Indianapolis Colts fire head coach Frank Reich after 3-5-1 start to 2022 season
The Indianapolis Colts have parted ways with head coach Frank Reich, making him the second in-season firing behind former Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule; former Colts offensive lineman Jeff Saturday takes over on an interim basis in his first NFL coaching role
Wednesday 9 November 2022 15:04, UK
The Indianapolis Colts have fired head coach Frank Reich after four-and-a-half seasons in charge and have announced their former offensive lineman Jeff Saturday as the new interim coach in a shock appointment.
Reich's departure comes in the wake of Sunday's 26-3 defeat to the New England Patriots, which leaves the Colts 3-5-1 on the year following three straight defeats.
Team owner Jim Irsay confirmed initial reports of Reich's dismissal from NFL Network on Twitter, making him the second in-season head coach firing after the Carolina Panthers parted ways with Matt Rhule.
He leaves with a 40-33-1 record in Indianapolis having reached the playoffs on two occasions, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2018 AFC Divisional Round playoff before falling to the Buffalo Bills in their Wild Card match-up in 2020.
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Indianapolis recorded just 121 yards of total offense against the Patriots at the weekend, marking their fewest in a game since 1997, while quarterback Sam Ehlinger was sacked nine times in the game.
The result may have marked the final straw for Reich's tenure, but the writing had arguably long-been on the wall such has been the franchise's struggle to tie down a Super Bowl calibre-quarterback with which to lead a talented roster during the 60-year-old's time as head coach.
Ehlinger, a sixth-round pick out of Texas in 2021, has been thrust in under center towards the end of October as he took over from Matt Ryan, who struggled to make an impact over the first half of the campaign after arriving in the offseason via a trade from the Atlanta Falcons.
The Colts' offense ranks among the least productive in the league with 2021 rushing leader Jonathan Taylor struggling to match last season's supremacy and Indy's previously-dominant offensive line having suffered a drastic decline. Reich's exit comes just a week after the firing of offensive coordinator Marcus Brady.
The franchise has tried and failed to find a long-term successor to Andrew Luck since his surprise retirement ahead of the 2019 season, Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz spending a season apiece with the team in 2020 and 2021, respectively, but falling short of proving the final piece to the jigsaw.
Colts spring surprise with former player Saturday as interim coach
Former Indianapolis offensive lineman Jeff Saturday has been appointed as the new interim head coach for the Colts, in his first ever NFL coaching role.
Saturday, a two-time first-team All Pro and six-time Pro Bowl selection, played 13 seasons with the Colts from 1999 to 2011, winning a Super Bowl in 2006 and ending up in the team's Ring of Honour in 2015.
Prior to his appointment on Monday, Saturday had been a paid consultant for the Colts, while the team had previously offered him a job in 2019 as the offensive line coach.
His only prior coaching experience is in high school football, as an assistant for two seasons at Hebron Christian Academy in Georgia, before taking over as head coach from 2017-2019 - earning a 21-16 record, per the school.
"Shocked would be an understatement," Saturday told reporters, before adding: "I feel fully capable."
"We had the conversation and it escalated quickly. It was a 12-hour whirlwind."
Colts owner Irsay cited that Saturday's lack of coaching experience was one of the positives in the appointment.
"I'm glad he doesn't have any NFL experience," Irsay said in a press conference. "I'm glad he hasn't learned the fear that's in this league, because it's tough for all our coaches. They're afraid. They go to analytics and it gets difficult.
"He doesn't have all that. He doesn't have that fear. And there was no other candidate. We were fortunate he was available.
"I understand that he's fully capable of doing this."
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