Handing over the reins - Dungy's protege Caldwell grabs hold

"Jim Caldwell sat in a room with 14 other AFC head coaches last week in his first NFL owners' meetings since being named Tony Dungy's successor as coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

How do you take over for Tony Dungy? One of the most storied coaches in NFL history decides to retire and hand the team to his groomed successor, Jim Caldwell. Is the fanbase supposed to simply accept the passing of the baton, a sort of "In Dungy we trust"? Who better to trust than Tony. Afterall, he did give us a ring, right? Maybe even more important, stomping on the Patriots in the 2006 AFCCG was a thing of beauty; watching the evil Hoodie pout was just sublime - schmuck times 1,000,000.

How does a 26-63 HC at Wake Forest become HC of one of the AFC's most dominant teams? Simple: he learns from the best. Hired by Dungy as quarterbacks coach in Tampa Bay, he followed Dungy to the Colts after Tony's firing by Tampa Bay (Hmm, how's that turned out?).

After becoming one of the best quarterback coaches in the business, no doubt aided by our man Peyton, Caldwell became assistant head coach and, in essence, Dungy's successor. The real question is did he learn enough from the master? Is he truly ready for the nod?

The answer is we have to trust in Tony and Bill, two of the smartest people in football. Polian would NEVER risk this franchise by putting a sub-standard coach in place. In addition, I'm a believer in the assistant HC role as an ideal learning ground for a successor; the person in that position is right in the mix ALL...THE...TIME. We're ready to rock, no questions.

In Dungy and Polian we trust.