After beginning another season with a 0-3 record, Titans coach Brian Callahan has received comparisons to former head coach Ken Whisenhunt. Whisenhunt was fired after seven games during his second season coaching the team in 2015, with a rookie quarterback of his own under center in Marcus Mariota.
Whisenhunt finished his one-and-a-half seasons as the head coach of the Titans with a 3-20 record. Brian Callahan is currently 3-17 as the head coach, and has already made a major change, handing over play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree, something Whisenhunt didn't relinquish.
However, despite the comparisons, Callahan has done something that Whisenhunt never did as coach of the Titans. Surprisingly, Whisenhunt began both of his seasons winning the season-opening game to avoid a 0-3 start that Callahan has now done twice. He isn't the first Titans coach to begin multiple seasons with a 0-3 record, and he has precedent to somewhat salvage their season despite another terrible start.
The Titans have previously started 0-3 four times
Longtime Titans head coach Jeff Fisher made the move with the franchise from Houston to Tennessee and remained the head coach from 1995 to 2010. Beginning in the Titans era (when they switched from the Oilers) in 1999, Fisher began a regular season 0-3 on three occasions in 2001, 2006, and 2009.
Callahan made up the franchise's fourth and fifth times last season and this year with a 0-3 start to begin a new campaign. However, the difference between him and Fisher is that Fisher won at least seven games in each of his three 0-3 starts. During the NFL's 16-game seasons, Tennessee's most successful all-time coach finished the 2001 season with a 7-9 record, and the 2006 and 2009 seasons with 8-8 records.
The 2006 and 2009 teams began their seasons 0-5 and 0-6, respectively, before second-half turnarounds gave them respectable seasons. Callahan's first 0-3 start led to the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Callahan has made a major change to spark a run of his own with his second 0-3 start, and he will need to follow in the footsteps of Fisher's 0-3 starts if he wants to survive his first head coaching gig.