Even as other teams sought him out, Brian Callahan saw something special in the Tennessee Titans.

"From the moment of our first Zoom meeting, I felt an unbelievable connection to the people in the room," Callahan said Thursday. "The connection from the get-go was incredible. I knew that it was going to be a place that I wanted to call home. It felt like that from the very beginning.

"I'm thankful that they felt the same way. I was about to make an impassioned plea to (GM Ran Carthon) as our meeting was concluding Monday evening, and it turned out I didn't have to do that. They wanted me exactly the same way that I wanted them and everything felt right."

The Titans on Thursday introduced Callahan as their new coach, beginning a new era for a team to be built by an offensive-minded leader with experience guiding and developing quarterbacks. The 39-year-old spent 2019 to 2023 as the Cincinnati Bengals' offensive coordinator, an era where the team turned things around from being the NFL's worst squad to making back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances and one Super Bowl.

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One of the hottest commodities on the coaching market, he interviewed with three other teams this coaching cycle and reportedly had second interviews scheduled with the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers before he agreed to the Titans job. After interviewing with the Titans on Monday, Callahan's mind was made up.

He inherits a team that has lost 18 of its past 24 games dating to 2022. The Titans went 6-11 in 2023 across a tumultuous season that saw the highs of rookie quarterback Will Levis' emergence and the lows of numerous one-score losses coupled with several high-profile injuries and continued struggles on the offensive line.

But struggles like that aren't new for Callahan. The Bengals started 0-11 in his first year as offensive coordinator, then began the next season 2-10-1.

By Year 3, the Bengals played in the Super Bowl.

"Really the foundation of what our team became two or three years later, there were a lot of guys that went through that process," Callahan said. "You learn a lot about people when things are tough and we learned a lot about the guys on that football team. There were a lot of them that were incredibly high-character, loved playing football and they helped us get out of those times as well. You learn the most when things aren’t going very well. Everyone can be positive when you’re winning a bunch of football games. So those are incredible, intense learning experiences for me."

Callahan sees ample similarities between the Titans organization and the Bengals. He feels a similar organizational intensity. A similar passion. A similar striving for greatness from a franchise desperately seeking that elusive Super Bowl.

He echoed Carthon's mantra about wanting to "hunt together," not just at the same time. He choked back tears as he talked about everyone from Bengals owner Mike Brown to Bengals coach Zac Taylor to his dad, former Raiders coach Bill Callahan.

Those connections to his past, and visions of his future, are why he says he wanted the Titans as badly as the Titans wanted him.

"There’s a lot of passionate people here that want the Titans to be a great football team and a great organization," Callahan said. "That’s where I want to be. I want to be a part of that. I want to be with people like that. The highest compliment I can pay is that I walked in immediately and there was nothing about the football part that I even cared about. It was the people and the people in place here that made me feel like this was the perfect place for me."

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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Brian Callahan, Tennessee Titans both wanted each other. Hard part is next