Bruce Arians is 60 and NFL teams are not looking for 60-year-olds as their new head coaches.
But he’s something else, too -- a guy who’s good with young quarterbacks who’s done great work this season with Andrew Luck.
And teams will be looking for a guy like that.
Will the Colts' offensive coordinator and interim head coach, who's filling in for Chuck Pagano, be in line for a head-coaching job when the season ends? Does he want to be?
“You always do,” he told Tennessee reporters on a conference call today. “I mean, if you’re coaching, that’s one of your goals. As long as you in are in the business. When I was a young assistant in college, I wanted to be a head coach in college. And every since I’ve been in the NFL I’d love to have had a chance.
“This might be my only chance and I’ve really had a great time with it. But I can’t wait for Chuck to get healthy and to get back."
Would Arians expect a team looking for a quarterback-developing head coach to call him? Has he earned that?
"Well I don’t know," he said. "That’s up to the owners and the general managers at this point to decide what they are looking for. I’m not going to hold my breath at my age and where I am at in my career. I’d love to have the opportunity to talk to one, but if it doesn’t happen, I’m cool with it.”
I understand wanting young and I do think younger coaches tend to connect with and relate to NFL players better.
But Arians has connected with these Colts fantastically well. He’s groomed Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Luck in their early NFL days. He's connected to a great coaching network so he should be able to hire a good staff. Those things should get him on the lists of owners and GMs who will be in the market.
“We need to capture this moment we have while we have it,” Reggie Wayne said. “He’s done a great job. He’s kept the team together, which is not easy. It could have been an easy excuse for us to fail, we lost our head coach, now everything will go south. ...
“He’s earned himself [a look] for a head-coaching job somewhere. Hopefully we can take advantage of him while we have him now and when that time comes, it comes.”