It's Official: Pep Hamilton Is The New Offensive Coordinator For The Colts

It's not 24 hours after Bruce Arians left Indianapolis to coach in Arizona and the Colts and Chuck Pagano have already roped in his replacement. According to Jim Trotter, Stanford's "director of offense" Pep Hamilton has accepted the offensive coordinator job with the Colts.

Hamilton worked with current Colts players Andrew Luck, Coby Fleener, and Griff Whalen when they were at Stanford together. Prior to the Stanford gig, he was a QB at Howard University from 1993-96 and worked as the Bears QB coach from 2007-09.

Hiring Hamilton is viewed by NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah as a big move for Ryan Grigson and Pagano:

Pep Hamilton would be a slam dunk hire for the Colts. History with Luck, creative play-caller, relates to players. Would be a great fit.

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) January 18, 2013

Chris Mortensen of ESPN was the first to report that the Colts and Hamilton were talking.

With Hamilton now reunited with Luck, the expectation is that the Colts offense will shift to a more "West Coast-style" attack. Much of what we saw from Bruce Arians' scheme last year will be tossed, and an offense that utilizes more short passing and power runs with a fullback will become the norm. It should benefit players like Coby Fleener, but what will it do to breakout rookie receivers like T.Y. Hilton and LaVon Brazill?

Overall, this seems like a very strong hire. Hats off to Grigson and Pagano for getting this done quickly.