The Indianapolis Colts fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday, a day removed from a dismal performance in a 26-3 loss to the New England Patriots to fall to 3-5-1.
Having already fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, the coaching staff is fairly thin at the moment, but there were options for an interim head coach, with some expecting special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone to be the choice, while former head coaches John Fox and Gus Bradley are already members of the staff.
What no one anticipated was that Jim Irsay would go completely off board for his choice of interim head coach, as it was announced that that former Colts center Jeff Saturday, who has been a consultant for the team but not an actual coach, would be taking the interim job.
We have named Jeff Saturday interim head coach. pic.twitter.com/GetJtD9yAr
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) November 7, 2022
As Schefter notes Saturday’s lone coaching experience has come at a small private high school in Georgia, which is a bit different than the NFL, where he went 20-16 over three seasons. The former Colts center and member of their Ring of Honor has always been well regarded for his football IQ, which made him good at TV for ESPN, but to make a midseason change to a coach that has literally not been in any coaching meetings all year and has never coached at a high level feels insane.
The reaction to the move from the football world has been a lot of confusion and shock, as no one saw this move coming.
The Colts bypass two former NFL head coaches already on staff — Gus Bradley, John Fox — and a rising head-coaching candidate in Bubba Ventrone, to name former center Jeff Saturday the interim coach.
That is a real sentence.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) November 7, 2022
The #Colts have a press conference in 5 hours and, man, I can’t wait to hear this one. Shewwwwww.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) November 7, 2022
As best as I can tell, Jeff Saturday becomes the first person in NFL history to be named a head coach without any coaching experience at either the NFL or college level.
He now takes over in Indy.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 7, 2022
All righty. https://t.co/8o6lovRHkV
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 7, 2022
I believe this is unheard of in the modern NFL https://t.co/6W4nVwKJfr
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) November 7, 2022
Last time a person took over as an NFL coach without any coaching experience at any level, to my knowledge, was Norm van Brocklin in 1961. https://t.co/mYZogH4Cg2
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 7, 2022
As a few folks have pointed out in the mentions, Reggie Wayne is on Indy's coaching staff.
He's in the Colts ring of honor, and more qualified for this job than Jeff Saturday. pic.twitter.com/iRBIfDG8th
— Richard🇬🇾Johnson (human) (@RJ_cfb) November 7, 2022
