Colts name Jeff Saturday interim head coach in a controversial decision

The Indianapolis Colts made a coaching change on Monday as Frank Reich was fired and Jeff Saturday of Atlanta, Georgia was named the interim coach on Monday according to Mike Freeman of USA Today. The hiring of Saturday has come as a great surprise when you consider the fact that he has only coached football at the high school level in the United States and has not been even an assistant coach in the National Football League.

The experience Saturday has had has been as a player. He played 211 NFL games from 1999 to 2012 at the center position with the Colts and Green Bay Packers. In that time, Saturday was selected to the Pro Bowl six times–in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2012.

Saturday, who was a First Team All-Pro in 2005 and 2007, won a Super Bowl with the Colts on February 4, 2007. In Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida, the Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17.

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The hiring of Saturday as the Colts head coach will be highly scrutinized for years to come. Colts General Manager Jim Irsay admitted he is glad “Saturday doesn’t have NFL experience” as a head coach or as an assistant coach, and believes most head coaches today rely too much on analytics. Irsay also believes Saturday’s high school coaching experience where he went 20-16 at Hebron Christian School in Mississippi from 2017 to 2020, is enough. Note to Irsay: High school football in Mississippi is a lot different than the NFL.

To Irsay’s defense, Saturday is only the interim head coach in Indianapolis. The next hiring will be scrutinized more. So far in 2022 under Colts head coach Frank Reich, who was released of his duties on Monday, the Colts were 3-5-1. The real problem in Indianapolis at the moment is at quarterback. With the season-ending injury to Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger has shown his inexperience. The other issue for the Colts at the moment is the fact that star running back Jonathan Taylor is injured.

What do you think? Was Saturday the right hire and who should have the Colts gone after instead?

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