‘TRUE LEADER’
Colts DC Eberflus’ high standards for top-10 unit make him prime NFL head coach material
Colts’ Eberflus expected to be among coaching candidates.
Gary Pinkel became convinced quickly that Matt Eberflus was prime coaching material.
The retired Missouri coach watched Eberflus’ steady growth from a walk-on linebacker who earned a scholarship and was named team captain.
Playing at Toledo for Dan Simrell, future Alabama coach Nick Saban and Pinkel, Eberflus willed himself to become an instinctive, all-league linebacker. He was determined to follow their path into the coaching profession.
Pinkel fostered Eberflus’ deep passion for football, imparting knowledge to him as a student assistant coach then hiring him for full-time jobs at Toledo coaching linebackers and defensive backs and as his defensive coordinator at Missouri.
“Matt has got the ‘it’ factor; he had something special and you could see that right away when he was on the team because he was a really good player and a really good leader,” said Pinkel, 68, who’s the winningest coach inMissouri history. “He had the game figured out. I look back at Matt Eberflus as a young man, and I knew he would excel. I hired him as one of the youngest college defensive coordinators in Division I at the time and I got brutalized for it by people questioning the move at the time. I didn’t care because I knewhewas going to do an exceptional job for us and he helped us win division titles. Yes, I knewhow good he was.
“Matt has got it. Saban’s got it. It’s sincerity, being honest, looking people in the eye, letting people know you can trust this guy. He’s very sharp. He’s got a great football mind. It’s a tough job, but I thinkhe’ll be aheadfootball coach in the NFL, and I think he will be tremendously successful. The thing about Matt is he knows how to unite people and he’s consistent in how he treats them. He doesn’t treat a superstar differently froma rookie. That’s why players believe and trust in him. He’s a true leader.”
Three decades after playing for Pinkel, Eberflus has built a strong reputation as the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator and is emerging as a hot commodity as an NFL head coaching candidate. Eberflus is expected to be among the Texans’ candidates for a vacancy created when they fired coach and general manager Bill O’Brien following an 0-4 start.
When the 4-7 Texans face the 7-4 Colts on Sunday at NRG Stadium, Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson will match wits and strategy with one of the NFL’s top defenses and, potentially, his future coach depending on what direction the search committee decides to go in after first hiring a general manager.
Eberflus, 50, sets a high standard for a gang-tackling Colts defense.
“He’s a great coach ,” said Watson, who’s passed for 15 touchdownsand zero intercept ions over the past six games. “He has those guys playing very disciplined, fast, very physical football. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. They get teams to create turnovers.
“He’s doing a heck of a job for that team. Youcan tell they’re buying into his program and his system and what he’s preaching up there. That’s a team we need to make surewe’re on our P’s andQ’s each and every play.”
After coaching the Cowboys’ linebackers and operating as defensive passing game coordinator, Eberflus was hired after seven years in Dallas by Josh McDaniels to become the Colts’ defensive coordinator. McDaniels ultimately withdrew from the job and stayed with the New England Patriots as their offensive coordinator.
When the Colts hired Frank Reich as head coach, general manager Chris Ballard felt strongly that Eberflus should run the defense.
That proved to be a smart decision. Reich has granted Eberflus wide autonomy to run the unit how he sees fit.
“I think ‘Flus’ would be an excellent head coach,” Reich said. “I think he’s got a clear vision ofwhat hewants todo. I think he’s got very strong convictions. I think he’s fundamentally sound in his approach and how he teaches. I think he’s an excellent teacher. I think as a defensive coordinator, he’s been a good play-caller. I think he does a good job of adapting and adjusting as needed.”
Eberflus has never been a head coach before at any level. He interviewedwith the Cleveland Browns in 2019, but they hired Freddie Kitchens. Kitchens was fired after one season.
Eberflus has set his ambitions on eventually becoming a head coach.
“It’s something you aspire to, something that’s going to happen, something that you are going to get excited about as an individual,” Eberflus told Indianapolis reporters. “What NFL teams need is leadership, and that’s what a head coach provides. It’s about conviction in your beliefs and your systems.”
Eberflus has engineered one of the NFL’s top defenses, a hustling, aggressive unit led by All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard and dominant defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.
Eberflus evaluates his players’ performance in an ultra-detailed manner on everything from their execution of his schemes to a grading system that analyzes if anyone is loafing. Failure to run to the football and chase relentlessly impacts playing time.
The Colts, playing without Buckner last week, absorbed a 4526 loss to the Tennessee Titans as running back Derrick Henry ran roughshod against them. Buckner is back this week after being activated from the reserve-COVID-19 list.“They’ve been playing at a high level,” Texans wide receiver Brandin Cooks said. “That last game, I don’t look at that. They’ve been playing at such a high level throughout the year. (Eberflus) has been great in mixing up his calls. He has a lot of confidence in his players.
“They’ve got a lot of great players in the back and then with Leonard leading that defense. when you’ve got a guy like that, you can do a lot. Lot of respect for what he’s doing with that defense and what they’ve been doing all year.”
Between Leonard, Buckner, safeties Julian Blackmon, cornerbacks Xavier Rhodes and Kenny Moore, linebacker Bobby Okereke and defensive linemen Denico Autry, Justin Houston and Grover Stewart, Eberflus is coaching a swarming defense that plays sound technique and gets a lot of people to the football in a hurry.
The Colts rank fifth overall in total defense, sixth against the pass and seventh against the run.
“The Colts’ defense is verywellcoached,” Texans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said. “They’re very disciplined in how they go out and they execute their schemes. They play hard. They fly around. That’s one thing that’s noticeable is you see those guys flying around with the football at every level.
“They’ve got multiple guys that can make plays. Obviously, with Leonard and Buckner, they’ve got playmakers all over the field. They’re very disciplined and they play like their hair’s on fire.
When Eberflus was at Toledo, he finished with 325 career tackles, was a three-year starter and two-time All-Mid-American Conference selection.
“As intense of a player as I’ve ever coached,” Simrell once said. “He made himself great.”
The son of a coach, Eberflus preaches versatility and accountability in a game where things change fast and adversity is bound to arise.
“Every coach and every player needs to be ready to go and do his job, but also we have to give him some parameters to say you might have to do somebody else’s job and get prepared to do that,” Eberflus said when the Colts reported for training camp. “We’ve always had that pair-and-a spare philosophy. There are a lot of unseen things that we don’t know that we will have to adjust, and the philosophy for the coaching staff is the ability to adjust, adapt and then overcome.”
Pinkel expressed confidence Eberflus ismore than ready for the next step in his coaching career.
“He did an exceptional job for us,” Pinkel said. “He canmotivate, guide people and lead the way through the weeds. He’s a family man, his guys love playing for him and they’re going to fly around and hit.
“They’re not going tohavemental errors and beat themselves. They’re going to understand their responsibilities and they’re going to get the job done. He’s got it in him. He’s got it all.”