The Tennessee Titans announced this morning that head coach Ken Whisenhunt has been fired, and will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Mike Mularkey.
If you haven’t been paying much attention to the Titans lately—and why would you?—this firing may come as a bit of a surprise. After all, Whisenhunt took the Cardinals to a Super Bowl, won a ring as the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, and helped groom quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. He was supposed to be a great hire, but he’s been shockingly bad in Tennessee.
Whisenhunt’s record with the Titans is 3-20, and he has guided the team to a loss in 16 of its last 17 games, including a 10-game losing streak last season. It’s very, very bleak in Tennessee:
The strangest thing of all is that Whisenhunt, who is supposed to be an offensive specialist, has helped create one of the saddest-ass offenses in the league. The Titans are averaging just under 18 points a game this year, and the team has scored just four touchdowns in the last four games combined.
From here, the Titans need to find a coach who can do some things with rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, who has shown promise but has been sidelined recently with a sprained MCL. Don’t count on that guy being Mularkey, though. His last head-coaching gig was with the Jaguars in 2012, when he led them to 2-14 record and was fired just one year into his contract.