Caldwell On What He Likes Most About His Assistants: 'They're Ambitious Men'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - After the Detroit Lions hired Jim Caldwell as their head coach, Caldwell hired Teryl Austin, and in their first season, Austin molded the Detroit defense into one of the best in the league.
As a result, after the season Austin garnered interest from numerous teams with head coaching vacancies, even though 2014 was his first year as an NFL coordinator.
Austin will be back for 2015, but he could receive plenty of attention once again after the upcoming season concludes. Because of Austin's role in the team's success, the Lions might have to find a new defensive coordinator sooner rather than later, but Caldwell is okay with that.
Caldwell expressed as much last week at the NFL owners meetings, when he discussed what he likes best about his assistants.
"I like the fact that they're ambitious men," Caldwell said. "I like powerful ambition because of the fact it's easy for me to direct, steer that kind of ambition. It's ambition that doesn't detract away from our central mission, and our central mission is to win, but I do want guys that are striving to be coordinators, that are striving to be better position coaches, that are striving to be head coaches. Those kinds of guys, I think when they have that kind of drive and commitment, those are the kind of guys you want.
"What's going to happen is we're going to lose some from time to time," Caldwell added, "but I think once you set that table, more guys are going to follow that have that same type of drive, that same type of commitment, so [that] will give us an opportunity, I think, to continue to get better."
