NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Mike Mularkey isn’t just a meticulous note taker.
The Tennessee Titans coach is a meticulous note collector.
“I’m a gatherer,” he said during a chat in his office with my Nashville radio show, The Midday 180. “I keep everything. I have every game plan I’ve ever been a part of, going back to my 49ers days as a player in my minicamp. I have that minicamp notebook.”
He doesn’t dig that far back when he’s browsing, but he regularly looks at stuff from eight or 10 years ago as resources for what he’s working on now. He’ll find game plans, for example, from a game against a coordinator who’s still around now.
“I reference them more than you would think,” he said.
In a closet in his office, a large cabinet is filled with old stuff. Shelves have labeled binders with game plans from the 2007 Dolphins, the 2008-11 Falcons, and the 2012 Jaguars.
One drawer if filled with a stack of notebooks topped with one labeled “2004 Off-Season (#1)” and also has a small library of tapes including “Tight Ends – Base Hook vs. 9 Technique,” “Mike’s Top Ten,” and “Pittsburgh Steelers Self-Scout Offense Master Effort Tape.”
A second drawer has three stacks of 200-sheet labeled notebooks with red, yellow and light blue covers.
Mularkey likes to spot-check players' notebooks. He said if a guy’s notebook isn’t great the first time it’s pulled, the second time it is much better.
When he got to Tennessee in 2014 as Ken Whisenhunt’s tight ends coach, he instilled his note-taking habits in everyone in his room.
We asked Mularkey who would have the most interesting notebooks among the players.
Mularkey pointed back to the position group he started with.
I don’t suspect Delanie Walker, Craig Stevens or Anthony Fasano will open up their notes for examination, but I’ll take Mularkey’s word for their quality.
