LIKE STEFANSKI, CRENNEL ONCE GOT COACH OF THE YEAR NOTICE WITH BROWNS

By STEVE KING

Kevin Stefanski is starting to get some hype as an NFL Coach of the Year candidate, and that’s understandable, and warranted.

The Browns, who were just 6-10 a year ago and haven’t finished with a winning record in 13 years, are 5-3 as they return from their bye week at the halfway point of the season to host the Houston Texans on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium.

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It’s the first time since 2014, when Mike Pettine, in his first season, had the Browns at 6-3 and then 7-4, that a Browns head coach was receiving any notice for coach of the year this late in the season. But that quickly fizzled as the Browns dropped their final five games to finish 7-9.

The last time that a Browns head coach was still in the conversation for the honor at the end of the season was in 2007, when Romeo Crennel, in his third year, directed the team to a 10-6 finish, the franchise’s best record of the expansion era, The Browns finished with the same record as Pittsburgh and Tennessee, but they lost the AFC North championship to the Steelers on tie-breakers and the final AFC wild-card playoff berth to the Titans, again on tie-breakers, and missed the postseason altogether.

This year’s Browns are among a group of teams competing for wild-card spots in the playoffs, Cleveland has not been to the postseason since 2002.

Crennel, of course, was named the interim head coach of the Tecxans following the recent firing of Bill O’Brien. He had been the assistant head coach, and is in his seventh season overall with the Texans. The 74-year-old Crennel has coached in some capacity in the NFL almost continuously since joining Ray Perkins’ New York Giants staff as special teams coach in 1981.

The Texans are the third NFL team for which Crennel has served as head coach in some capacity. He was was with the Browns for four years, from 2005-08, before getting fired. He also was interim head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2011 and their full-time head coach the following year before being dismissed.

Crennel’s is a great story, and an interesting one, and we’ll detail it in our next post.