Report: Jim Tressel Will NOT Be The Colts Next Head Coach

Prior to the start of the 2011 season, the Colts hiring disgraced former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel as an instant replay consultant pretty much summed up everything that was wrong with the organization. Jim Caldwell, who was fired as Colts head coach Tuesday, was so clueless about replays that he actually needed a dedicated assistant to help him make the correct challenges to officiating calls.

Plus, from a P.R. standpoint, the move was seen as rewarding cronyism and corruption.

Tressel's behavior as Ohio State's head coach was deplorable, and only the most rabid and short-sighted of OSU fans defend his actions. Compounding the issue was that Tressel sold himself to fans and media as an upstanding guy. This was OSU, not the SEC. This program was squeaky clean. This is how college football athletics SHOULD be run.

The truth was far darker.

Bringing Tressel to Indy was a joke from the start. He voluntarily stayed away from the team for the first six games of the 2011 regular season because his former quarterback at OSU, Terrell Pryor, was suspended by the NFL six games for participating in the same inappropriate activity at OSU that Tressel was engaged in. We won't get into the silliness of suspending a player in the NFL for something he did in college, but the baggage Tressel brought stuffed into his sweater vest to Indy was unwanted and unnecessary.

With Indy firing coaches left and right as part of their 'New Era,' conventional wisdom was that Tressel would get the boot as well. Turns out conventional wisdom might be wrong. Reports have begun to surface that the Colts are actually considering Tressel as a replacement for the recently fired Jim Caldwell.

Should Tressel not get that gig, he could still remain with the organization in some capacity.

Mike Freeman at CBS Sports:

There was a report the Indianapolis Colts are at least considering disgraced former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel as head coach, who is on the Indianapolis staff as a gameday consultant. I checked with a Colts source and he said this: "No way in hell."

But this is the interesting part. The source explained that owner Jim Irsay likes Tressel and does want him to have some sort of role in the organization (a new head coach will have some say in that of course).

Freeman goes on to say that if Tressel is named the head coach, the Colts would become the laugh stock of the NFL. He's right. Even keeping Tressel as an consultant has more than a few people chuckling.