NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans completed their first round of interviews for the team’s head coaching vacancy on Saturday. Of the seven candidates that the team announced meetings with, five were done virtually on Zoom.

Having had three months to prepare for this search since firing Brian Callahan from the job in October, how Tennessee handles this process will say a lot about controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk.

Titans HC search is as big a test for Interview Adams Strunk as it is candidates

Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, interim Titans head coach Mike McCoy, both Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuola and former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski were announced to have done visits with the team over the course of the last few days.

When general manager Mike Borgonzi addressed the media this week, he framed the Titans search in certain terms.

“We’ve done a lot of work here on these candidates and we intend to bring in the right coach for this team long term that’s going to work with us to grow this team, to get it better, to really instill a culture here,” Borgonzi said. “That’s what we need. We need a leader that’s going to show up here every day here to work and really just instill that belief and instill the attention to detail, the accountability piece that we need here and the unity piece to bring everything together here in this organization. So, I do feel really good about the process that we’ve gone through to identify some of these candidates. That’s the goal, that’s the intention, to get a head coach in here that’s going to be here for the long term and to win a lot of games.”

Failures by Adams Strunk and the various leadership combinations she’s installed in the last four seasons are why Tennessee is searching for its third head coach in four years.

Finding the right leader for quarterback Cam Ward ahead of his second professional season is the most important thing, of course. In reality, this process is as much an audit of Titans ownership as anything else. Adams Strunk, and those empowered on her behalf, have made decisions in recent years that saw Tennessee go from legitimate contender to punchline.

Borgonzi is respected league-wide for his football acumen and was given the reins on the coaching search in an organizational restructure the team announced last week.

The GM, also heading into his second season with the club, created a search committee with a wealth of league experience by including the front office brain trust that Tennessee brought in alongside Borgonzi. It is critically important that no other elements of the organization, Adams Strunk included, meddle in the committees affairs. It is her right as controlling owner to do as she sees fit, but just because she can doesn’t mean that she should.

Let the audit begin.

Featured Image: USA TODAY Sports.