Teryl Austin: Head job can wait; more to do with Lions

Teryl Austin went from a first-year coordinator to one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the NFL last season, in part because of the dramatic impact he had on the Detroit Lions' defense.

A middle-of-the-league outfit, at best, for most of the Jim Schwartz era, the Lions led the NFL in rushing defense and finished second in total defense last year, en route to an 11-5 record.

Austin earned praise for his play calling and in-game adjustments and how he dealt with and got the most out of star defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

But Suh is gone this year, and while questions about how good the Lions can be soon will be answered, Austin said he's not the least bit concerned about how that debate will affect his head coaching chances.

"I don't care," Austin said this week. "I just care that we play good, we play well, we play hard, fast. That other stuff, I can't control. So I don't worry about it."

While the coaching landscape is littered with promising coordinators who never were elevated to a top job, Austin has several qualities that would seem to make him a hot candidate no matter what the Lions do on the field this year.

He's still relatively young, at age 50. He impressed in interviews last year with the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons, where he finished second for the job that went to Dan Quinn. And his players laud him both for his teaching ability and willingness to listen to their feedback.

"He's a coach that you respect and he's a coach you want to play for," said linebacker Josh Bynes, who also played in Baltimore when Austin was a position coach with the Ravens. "He's not a guy to say a bunch of bad words to you, get in your face and give you all nonsense that you don't need, 'cause a lot of times, that don't work anyways. He's just going to give it to you straight up, how it's supposed to go on the field."

Austin said this spring that he was content with how things went during his whirlwind winter of interviews, and he said he learned plenty from the process that should help him in the future. But with this season almost underway, Austin said his future as head coach is the furthest thing from his mind.

"The bottom line is we have to get our team ready to win," he said. "That stuff, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm very content and happy right here to try to have our guys play great defense and help us win games."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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