Indianapolis Colts continue aggressive reshuffling of coaching department, release more staff – NFL
The negative fallout of the Indianapolis Colts poor performance on the field in the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season continues to affect the team staff, as the management announced on Thursday, January 19, 2012, to have further overhauled
their coaching department by firing of as many as eight assistant coaches in one go.
Those fired were joined by a couple of more members in the coaching staff who decided to call it a day after having spent a substantial amount of time with the Colts.
Among those who have been sacked by the team include the quarterbacks coach, Frank Reich, conditioning coach, Jon Torine, and defensive line coach, John Teerlinck, along with his son, Bill.
Others whose contractual terms were terminated are quarterbacks coach, Ron Turner, offensive line coach, Pete Metzelaars, special assistant coach to the defence, Rod Perry, and assistant, Devin Fitzsimmons.
Meanwhile, Mike Murphy, the linebackers’ coach, has decided to call it quits after having spent 27 years on the sideline in the American national football league.
Murphy had also worked under the coaching tenures of Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell.
He had been promoted to take over the defensive co-ordination duties in the team in November of 2011, before announcing his retirement from the professional league as a coach this past Thursday.
Another coaching staff member in-charge of the defensive backs, Alan Williams, is set to leave the team to join Minnesota Vikings as a defensive co-ordinator. Williams was with Indianapolis for the past 10 consecutive seasons.
This is the latest release of the assistant coaches by the Indianapolis Colts and it follows a midseason firing campaign that the team had pursued in the later part of the last year (2011).
A couple of assistant coaches who are the special teams’ co-ordinator, Ray Rychleski and defensive co-ordinator, Larry Coyer, also lost their jobs during the midseason cleaning.
With all the reshuffling, hiring and firing, which is still going on, Indianapolis is left with as many as nine assistant coaches out of the total of 20 under the reign of their former head coach, Jim Caldwell.
Caldwell himself was deprived of his job a couple of days before the waiver of the assistant staff of the coaching department. The sacking of the head coach had come almost a week since the firing of Colts’ vice chairman, Bill Polian, and his son, Chris
Polian, the general manager of the team.
The team’s only hiring so far this season is of the new general manager, Ryan Grigson, who has replaced Chris Polian and is actively engaged in the process overhauling of the team along with his employer, Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay.
The cleansing drive was seen very much in the making just before finishing the worst season by in Colts franchise history, with only two wins against the 14 losses during the regular season.
Some punters of the game believe Irsay was taking the drive too far and a possible failure to replace some of competitive staff with right hiring can expose the team at certain positions.
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