Former ESPN analyst Jeff Saturday is the Indianapolis Colts' interim head coach, and his first order of business is done. Saturday promoted 30-year-old Parks Frazier, who's never been a standalone position coach at any level of football, to be the club's offensive play-caller this Sunday in Las Vegas. Now, it's on to item No. 2: winning enough games to keep the job full-time, or to get another NFL head coaching job.
“I feel fully capable, excited about the opportunity. If it goes well, hopefully it will go extremely well," Saturday said Monday. "The job is win. This is an audition for this job and 31 other jobs.”
With no other openings, Saturday is expected to hit pause on staff moves for now. But in the event he lands a full-time head job in Indianapolis or elsewhere, he'll no doubt want to bring in his own people.
And one of those people might be fellow ESPN analyst with no coaching experience Dan Orlovsky.
“I’ve made myself pretty clear to Jeff," Orlovsky told Dan Patrick on Tuesday. "I want to coach one day. I’m very much so interested in it. Candidly, as the days go on and on I get more and more interested in it. You miss that part of football. I love what I get to do at ESPN right now. I love working for a guy like (ESPN president) Jimmy Pitaro. I love working with the people I get to work with on a daily basis. I have a lot of friends who coach in the league, we talk all the time, they know where I stand.”
Dan Orlovsky (@DanOrlovsky7) shares his thoughts on the #Colts hiring Jeff Saturday as their interim Head Coach and discusses the possibility of him coaching on Jeff's staff pic.twitter.com/s13G6BZdsQ
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) November 8, 2022
Jumping straight from the studio to the sideline is not unheard of, and Saturday's move only makes it more common. John Lynch had no coaching or front-office experience when he left Fox to become the San Francisco 49ers' general manager in 2017, and Brian Griese left ESPN to coach the 49ers' quarterbacks this past offseason.
So if Saturday becomes a successful head coach, and Orlovsky may well prove to be a successful coach himself.
So why stop there?
Below, I've taken the liberty of fill out a back-of-the-napkin version of Saturday's first coaching staff in Indianapolis or elsewhere.
Head coach: Jeff Saturday
Assistant head coach/chief of staff: Herm Edwards
Offensive coordinator: Matt Hasselbeck
Quarterbacks coach: Dan Orlovsky
Running backs coach: Sal Paolantonio
Wide receivers coach: Randy Moss
Tight ends coach: Adam Schefter
Offensive line coach: Mina Kimes
Defensive coordinator: Marcus Spears
Defensive tackles coach: Booger McFarland
Defensive ends coach: Field Yates
Linebackers coach: Tedy Bruschi
Safeties/nickelbacks coach: Tom Jackson
Cornerbacks coach: Charles Woodson
Special teams coordinator/general manager: Louis Riddick
Assistant special teams coordinator: Frank Caliendo
I'm sure Coach Saturday could mix and match as necessary -- Rex Ryan is undoubtedly furious he was left off this list -- but one thing is non-negotiable. Mina Kimes would have her O-line ready to die for her by the second week of OTAs.