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The Colts shocked just about everyone with their decision to hire former center Jeff Saturday as their interim head coach after firing Frank Reich on Monday and Saturday was in that group.
Saturday said at a Monday night press conference that shocked would be an “understatement” for his reaction to getting a call from Colts owner Jim Irsay about coaching the team. Saturday has no college or NFL coaching experience and was working as an analyst at ESPN before returning to the Colts, but Irsay said that he doesn’t see that as a negative.
Irsay called Saturday “fully capable” of handling the job and said he’s “glad” that Saturday does not have any NFL coaching experience. Irsay said he feels that way because Saturday hasn’t “learned the fear” that comes with coaching in the league and causes too many coaches to lean too heavily on analytics.
The Colts did not have to follow the protocols of the Rooney Rule to hire Saturday as their interim coach, but they would have to interview other candidates before naming a full-time successor to Reich. Irsay said that the hire is for “eight games and hopefully more” during the press conference, but the team will presumably wait to see Saturday coach at little bit before making any long-term plans.