January 4, 2001

TEXANS COACHING CANDIDATES INCLUDE CAPERS, EDWARDS, AND SHELL

The Houston Texans announced their list of head coaching candidates, which includes DOM CAPERS of the Jacksonville Jaguars, HERMAN EDWARDS of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and ART SHELL, most recently of the Atlanta Falcons.

The Texas have also received permission to talk with Chicago defensive coordinator GREG BLACHE, Buffalo defensive coordinator TED COTTRELL, Denver offensive coordinator GARY KUBIAK, and St. Louis associate head coach/wide receivers coach AL SAUNDERS.

"We really want to get to know some of the outstanding coaches in the industry," said Texans owner Bob McNair. "And this will also be beneficial to each of these candidates because they all aspire to be head coaches."

"We plan to put a lot of time and effort into this search so we don’t think we can take too much time working on it," McNair said. "We have started the interview process and will continue it through this year to the extent that we can by NFL rules.

"We can be exhaustive in our research because nobody has a lock on the job," said Vice President/General Manager Charley Casserly. "It’s wide open. And you shouldn’t read anything into the order in which the coaches are interviewing. Since we aren’t hiring immediately, we can spread these interviews out."

The Texans met with University of Miami head coach Butch Davis on November 28. Davis was an assistant under Jimmy Johnson at Dallas before taking the Hurricanes post.

But for now, the focus is on NFL assistants, and McNair believes the Texans’ interview process will benefit both parties.