Aaron Glenn knew he'd have a lot on his plate as a head coach, but that didn't stop him from almost cursing at Dan Campbell.
Aaron Glenn looked like head coach material virtually from the moment he became Detroit Lions defensive coordinator. It was only a matter of time before multiple interviews in each hiring cycle led to him leaving, but there were indications he wanted one head coaching job more than any other.
Glenn indeed of course has that job now, leaving the Lions to become the head coach of the New York Jets, the team that drafted him and gave him his post-playing career start as a scout.
Being a head coach obviously comes with a new set of responsibilities and concerns a coordinator simply doesn't have. The job is largely about things beyond "Xs and Os", and those who are most successful at it are good at those things. Glenn should be very good at the things that go beyond setting up players to succeed with schemes and game plans, but they are new to him.
Aaron Glenn reveals joking exchange with Dan Campbell after he took the Jets' job
Glenn talked to Jim Miller, Pat Kirwan and Rick Neuheisel on Sirius XM NFL Radio's "Movin' The Chains" on Thursday and it was included in Friday's episode of the show. It was a broad conversation about the Jets, but he revealed the details of a call he made to Dan Campbell after taking the job.
"The first thing I told Dan Campbell, I called him and almost cursed, I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about everything else that comes with it.’ I make a joke, I haven’t talked about Cover 2, Cover 1, I haven’t talked about a stretch play, any of that," Glenn said. "It’s everything else that comes with it. But I tell you what, I’m looking forward to every day that I can wake up and be the coach of this team. There’s not too many people that can say that, so I don’t take that for granted at all."
Glenn talked further about his former boss, and how he intends to replicate that kind of leadership as the Jets' head coach.
"Let me say this about Dan first and foremost. He is authentic as a man can be and you don’t get that a lot in this business. I’m just gonna say that," Glenn explained. "That’s probably one of the first things that I know that I will be to these players. I’m Aaron Glenn, and that’s all I could be is Aaron Glenn. And you’re gonna get Aaron Glenn every day. I’m a demanding person, but I’m not demeaning. I’m gonna do everything I can to help you improve in your craft every single day, and that’s gonna help us improve as a team.”
