So when it popped back up, it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ It was a surprise, yeah.' It seems like at that point everything (hiring-wise) is done. “Even at that, everything was done so late. Sure enough they called,” Campbell told Sporting News during a break from Combine workouts.
'Once (McDaniels) fell through, I was kind of hopeful that it may happen. Instead, three new names emerged in Campbell, Reich and Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. The Colts opted not to reconsider candidates who already had interviewed for the job. At that point, Campbell was fully prepared to return for another season as Saints assistant head coach, also assigned to tutoring the team’s tight ends.īut the Colts were forced to reopen their search posthaste when McDaniels withdrew hours after the team announced he had agreed to take the job. That was until word of McDaniels’ imminent hiring leaked pre-Super Bowl.
In his most detailed interview to date about the Colts job screening, Campbell said he initially believed there was at least cursory interest from Indianapolis following Chuck Pagano’s firing. It still feels like a whirlwind akin to his 12 games as the Dolphins’ interim head coach in 2015, the stint that first put Campbell on the NFL radar as having the potential to run his own team. As part of the Saints' coaching contingent at the NFL Combine, Dan Campbell is back in the same city where he interviewed for the Colts job just three weeks prior.
