Colts owner Jim Irsay on Frank Reich: 'How could you not have seen this sooner?'

INDIANAPOLIS – After his first extensive conversation with Frank Reich, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was left to ponder a single, burning question.

It had nothing to do with the potential fit of Reich for the team’s vacant head-coaching position. And it wasn’t whether Reich could truly return the Colts to their winning ways, either.

Irsay’s question was more simplistic.

“I know you would think (this is) natural for me to say,” he said. “But the more I think about it, the more I thought, ‘Jim, how come you were so stupid? How could you not have seen the clarity of this sooner?’”

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After an ugly 4-12 season, a six-week-long coaching search and the embarrassing disintegration of a deal with Josh McDaniels, the Colts had found their man.

And it was immediately obvious.

The Colts trotted Reich out Tuesday with an elaborate news conference at Lucas Oil Stadium, making official their deal with the former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator.

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Reich’s first appearance in Indianapolis might have been brief, but it was long enough to shed a light on the kind of coach the Colts have landed themselves. Reich takes a no-nonsense, businesslike approach to football.

There were many examples, not the least of which was his insistence that the Colts will play a different brand of football in 2018.

“We will be the toughest (team),” Reich said in outlining the first of his core principles. “Both mentally and physically.”

He added, “We will be the most disciplined team. We will have structure, we will have a system and we will have the processes that cultivate discipline.”

Those are elements of the Colts that have been missing in recent years. Their toughness has consistently been called into question. And considering their tendency to collapse in the second halves of games in 2017, they could use a bit more discipline, too.

Offensively, Reich outlined an exciting, fast-paced attack that should leave quarterback Andrew Luck — a master of two-minute magic — salivating.

“We will be a multiple, attacking, up-tempo offense,” Reich said. “We will be aggressive. … There will be a strong element of the no-huddle offense.”

Reich, for the record, said he would be the primary offensive play caller, but he was adamant there would be extensive “collaboration” from an offensive staff that is still being assembled.

During Reich’s interview in Indianapolis on Friday, it was as if the longer he talked, the more Irsay and General Manager Chris Ballard seemed to be kicking themselves.

The Colts’ search restarted last week when McDaniels, the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator, backed out of a handshake deal with the team less then 24 hours before a scheduled introductory news conference. That led the Colts to a revamped interview list, which included Reich.

Reich was on the team’s original list of candidates to replace Chuck Pagano. But Reich didn’t make the cut when the team culled that list and targeted candidates to interview in early January.

“I’ve thought a lot about that, too,” Ballard conceded Tuesday. “I thought about it after I got done interviewing him. I go, ‘My Lord, what was I thinking?’”

The 56-year old Reich, knowing he wasn’t the team’s first choice, embraced the idea of being second fiddle. He’s been there before.

“The back-up role has suited me well in my career,” Reich joked, a play off his NFL career, during which he was one of the top backup quarterbacks in the league.

For all we know, Reich might have been a candidate for one of the other six head-coach openings had he just made himself available. But he went to great lengths to focus only on football during the just-completed postseason, which ended with the Eagles winning Super Bowl LII. He gave his agent, Bob LaMonte, very specific instructions for teams that might have an interest in his services: Not now.

“The words were this: ‘I’m going dark. I’m focused on the task at hand,’” Reich recalled on Tuesday. “That’s to help our team win playoff games and win a Super Bowl. That meant no phone calls and no texts. Whether there was any activity or not, I was dark.”

Reich’s principled stance might have cost him other opportunities, but, ultimately, it might be what led to him finding his way home – to the first franchise he ever coached for.

It’s enough to make you believe in serendipity.

“When the announcement came off that (McDaniels) was not taking the job, I did not call my agent, I did not text my agent, I did not say how are we going to get an interview?” Reich said. “Our work speaks for itself. (I said,) 'I hope they call us. I really do. If not, we’re just going to get back to work.'”

Well, the Colts called. And what they found in Reich left them wondering why they hadn’t done it sooner.

“He is,” Irsay said, “such a perfect fit.”

Follow Colts Insider Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.

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