Here's how Brian Callahan knew he was ready to be the Tennessee Titans' coach

Brian Callahan has a pretty good idea of why he's a head coach right now. It's all about that quarterback he coached. The one with the Cincinnati Bengals. The guy whose initials are J.B. and who wore purple in college and went to the College Football Playoff and all that.

You know . . . Jake Browning.

"Some of why I got hired, I’m sure, is we lost (Joe) Burrow midway through the season," Callahan said in an exclusive interview with The Tennessean. "We had to pivot our entire operation to win games with Jake Browning. That was a really good experience to have as a head coach looking back at it, and then as a coordinator having that experience was pretty important, I think. That sort of pushed it over the top. I knew being in Cincinnati one more year wasn’t going to make it any better. Now was the time."

IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER: Brian Callahan passed his first test as Tennessee Titans coach — with high marks | Estes

There's a certain irony to Callahan's assertion about Browning. After 14 years as an NFL assistant that included years spent coaching the likes of Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford and Burrow, it took an undrafted 27-year-old who hadn't started a game in 4½ professional seasons completing more than 70% of his passes across nine games to get Callahan to the top of his profession.

That's where he is now, nearly a month into his tenure as coach of the Tennessee Titans. He has the job he wants, even if it's only just starting to feel like it.

Becoming Brian Callahan: Coach of the Tennessee Titans

Two words he used to describe his first few weeks on the job: low energy. The only people in the office were him, his dad/offensive line coach Bill Callahan and assistant to the head coach Tom Jones. He spent his days interviewing staff candidates and setting up his calendar, and his nights watching tape and conceiving an offensive strategy. His wife and kids aren't in town yet. The players aren't in the building yet. He's experiencing the life of a head coach in fragments, glimpsing pieces of the job without getting to grasp the whole thing.

Being a first-time head coach, Callahan says, is a lot like being a first-time parent. You can read all the books and study all the manuals and talk to people who've done it before. But all of the preparation in the world can't actually prepare you for the lifestyle change and gigantic increase in responsibility coming your way.

HIRING TRENDS: Do experience, familiarity matter? How Brian Callahan's Titans staff aligns with NFL trends

Nevertheless, Callahan believes he came into the job ready. He admits he would not have been so for the first job he interviewed for, with the Denver Broncos in 2022. Missing out on that opportunity inspired him to pay attention to even the smallest aspects of Bengals coach Zac Taylor's job, and Taylor let him watch more of the day-to-day minutiae of roster construction and decision making. Come 2023, when Callahan interviewed for the job openings in Arizona and Indianapolis, he believed he was prepared to lead.

By 2024, now in his third interview cycle and fresh off making things work with Browning, Callahan emerged as one of the league's hottest commodities. He interviewed for four vacancies, but the Titans job stood out.

"(Titans GM Ran Carthon) told me after the interview process and after I’d been hired, he showed me some of the notes from his interview," Callahan said. "He had wrote down, 'I feel like I’m talking to myself.' That’s how I felt. These principles, this vision of what you want the organization to feel like, resonated with me."

Callahan isn't a sleeps-in-his-office type of coach. He hasn't been since his days as a quality control assistant with the Broncos early in his career. He doesn't remember staying at the Bengals' facility past 11 p.m. at any point in his five years in Cincinnati. During game weeks, he'd usually be out of the building by 8 p.m. on Thursdays and by 2 p.m. on Fridays. He's spending a little more time in the office these days because his family isn't around, but he says making a habit of living at work isn't just unhealthy, it's proof you're managing your time incorrectly during the day.

His days are starting to feel a little more structured, though. He led his first staff meeting Tuesday. He was at one end of a table. At the other end, his dad sat staring back at him. Callahan's hand-picked staff gathered in between the father and son. This was the group Callahan built. All together for the first time. It was a great experience, Callahan says.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BUILDING: The Tennessee Titans sure are trying hard to make you like Ran Carthon | Estes

But it was also, well . . . it was a regular old office meeting.

"It’s an enjoyable environment," Callahan said. "You come to work and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is pretty cool.’ Again, we haven’t played a game. We aren’t getting ready to kick off. It’s just a different feeling."

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Here's how Tennessee Titans' Brian Callahan knew he was ready as coach