The Miami Dolphins have named Adam Gase their head coach.
The team announced the hiring of the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator on Twitter. Gase is the Dolphins' ninth coach since 2004.
Welcome to Miami, Adam Gase! #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/scJQmpFbqJ — Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) January 9, 2016
Gase was the NFL's hottest coaching candidate among assistants. He has also interviewed with the Eagles, Browns and Giants and was considered the front-runner for the Dolphins job.
"We did exhaustive research on all of the candidates ahead of time, and conducted thorough and detailed interviews with each person," owner Stephen Ross said in a statement. "In the end I was convinced, and the search committee was unanimous - Adam was the right leader for our football team who best met all of our priorities. He has high energy, is competitive and driven to win, with a mindset of teaching and developing players."
At 37, Gase will be the league's youngest coach. He has no head coaching experience but has been a target of coaching searches for at least three years.
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"I've been in this profession since I was 18," Gase said at an introductory news conference. "That's more than half my life. The last three years it's an accelerated growth. Age is only a number. You get older really quick. Every week is a growing experience."
The Dolphins interviewed former NFL coaches Doug Marrone, Mike Shanahan and Mike Smith, along with Miami interim coach Dan Campbell and two other candidates. But the buzz about Gase, 37, has been building in South Florida all week.
Gase is a protege of Nick Saban, who coached the Dolphins in 2005-06.
A year ago Gase followed head coach John Fox from Denver to Chicago after interviewing for head jobs with the Bears, 49ers, Bills and Falcons. He hasn't been a head coach but has been a target of NFL head coaching searches for at least three years.
Gase spent six seasons on Denver's staff. He was offensive coordinator when the Broncos and Peyton Manning scored an NFL-record 606 points and advanced to the Super Bowl in 2013, and when they scored 482 points the following season.
Gase worked Saban's staff at Michigan State while a student there. He followed Saban to LSU and was a graduate assistant and recruiting assistant before beginning his NFL career in 2003.
Executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum, who led the job search, had success while with the Jets hiring first-time NFL head coaches Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan. That approach hasn't worked with the coaching carousel in Miami, where none of Gase's eight most recent predecessors had previous NFL head coaching experience.
Like Gase, the Dolphins' three most recent offseason hires were assistants _ Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano and Joe Philbin.
