Throughout the Browns' search for a new head coach, ClevelandBrowns.com will break down the candidates after their interview with the team's search committee is complete. It continues today with a look at Teryl Austin, whose name is being linked to numerous openings for a second consecutive year.
- Austin's defense was at the center of Detroit's playoff run in 2014. In his first season as an NFL defensive coordinator, Austin saw his group finish the season second in total defense, third in scoring defense and first overall in rush defense. That final area was particularly strong, as the Lions became just the ninth team in NFL history to finish with an average of fewer than 70 rushing yards allowed per game (69.3). The next-best team in 2014 allowed more than 79 rushing yards per game.
- This is the second year in a row Austin has garnered plenty of interest from other NFL teams. He interviewed with the Bears, Bills, Falcons and 49ers last year and already met with the Dolphins earlier this week. His schedule of interviews is not expected to end with the Browns.
- Austin's one year out of the NFL since 2002 came in 2010, when he was hired for what would be Urban Meyer's final season at Florida. Austin replaced George Edwards, who lasted just 27 days with the Gators because of an offer to become the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator.
- Austin has been on the coaching staffs of three different Super Bowl teams -- 2005 Seahawks, 2008 Cardinals and 2012 Ravens. He was the defensive backs coach on each of those teams and went 1-2, coming away with his first ring as a member of Baltimore's 2012 staff.
- Austin and Detroit head coach Jim Caldwell worked together under Joe Paterno at Penn State in the early 90s. Caldwell went from Penn State's quarterbacks coach to Wake Forest's head coach in 1993. He gave Austin, then a graduate assistant with the Nittany Lions, his first full-time coaching gig as the Demon Deacons defensive backs coach. Caldwell, of course, hired Austin in 2014 to be the Lions defensive coordinator.
