The Indianapolis Colts’ second choice for head coach could turn out to be even better than the first.
And Frank Reich has the Super Bowl championship gear to prove it.
Five days after New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels reneged on a deal to take the Colts’ job Josh Sweat Color Rush Jersey , Ballard hired Reich, the man who outwitted McDaniels last week and helped lead the Philadelphia Eagles to their first NFL title since 1960.
”Frank is a leader of men who will demand excellence from our players on and off the field,” Ballard said in a statement released Sunday. ”I look forward to working with Frank to deliver a championship-caliber team to the city of Indianapolis.”
Terms of the deal were not immediately available, but Reich is expected to be introduced at a news conference Tuesday.
Colts officials posted a photo of Reich signing the deal on the team’s website.
The move ends a search that spanned 41 days, included two coaching announcements and the embarrassment of McDaniels changing his mind Tuesday night just eight hours after telling the Colts he’d take the job.
On Wednesday, Ballard answered questions for nearly 20 minutes before finishing with ”the rivalry is back on.”
By hiring Reich, another touted offensive coordinator and a potential leading candidate next season, only added another chapter to the long and bitter series.
Exactly one week after backup quarterback Nick Foles executed an exquisite game plan to beat Tom Brady and the favored Patriots, the Colts brought back a longtime assistant who spent two seasons working with Peyton Manning.
But this wasn’t just about sending a message.
”Frank has all the ingredients of a successful head coach: intelligence, innovation, character, organizational and leadership skills, and a commanding presence,” team owner Jim Irsay said. ”He also has a stellar reputation, and his myriad of life experiences and the people he has worked with make him the perfect fit for us and our fans. I feel extremely fortunate and could not be more excited for Colts Nation and the future of our franchise.”
He replaces Chuck Pagano, who was fired hours after finishing the season with a 4-12 record and missing the playoffs for the third consecutive year.
Reich takes over a franchise that appears to have some key pieces in place – especially if Andrew Luck is healthy.
Luck missed the entire 2017 season after having surgery for a partially torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. He went on injured reserve in November because of lingering pain in his right shoulder after he had started throwing a football.
On Wednesday, Ballard said Luck still hasn’t thrown a football since October.
”He’s going to do everything right to get himself ready to play and I’m very confident, he’s very confident, that he’s going to come back and prove a lot of people wrong,” Ballard said.
The Colts also have a defense that showed steady improvement throughout the season, the No. 3 overall draft pick in April, nearly $80 million to spend in free agency and a promising backup quarterback in Jacoby Brissett, who started 15 games in 2017.
And the Colts already have three assistants on Reich’s staff – probable defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Mike Phair and Dave DeGuglielmo. All three agreed to join McDaniels’ staff in Indy and have been promised by Ballard that they will remain on the staff.
Reich, meanwhile, returns to the franchise where he started his coaching career as an intern in 2006. He was named an offensive assistant in 2008, succeeded Jim Caldwell as quarterbacks coach the next season and became receivers coach in 2011.
In 2012, he coached the receivers in Arizona and then was hired as San Diego’s quarterbacks coach in 2013. The Chargers promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2014 where he stayed until joining the Eagles in 2016.
Reich may be best known, however Authentic Adam Boqvist Jersey , for rallying the Buffalo Bills from a 35-3 deficit to a 41-38 overtime victory over the Houston Oilers in January 1993 – the biggest comeback in playoff history.
Now, in his first head coaching job, he will be paired with the architect of the second-biggest playoff comeback, Luck.
”Frank Reich was with me at the end of my tenure with the Colts,” Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy wrote on Twitter. ”He has a creative offensive mind. He’s a great communicator and a high quality person. The Colts are in great hands.”
Reich graduated from the University of Maryland where he was a backup to Boomer Esiason. He won the starting quarterback job as a senior and spent 14 seasons in the NFL playing for Buffalo, Carolina, the New York Jets and Detroit.
—
Here we go again.
And again.
And, well, again.
Round 4 – as many predicted, and others probably lamented – is happening. Cleveland and Golden State will meet for the fourth straight year in the NBA Finals, the Warriors looking for a third championship in that span and LeBron James and the Cavaliers trying to wrestle the crown away just as they did in the 2016 series.
On one side, the best team of this era.
On the other, the best player of this era and maybe any era.
Game 1 will be hosted by the Warriors at Oracle Arena on Thursday night.
”You’ve got to appreciate the moment,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. ”Somebody asked, `Four years in a row getting to the finals Leighton Vander Esch Color Rush Jersey , do you appreciate it?’ Yes.”
Both teams are entering this title matchup with injury concerns. Cleveland’s Kevin Love is in the concussion protocol and will need to complete a series of tests before he’s cleared to return, and Golden State’s Andre Iguodala – a former NBA Finals MVP – wasn’t able to finish the Warriors-Rockets series because of a bone bruise in his leg.
The Warriors hoped Iguodala would return to the Houston series, but his progress stalled.
”That’s just not an easy injury to predict in terms of recovery,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
There wasn’t a lot of similarity in Cleveland’s and Golden State’s seasons, but their last few days have been mirror images of one another – both teams had to win Game 6s at home to fend off elimination, then had to go on the road and prevail in Game 7s to win their respective conference finals.
”One of the most challenging seasons I’ve had,” said James, who may be playing the best basketball of his life right now at the end of his 15th season.
Here’s some of what the Cavaliers have dealt with since Golden State-Cleveland III ended last June: Kyrie Irving got traded for Isaiah Thomas over the summer, coach Tyronn Lue had to miss time to deal with health issues, Love missed two months, they lost 11 games by 16 or more points, revamped their roster in February and spent much of the season unable to guard anybody.
They’re in the finals again anyway, led by someone who will play in the last series of the season for an absurd eighth consecutive year.
”It’s been a roller coaster,” said James, who is seeking a fourth ring in his ninth finals appearance overall. ”It’s been good http://www.jetsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-trenton-cannon-jersey , it’s been bad. It’s been roses. There have been thorns in the roses. There’s been everything that you can ask for.”
This wasn’t all peaches for Golden State, either. The Warriors didn’t get the No. 1 seed out West, lost Curry to a knee injury late in the regular season, lost 10 of their final 17 games and got pushed to the brink.
”I’m glad we’re going back,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said.
The Warriors swept the two regular-season meetings with the Cavaliers, winning by seven at home on Christmas Day (without Curry) and prevailing by 10 in Cleveland about three weeks later.
Film-wise, those two games are meaningless now. Of Cleveland’s five leading scorers against Golden State this season, three no longer play for the Cavaliers. James and Love combined to score 100 points in the two games, but Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas were all shipped elsewhere by the Cavs in a series of trade-deadline moves.
”We obviously know what LeBron’s capable of,” Curry said shortly after the Warriors’ Game 7 win at Houston ended. ”It’s a new team over there, so the other guys, we’ve got to lock in on their tendencies. But we’ll worry about that when we get home.”
If the Cavaliers win this championship, it might be time to declare the regular season irrelevant.
Cleveland was only 50-32 this season. Should James and his mates get it done, that would be the second-worst Josh Allen Jersey Elite , regular-season record for an eventual champion in the last 40 seasons. Houston went 47-35 on the way to the 1995 title; to find another champion who was worse, go back to Washington in 1978 when the Bullets were a mere 44-38.
”Everybody doubted us,” Cavaliers forward Jeff Green said. ”Everybody had their opinions on what our team was, what we would do, what we can’t do, from the start. … And now, I mean, we’re where we want to be. We’re where we set out to be and where we knew we could be at this point.”
Same goes for the Warriors. This season was no cakewalk for them, either.
”We’ve been through a lot with this team,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. ”Believe it or not, it’s not all success with the Warriors. We got our bumps throughout the season. But to get to this point again, we earned it.”
And now it’s time for one of these teams to earn a title.
Hundefreunde-Freiburg
Thema drucken
10.08.2018 08:06
Antworten
