching as well and so when you when you communicate well you're a good teacher I think everybody would think back to whatever teacher they had that they that made an impact on them and it's because they were probably great communicators at what they were looking for and so I pride myself on that and it's you know if you can again get a if you can get a 14 year old to do it you certainly can get a professional athlete that's paid a lot of money to do that job as a coach you obviously been a quarterbacks coach you've been an offensive coordinator and you've had the opportunity to work with some pretty incredible quarterbacks but kind of across the spectrum you've been in some different situations working with someone like Peyton Manning so by the time you get to him he's pretty much got his routine set yes Peyton Manning knows what he wants to do by the time he comes to the Denver Broncos what did you learn from working with a player like that well that was a unique situation because he was coming from a place he had been for for 15 years in Indianapolis he had run a variation of the same offense for most of that time so he was in transition he was learning some of what the things that we did in Denver and we were trying to learn some things he did we're trying to meld the system of offense to one that was what we did and what he did and to make it our system in Denver and that was unique because he had never had to do that before everything was always how he had done it and so we worked really hard to meld the systems but when you talk about learning from a guy like Peyton outside of helping a transition was the preparation part how intense it was it was more me learning what a Hall of Fame quarterback looks like what a what their process looks like what their preparation on a weekly basis is supposed to be and that's that's it was like a PhD in quarterback play and that part was the most probably most foundational piece of what I've done since then is all those things I learned with Peyton in those four years in Denver and it was it was a lot of fun every day to go to work it was hard and he demanded a lot but it made me a really good coach and I learned a whole lot about how what it looks like to play NFL quarterback at a high level and I think I've hopefully used those things to help a lot of guys along the way I want to fast forward a little bit you've worked with a lot of great quarterbacks but Joe Burrow was a name that everyone knows right now and a very different situation to where he's a young guy who's trying to learn how to exist in what is the national football league do you have to resist taking some of that and overwhelming him do you almost have to back off a little bit how do you manage that because it's such a different situation completely on the opposite side yeah that's a that's a that's a great question because you know you have a guy in Peyton that that knows what he wants how he wants it and there's not there's only if there's nobody that's Peyton you know there's Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and Drew Bray like those guys exist in their own stratosphere of player um and they're all different but they're not replicable you can't replicate Peyton Manning I I didn't go to Detroit and try to get Matthew Stafford in his ninth year to be Peyton Manning he's Matthew Stafford he does things his way I learned that quickly as you deal with different players that they're all going to be who they are and you try to impart some lessons and some things that might have worked for somebody in it you know what worked for Peyton didn't always work for Matthew and what worked for Matthew didn't always work for Derek Carr and that's how you learn how to cater to the player that's there and you find their strengths and try to highlight those Joe is probably the closest you know in terms of just personality ability to do the things that Peyton did but he is also was a 21 year old 23 year 22 23 year old rookie quarterback that had never played enough football before as great as he was as a college player he had never been in that arena yet and it was really fun to be a part of his development from you know first overall pick Heisman Trophy winner great player still hadn't played it down on the NFL and to be a part of his growth from that spot as a rookie starting quarterback on a bad football team into starting in the Super Bowl and back to back AFC Championship games and being the highest pay player in football was was a unbelievable progression to be a part of and there was a lot that was so much different than these veteran quarterbacks because there was a lot he was learning and he's trying to figure out what worked for him and what didn't work for him and so that process to refine what what he wanted to be and what he wanted to look like playing quarterback was really fun to be a part of having that experience of working with so many different people in so many different organizations must give you a sense of maybe ease or calm walking into being responsible for an entire locker room of different personalities and different abilities and different strengths and weaknesses right absolutely there's there's something to be said for working for a lot of different people being a lot of different ways of doing things there's no cookie cutter way that that equals success in the NFL there's a lot of ways you can you can win football games and being a part of a lot of different places just shows you all the ways that it can happen and for me i've taken bits and pieces and dealing with different types of players and different places in their career i feel about as comfortable as you could feel dealing with with any player in the locker room at any point any stage in their career where they're at from a undrafted rookie college free agent to you know a 10-time pro bowl player that is is the face of a franchise like i've seen all of it in between and i think one of my strengths is as a coach is i've always been able to connect with players and regardless of what where they're at in their journey or in their path i've been able to to connect and form great relationships and and be able to really coach effectively because of it so there's a lot of benefit to being a lot of places and having experience even though i'm you know i'm 39 i've lived a long time in the nfl and i've seen a lot so it's like dog years you know it's 14 years the nfl feels like 30 so i feel very prepared for it great teams have great cultures yes for you what does a winning culture look like what is that it's a great question to me the the culture this the schematics is probably only about 20 or 30 of what makes a good team and the culture is the rest of it and you want you want to guys that are mentally tough you want people that want to come to work every day they want to be around the team they want to be around the building they want to play for each other and one of the the greatest things the most difficult things about when you look at good teams across all sports is a bunch of guys that that want to be a part of something bigger than themselves they want to be a part of that team and play their role and the best teams that i've been on have all shared that quality the best teams that you look every year these teams that are still playing they share that quality and when you get into these moments where the talent is equal because you get to that point where everyone's good that's the difference is is how hard do these guys play for each other how much they love playing football and being in the building together and you want that sort of culture in your building where it's fun it's enjoyable guys love it they play hard they play for each other they play for the city it means something to them that's what that's what we hope to hope to be here in in Nashville what's the best piece of advice you've ever received it can be coaching or otherwise oh man there's a lot um in coaching a very more specific to coaching advice is um you know it's not the best way to phrase it but worry worry about the job that you have and and do the best be the best you can be whatever your role is um my dad gave me that advice early in my career because in football you become ambitious you want to be a coordinator a head coach so you're trying to find ways how do I get there uh and my dad said early on in my career just just worry about the job that you have and be great at it uh and the rest of those things take care of themselves um and so I've always tried to live that way is is when I was a quality control coach in Denver I was trying to be the best at that um and when I was an office coordinator here in Cincinnati I tried to be the best at that um and not worry about everything else that comes after that and uh that's really helped me I think be really good at my job and stay really focused on what's in the moment and what's important as opposed to thinking about what's what could be or what should be or where I should be after that yeah yeah when you were offered the job as my coach of the Tennessee Titans who was your first phone call who'd you call oh my wife absolutely yeah she was by far the first that was the first one um she was not expecting it nor was I I wasn't expecting it either but that was a that was a really cool moment um to be able to share because she's been through all this and the moves and the back and forth and uh new job here a new job here that part you know I'm gone a lot I work a lot she's got the kids all the time and so for her to be able to share some of that joy was was a pretty awesome moment and then obviously right after that I called my parents and those are my first two phone calls when I after I got the job is the the most important people to me are my my family and my mom and dad so what was your dad's response he's proud he's proud he's excited um you know it's I was talking in the car I don't know how many fathers and sons I've been had coaches in the NFL I know it's not a long list um and so that's a that's very that's a very prideful thing for for him and I um to be a part of and yeah he was he was ecstatic he was just you know it's one of those things as a dad as I have my own son it's like to see your to see your your kids have success and whatever they want to do uh and I chose to do coaching and I think there's something about that that he has a lot of pride in and really cool moment to see me be the head coach of the Tennessee Titans you mentioned that you have kids you do um what's it like being able to share this with them and being able to bring them along for what is bound bound to be a crazy ride yeah you know they they don't quite get it they don't really they don't think they understand like the the gravity of you know my dad's a head coach and there's only one of he's one of 32 and in the world that's that's in these positions and so they don't get that part um they just think it's cool that they see dad on tv sometimes when i'm when i'm up in the box they get to see they try to see me on tv and they get their kid their friends talk about it at school but they don't really they don't understand the weight of of what this is and how much this means and um how much of a career pinnacle this is for me uh someday they will but right now they don't quite understand and they they enjoy it they it's there's a lot of commotion to it but they're not quite old enough to really understand the whole the whole process yet but it's gotta be cool to be able to bring them to games and have them maybe get a little bit more involved in the game is running a football fan he's getting there he's he's at six he's starting to kind of be more interested and i i've always felt like that peaks at around like nine or ten or eleven where like boys are just dialed into sports and they they know all the players and so he's starting to learn players um this year he kind of got to these he would start asking about joe borough and jamar chase and the guys that he'd watch on tv and they talk about at school and he likes being around and i like having them they love coming to the office they love being on the practice fields and they love coming to training camp and so i want them around as much as possible that's how i grew up and to have them be a part of that is is really cool because that's how i spent my time with them too other than super bowls how do you measure your success as a head coach oh you know i i think you know we're always going to be judged on wins and losses ultimately um but do we have a team uh of people of guys like i said that that want to play for each other that when we go out on sundays you know that they put a product in the field that people are proud of that they're excited to watch um that the city of nashville can rally around and and really have a lot of pride in what's occurring um usually that means you're playing well enough to win games but sometimes you still play well and lose but i i do think if you have a team of high character guys that really love playing football that the city identifies with that to me is is is a success on a more personal level it's forming great relationships with the players um you know making sure those guys are are developing as a whole person they're still really young um most of those guys are you know in their early 20s and so to be there for them to form those relationships where i can help them grow and develop it as people is another part of it too so um i do wish we were judged on more of those things but we're not um but i think that's the mark of of a of a good coach and a good team is a is a bunch of guys that that have great character that love playing together and there's a there's a product in the field that um the city and state can be proud of what are your interests outside of football do i you don't have a ton of free time no no i don't and outside of them i'm a free time is usually spent with my kids and and and my wife but um i like to play golf a little bit that's that's about my my relaxation hobby um i played ice hockey my whole life so i love watching ice hockey games uh i'm excited to go see the predators play but i've i've always been in in an ice hockey is like my second love um and so i grew up playing it i've i've played all the way through college and i love watching it so that's that's kind of my other thing i like to to to go watch and do um i watch a lot of f1 racing i don't know a lot about it but i enjoy it um other than that though it's it's really you're gonna find me in the office at the complex with with the with the people in the building or i'm gonna probably be at home with my my kids and out doing stuff with them i can't wait i can't wait it's uh it's got it's got a great it's got a great energy to it and you could feel the energy when you walk there i felt the energy getting into the city um i felt the energy in the building and i feel that there's there's just something about nashville that um appealed to me it it felt like it fit me um and and what a what an unbelievable unbelievable city to be a part of and and hopefully we can win a lot of games and have a lot of fun doing it are you ready to get started uh i was ready i'm ready trust me i've been i've been on the phone a bunch and i'm ready to get get started get settled get started and and and hit the ground running here and build us a build us a really good football team and um can't wait to get you know rand's been great i love working with rand and um to build that together is going to be something really really cool it's um i can't wait to get started well that was something also gives me a chance to mention that seat geek is now the official ticketing partner of the tennessee titans whether you're buying or selling tickets to titans games or any live event in nashville seat geek is the place to do it seat geek the new official ticketing partner of the tennessee titans so titans fans can't fan it was really good i went away and you took my line i'm sorry but i was thinking about i was i wanted to make sure i complimented you oh thanks mike um and and you clearly weren't nervous i was nervous when i interviewed him the next day were you oh yeah you didn't seem nervous i was nervous you're a professional no i i i didn't have anything usually i have the you know the handy dandy clipboard with my questions or at least just some topics or whatever thoughts but i decided to go into it because he had just done the press conference when i sat down with him and um i just said i want to see where it goes you know i and i told ashley ferrell this i was very thankful that i was the very first person who was doing an interview with him after he got this job because there was no question that he had been asked 30 times right there was no like now he has been yeah i mean now there's six or seven questions that he has been asked 300 different ways which people should do that's their job yeah and and that's how it goes and that's what happens with everyone but in preparing for this interview i didn't have to be like well i want to stay away from this because he's talked about it a lot i got to just go the pad that you're holding right here on the set is that are those the questions this is it yeah i have um what what do you think your people have just heard it but what do you think your best question was what were the question what was the question you like the best well there were a couple that he said that's a great question don't you love it when people say that i love it oh man there's no better feeling in the world than when someone says that's a great question unless they're being a jerk about it which sometimes they're descending yeah but i think he was being i think it was like a genuine like he was like oh that's a that's a great question let me think about it and so like those were my favorite ones because then you're like yes hit it like you get a little like i was at endorphins you get a little yes something good yes yeah so um those were my favorite questions but i i mean just being able to talk to him about hit kind of his journey and the people that he's worked with he loves to talk about the quarterbacks that he has worked with it's pretty remarkable and when you talk to him about just guys that he has formed relationships with and guys that he's worked with the Peyton Manning's the Matthew Staffords the i mean Joe Burrow all of them he gets so like excited it's like bragging on his kids you know he's just excited to talk about it and i thought that that was so interesting because sometimes people get annoyed by the like oh yeah they're gonna ask me about the time i worked with Peyton Manning but he genuinely is excited to talk about those things and Peyton Manning was excited to talk about him which is also so cool mm-hmm yeah called from the golf course yeah yeah to give us quotes which i mean had an eight iron in his hand of course but he really did that's what he said on the phone i mean what does that say about brian callahan that Peyton Manning would stop golfing to call and give quotes yeah that's pretty great i mean you want to talk about a resounding recommendation right there i have a feeling Peyton Manning is going to be here a few times oh yeah well yeah because brian callahan's the head coach now so you don't think he shows up at training camp or something well i don't know you talk to him more than i do i don't talk to him but i'm just saying i bet he i bet he does i think you're probably right so tell the ot people what the flight so you you drop off the rental car yes it was a one-way rental car it was a van right it sure was we took the minivan from nashfield since natty it was just luxury all the way the old minivan mm-hmm and then we drop it off at the rental place this is on thursday morning drop it off at the rental car place um plane strains and automobiles to get from the rental car place to where we needed to be at the airport and um you're getting to fly the owners plane we flew in the owners plane which is pretty delightful accommodations do you get like juice well there was coffee coffee yeah i mean danish there was no danish pastry snacks um there were lots of snacks which the kids really enjoyed um at that point all i needed was caffeine okay that's that's really what we were looking for um but i mean flying on the owners plane does not suck it's pretty great and what's the conversation like i mean i i don't want you to tell every story because i mean you don't want to give it all away but what's it what's it like talking to the to the head coach and his wife as i mean he's going to become the head coach and you and ashley and tide and donald or there with him yeah there was a little bit of the so how much sleep did you get not a ton conversation you know um he spent a little time kind of working on the remarks that he was going to make at the press conference um definitely took some time to like just kind of take it all in um especially when we were driving from once we landed in nashville when we were driving to the stadium or when we were driving to ascension st tomas sports park we drove past the stadium and so that was kind of a moment and there were just little moments where like he realized that this was really happening um but then you're also having conversations about so what neighborhood should we look for a house in where's the schools what's traffic like any good restaurants around there like there are also these conversations that are happening now but to back up to wednesday night he sent you guys to a good restaurant brian brian callahan sent you to his favorite restaurant in simpson addy he did it's a burger joint it was really good um i don't remember what it was called that's okay but i guess we don't work for no they don't they don't give us anything in simpson addy yeah they are getting free pub from us that's it but sent us there it was really good food um just a cool place to hang out and um they put on their social media that they were going to miss the callahan family when he got the job because they are pretty consistent regulars there that's great um but i mean knew the cool places in town to send us knew the places to oh yeah you might want to try and get this try this place if you like italian food there's that if you want to do this and that these are the places to hang out so i mean he's definitely someone who's plugged in the into the community there and wasn't gatekeeping his favorite restaurants like oh no go try this place so i am excited now for them to be here in nashville and hopefully we can return the favor and i know that this community is going to love this family and i thought that was one of the most special parts of thursday was just the whole family i guess it's because my kids are grown yeah but to see the little ones again and that they were literally hiding in the cabinets in his office and jumping out at people and uh ronan was up and down the halls and they they are at home they had a big time they had a big time but that's how it should i mean you think about it because you think about norah and ronan and wherever they go and whatever they do i mean these memories will be some because they're old enough that they will remember all of this well but and the thing that strikes me is that that coach callahan is a coaches kid right and so for him to be able to have these moments now with his kids yeah it's important and it's special to him to make sure that they're incorporated in this because he was incorporated with his dad and so passing that along making sure that that's a priority he understands the family piece of it he knows the things that they'll remember from these like moments and from the spaces that they're able to be in and you realize you have moments where you realize how crazy this business is and what a big deal it is to be able to do what it is you do he mentioned a couple times that there's only 32 people in the world who do this job and he's now one of them um and having that realization always kind of strikes me because it's true um and that's such a small number of people when you think about the whole world sure um and so he wants to be able to have that experience for himself but also pass it down to his family and make sure that they're able to have those moments as well and really enjoy what it is that he does and i think that that's really special and i think that his perspective on it is so unique pretty good for you oh i mean i had the time of my life welcome back uh yeah it is it is really really good to be back but to be back like that yeah to get the first interview with brian callahan it's pretty good work yeah it's not a bad first week back um maybe a little rusty but we'll shake that off i think it's interesting that he and ran carthon are not going to the senior bowl sort of following a different trend we're starting to see fewer and fewer head coaches go to the senior bowl and i think in this case however it's largely about putting the staff together yeah i think this is a timing thing more than anything else that because of when he was hired not that it was earlier late just how it falls on the calendar he's got some things that he wants to take care of that feel more time sensitive and there's enough people going down there that he trusts that he doesn't necessarily need to be boots on the ground there are other people who can evaluate scout do the things that they need to do and they still get another shot of a shot at a lot of these guys in the combine in a couple that's right so just the timing of how things lined up i don't think that he's anti senior bowl i think it's just the way that everything lined up but i think you're right that we're starting to see different emphasis being put in different places when it comes to some of these kind of all-star bowls and some of the different scouting opportunities and i think a lot of that has to do with just how many things are digital now or how many things are televised and just the way that things are he said he was talking about workouts even at the combine and he said there's so much stuff that's on tv now you're not seeing anything different on tv than what we're seeing in the building you know it's the same stuff so that makes it a little less not that guys aren't at the combine or anything like that but it's not imperative that you are in your seat at a certain time in that moment because it's all recorded it's all televised so it's just the way that the world is so many things are more available you don't have to physically be there for every moment of every event at every time so just because someone physically isn't in a space doesn't mean they're not working they're definitely working good angle thank you so much for your work it was fun yeah i'm i am just i'm excited about the future i'm excited about this human i'm so glad he's leading the titans i'm excited to be back brandy wells i'm mike key thanking you for listening to the