Of all the coaching firings in recent days, this one stings the most: The Colts have reportedly terminated the contract of legendary defensive line coach John Teerlinck. Teerlinck's son, Bill, was also fired. Bill worked as the assistant d-line coach.
Teerlinck is as much a part of the success of the 'Old Era' Colts as Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Bill Polian, and Dwight Freeney. In fact, without Teerlinck's coaching, Freeney might not have become All-Pro. Robert Mathis probably doesn't developed from 6th round nobody to perennial Pro Bowler without Teerlinck. Players like Corey Simon, Booger McFarland, Ed Johnson, and Raheem Brock also flourished under Teerlinck's guidance.
If you ever watched behind-the-scenes clips of the team on the sideline, Teerlinck's presence was dominating. Probably the best moment I remember regarding Teerlinck was the 2006 Divisional Playoffs against the Ravens. The Colts had their entire defensive plan ready, but at some point in the game Indy's pass rushers were absolutely killing the Ravens o-line. Teerlinck took the defensive plans from each of the players and told them to tear them up.
'Tear it up! Tear it up! Now, we do we WE do.'
As some of you may recall, John Randle had Teerlinck as his presenter at Randle's 2010 Hall of Fame induction. Randle credited his success in the NFL to Teerlinck's coaching in Minnesota, when Teerlinck first worked for then-defensive coordinator Tony Dungy. Dungy would later hire Teerlinck in Indianapolis.
Sad to see a titan of an assistant coach like Teerlinck go. Wish him and his family well.
0 recs | 17 comments
No doubt he was great at developing some players
And maybe it wasn’t all his fault – but we’ve consistently had undersized DLineman who couldn’t do anything against the run.
He was great on Freeney & Mathis, but why couldn’t he get anything out of our interior lineman?? Bad coaching? Bad talent evaluation? Not a priority?
Sucks that he’s gone, but hopefully we can add some size/strength to our DLine and stop getting bullied around.
kmbryant09 - January 19, 2012
I don't think this indicates a change in their competence as coaches, or anything along their abilities to continue to effectively teach and coach
It’s more about the Colts shifting defensive philosophies. The Teerlincks are still great (and will likely get picked up), but the Colts are going to be changing their defensive philosophy, and to do that most effectively, they need new coaches with new systems, styles and schemes.
BoilerUp1982 - January 19, 2012
He had personality
Does any remember Byron leftwitch giving teerlinck the finger? I remember Byron saying the colts played dirty.
CheesusKrust - January 19, 2012 via mobile
Thats what it was!
I remembered something between him and the Jags. Sad to see him go
Jim"TimeOut"Caldwell - January 19, 2012 via mobile
He was always mentioned with Tom Moore and Howard Mudd in the same breath...
…And was always the most animated of any of the Colts coaches. Sucks he is being let go, but I suppose Irsay and Grigson are really, really committed to tearing everything down and starting fresh.
Indefatigable - January 19, 2012 via mobile
Maybe now
we can have a DL coach that can walk. And we can stop the never-ending search for the next John Randle. It wasn’t Keyunta Dawson. It wasn’t Eric Foster. It wasn’t Tyler Brayton. No more DEs at DT please.
FatDT - January 19, 2012
BTW Mathis was a 5th rd pick
It stings a little but frankly he never taught our d linemen to stay in the passing lanes and to jump and bat balls at the line of scrimmage. This is why we had an atrocious 3rd down issue and a high completion % for opposing qbs. Finally our DT were worthless against the run and maintaining gap integrity. I truly think that our d-ends would have succeeded anyway but his aggressive nature didn’t hurt. Remember…Freeney was Dungy’s 1st draft pick and he did work on a part time basis his 1st year. Teerlink came the year after.
supercolt - January 19, 2012
Crap
I don’t care for this move what so ever! Do you think this will upset Freeney or Mathis? I think we are going to find that this is going to be a huge mistake.
rcalvert1979 - January 19, 2012
Mathis is gone!
Unless the Colts franchise him. That is my two cents. Also Freeney maybe too! This how organization change looks like a total tear down and rebuild to me.
dave1251 - January 19, 2012
Why now?
I really hate to see Teerlinck go, he’s been one of the best D-line coaches in the league for a long time. But what really puzzles me is why we are releasing position coaches before we have a head coach. I can see releasing the position coaches if the new HC or DC has their own choice for the position, or thinks the incumbent is a bad fit for their system. But I’d think many HCs or DCs would be thrilled to have Teerlinck coming back. Seems odd to foreclose that option.
ex-Viking fan - January 19, 2012
Ummmmm
Corey Simon?? The ex pro bowl tackle for the eagles that came to Indy way out of shape and later injured forcing the colts to have to go after McFarland? No fault of Teerlinck’s, but to say he flourished under his guidance is just flat out wrong.
Colts609 - January 19, 2012 via mobile
Why? Why was this move necessary? I don't like this at all.
Apparently Chris Polian was not the disruptive force we thought, running off all the long-time assistants. Clearly Irsay/Grigson are determined to throw out all the bathwater, babies included.
zherebyonki - January 19, 2012
most lekely they want the new head coach to have guys that he has a say so in picking
OBGYNOSUPREME - January 19, 2012
I think we're shifting our entire defensive philosophy
All these moves in the front office point to the Colts completely changing their system – both offensively and defensively. I’m not necessarily sure that we’re moving to, say, a 3-4 defense – but I do expect Grigson to go after bigger bodies along the D-Line in the draft and in free agency.
BoilerUp1982 - January 20, 2012
which pretty much guarantees that we're in for a 2-3 year rebuilding project, no last hurrah for 18
I’m just afraid that Grigson & Irsay are going to come to “enjoy firing people” a la Romney. Let’s see them flex their creative muscles, not just their destructive ones. We’ve lost a ton of institutional memory and a fair amount of brainpower in the past week.
zherebyonki - January 20, 2012
GET IN MY BELLY !!!
shoud be the caption for this picture
ACOLLIE - January 19, 2012
i am fine with it
i like the guy and think he is a good coach, but i am fine with going new on d. it is time i believe
omahacolt - January 19, 2012
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