As of late Monday afternoon, nothing was finalized in terms of Rick Dennison joining Houston's coaching staff.
Texans coach Gary Kubiak completed a day-long interview with Broncos offensive line coach Rick Dennison on Monday for Houston's offensive coordinator position.
According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Dennison accepted the Texans' offer for the position on Tuesday evening. No official announcement has been made by the team at this time.
As of late Monday afternoon, nothing was finalized in terms of Dennison joining the Texans' coaching staff.
"He's going to be leaving here today with a chance to sit down and talk to his wife about our situation, and hopefully we'll have an answer here within the next 24-48 hours," Kubiak said.
Minutes after wrapping up the interview, Kubiak characterized his meeting with Dennison, with whom he played and coached for 19 years in Denver, as "very good."
"I feel like I've been interviewing him for probably about the last four years, ever since I came here (in 2006)," Kubiak said. "I tried to bring him with me back during that time, but that wasn't going to happen. Obviously, I've known him for a long time. We've played together a long time. We coached together for a long time, coordinated offense for Mike (Shanahan) for many, many years.
"I've just got a lot of respect for him as a coach, even more as a person, and hopefully we can get him to become a part of what we're doing."
Kubiak is very involved in the Texans' offensive game planning and play-calling. He said after the season that whomever he named as Kyle Shanahan's successor would have to be on the same page as him.
{QUOTE}Dennison more than fits the bill. A Broncos linebacker, he played with Kubiak for eight seasons from 1983-90. They coached together in Denver for 11 years, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2005. Kubiak was the offensive coordinator, while Dennison was an offensive assistant (1995-1996), special teams coach (1997-2000) and offensive line coach (2001-05).
Dennison also coached in Denver with Texans assistants Alex Gibbs, Brian Pariani, Larry Kirksey, Frank Bush, Ray Rhodes and David Gibbs.
"The only thing that's important is that I get the best guy, and I think this is the best guy for our football team, for our coaching staff," Kubiak said. "(He's) a guy that can walk in the room with the offensive staff right now, he knows five out of those seven guys in there, has worked with many of them. We don't need to miss a beat here. We need to keep going forward, and Rick gives us a chance to go forward real quickly and obviously gives me a comfort zone from my time with him."
Dennison played in three Super Bowls with the Broncos and coached in two others. He's also quite accomplished off the field, having earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering from Colorado State. Dennison was a second-team Academic All-American as an undergraduate.
"Not many coaches are civil engineers by trade, so he's very smart," Kubiak said. "He understands this game inside out and is very good with people, a great teacher, and I think what he'll bring not only to the football team but to our coaching staff in general is that and a lot of experience in a lot of big football games, and that's what I want around me."
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