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Tennessee Titans Welcome Jeff Fisher Back Sunday

By Randy Sharber

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The Tennessee Titans will welcome Jeff Fisher back to Nashville this Sunday.

Titans fans will assuredly give Fisher a warm welcome when he leads his St Louis Rams onto Nissan Stadium. (It is still hard for me not to write LP Field) Jeff coached here through name changes such as Adelphia Coliseum, The Coliseum, LP Field, and now Nissan Stadium. I feel like this one will stick for a while.

Fisher took over the then Houston Oilers for the last six games of the 1994 season. He oversaw the move from Houston to Tennessee as Bud Adams decided to move to greener pastures. The move was facilitated when the city of Houston would not help Adams build a new stadium. Nashville was more than happy to make that happen, and Nashville did make that happen.

Jeff was well liked while here in Nashville. Fishers Titans teams played with a chip on their shoulder in every game. They were extremely physical, and extremely aggressive. The fans, including me, loved this style. The Titans lined up and punched you in the mouth. Win or lose, the opponent knew they had been in a football game when they played the Titans. Plenty of ice was going to be needed.

The Titans had an identity when Fisher was here. They were tough, and they were going to run the ball. Fans knew what they were going to get every single game. Fisher built that team around Steve McNair, and the tough running Eddie George.

It was an offense that would line up and run over you. It was not flashy. It was not exciting. It was just 3 yards and a cloud of dust. The offensive line consisted of the likes of Brad Hopkins, Fred Miller, Benji Olson, and Frank Wycheck.

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The defense was always a little nasty. Players like Keith Bulluck, Kevin Carter, Jevon Kearse, Albert Haynesworth, Blaine Bishop, and Samari Rolle played hard nosed defense. They stuffed the run, got after the quarterback, and played tough, press man to man defense in the secondary. It was quite predictable. The bad thing for the Titans was it was just that for the other team….too predictable.

Fisher was basically “Even Steven” as the Titans head coach. He went 142-120 during his time here in Tennessee. It became a running joke around Nashville that Fisher was an 8-8 coach. There is a lot of truth to that. However, that is not terrible in the NFL in this day and age.

His 1999 team did make it to the Super Bowl where they lost to the same St Louis Rams which he coaches now. The Titans came up one yard short in one the most exciting Super Bowls of all time. The Titans remained a contender for a while. He followed up the Super Bowl season with a 13 win 2000 season, and won 11 and 12 games respectively in 2002 and 2003.

Fisher got the Titans back to the playoffs with a 10 win season in 2007, and a 13 win 2008 season. But the Titans were one and done in both of those playoff seasons. The decline came soon afterward. It was time for Jeff to move on when the two sides could not agree upon several contractual points.

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    • He has assembled a tough, hard nosed team in St Louis. He has a strong defense to go with very little offense. Sounds a little familiar. He is still searching for a quarterback to replace often injured Sam Bradford who is now in Philadelphia. It looks as if Nick Foles will be the starter in St Louis. Foles is a nice player, but he is not a top notch NFL quarterback. So they will be just ok on offense.

    Typical of a Jeff Fisher team they will rely on the running game. Tre Mason out of Auburn will be the starter. The Rams did get the steal of the draft when they selected what I consider the best player in the 2015 draft. That was Georgia running back Todd Gurley. I don’t think we will see Gurley tomorrow as they are being extremely careful with him since injuring his knee last season.

    So the old school meets the new school of Titans football tomorrow. Jeff was well liked, and he will get a well deserved warm reception. The jury is still out on Ken Whisenhunt here. He is some what of an enigma at the moment. After a pathetic first season, Titans fans really do not know what to think. There is not a sample size large enough to make a decision one way or another.

    But he better make progress this season. This is not an energetic, bigger than life NFL coach. He is rather laid back, and somewhat of a ghost within the community. You don’t see billboards with his likeness on it like a Rex Ryan in Buffalo. You don’t see him on television commercials advertising trucks or restaurants. You just don’t see him.

    The Falcon game was not what we wanted to see last week. It was much more of the same old same old from last season. Bad offense. Worse defense.

    So, Whisenhunt better win to gain the respect and love of this Titans fan base. He needs to at least show progress. He’s not going to do it with a charming personality or infectious spirit. That much is for sure. Tomorrow the Titans need to take a positive step forward. Let’s wait and see.

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