Titans turn defense over to Chuck Cecil
February 13
Tennessean
"When he played in the NFL, no one questioned Chuck Cecil's toughness. It showed up in his blood-stained uniform as well as his wallet — he once held the league record for largest fine.
As he takes over as defensive coordinator for the Titans, however, the most obvious questions are about his readiness for the job. Those who've spent time around Cecil, who's been a Titans assistant for eight years, said the answers are as definitive as one of his bone-crushing hits.
Titans Coach Jeff Fisher had been a secondary coach for 2½ years when he was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1988.
"I was a roll of the dice," said Fisher, who reeled off the names of previous Titans defensive coordinators who had great success. "People said Gregg Williams was a roll of the dice and a lot of people said Jim Schwartz was.
"Chuck has a lot more experience than any of those guys. He is prepared, and he is ready.''
The Titans officially promoted Cecil on Thursday, nearly a month after Schwartz left to become head coach of the Detroit Lions. Cecil, 44, takes over a unit that finished this past season ranked second in the NFL in points allowed and seventh in total defense.
Cecil was the secondary coach the past two seasons after coaching safeties and nickel backs from 2004-06. He joined the Titans as a defensive assistant/quality control coach in 2001.
"I love the game of football and being a defensive coordinator is obviously a big responsibility, but I've always been about big responsibilities,'' said Cecil, who played safety for seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Houston Oilers. ''Am I ready? We'll see. I feel ready. I feel confident in what we're going to do. I'm ready to rock and roll.''
Several Titans defenders said they're ready to roll with him.
"It is good for me and good for our defense,'' defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch said. "Since I've been here I think our defense itself has evolved and been simplified in a lot of ways. We don't do a lot of crazy things but we do the things we do really well.
"The good thing is Coach Cecil has been with this defense through this evolution and seen the changes we've made. … We don't have to learn a whole new defense. I'm sure he'll bring his own wrinkle and change a few things here and there but it is not going to be a complete change of the defense.''
Neither Fisher nor Cecil promised any sweeping changes.
"There's always going to be questions right off the bat,'' linebacker Stephen Tulloch said, "but I think Coach Cecil is definitely up to the challenge. We have everybody returning for the most part on defense. He takes tremendous pride in his job and you can go to him with any question and he knows the answer. He's well respected and I think the guys will definitely respond well to him.
"I am anxious to see how it works out. We won't lose a step with Chuck Cecil.''"
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