New Tennessee State head coach Eddie George is crediting his Tennessee Titans coach, Jeff Fisher, for convincing him to take his first coaching job.
George said that before talking to Fisher about it, he was leaning toward declining the Tennessee State job offer.
“I was still very lukewarm on the idea of taking the opportunity. I was probably at a 30 percent chance I would do it at that point,” George said.
But then George relayed to Fisher that he had been offered the job, despite his lack of coaching experience.
“I said, Hey man, I want to talk to you about this: Listen to this ridiculous idea: I just got approached with this opportunity to coach at TSU. Be the head coach at TSU. What do you think about that?” George said he asked Fisher.
“He says, ‘Oh, Eddie, that would be great! You would be awesome!'” George said.
And George says Fisher knows him as well as anyone, and that when Fisher told him to do it, he figured he should do it.
“Jeff drafted me in 1996. We went on an amazing run here in Tennessee. And he knows how to push my buttons. I tell you I was ready to run through a brick wall when I got off the phone with him. I said, Let’s do it,” George said.
If George is a success, Tennessee State can thank Fisher for getting him to take the job.