By Tom James
FORT LAUFERDALE, Fla. — Their coaching backgrounds are similar. Both started their full-time collegiate coaching careers at medium-sized Midwestern schools (Indiana State and Southern Illinois).
But Sean Payton and Jim Caldwell are taking decidedly different approaches as to how they prepare for Sunday night’s meeting between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.
For his part, Caldwell is sticking pretty much to the same plan that former Colts coach Tony Dungy employed heading into Super Bowl XLI three years ago. Indianapolis installed the majority of its offensive and defensive gameplan last week and are basically using their time in Florida reviewing things.
Payton, on the other hand, opted to wait until the Saints arrived in Miami to begin serious work on their offensive and defensive schemes. He’s leaned on the experiences of several former Super Bowl coaches who happen to be close friends — New York Giants coach Jim Fassel as well as ex-Giants, Jets, Patriots, and Cowboys coach Bill Parcells and former Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden.
Neither way is inherently wrong or right. Both styles have been used before with varying degrees of success.
“I wanted to make sure that we didn’t install the whole game plan last week. We did that in New York [for Super Bowl. There were a handful of players who couldn’t practice last week. We’ve done pretty well off of byes [this season], so we kind of backed off some of the practice snaps. They need to feel that sense of urgency as if the plan isn’t in yet,” Payton said earlier this week.
“So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday here, although there are a few things that are different, is going to be much like it would be in the regular season. Installation, run-install, pass-install, same way defensively, and then just practice it.”
An assistant in the NFL for the Eagles, Giants and Cowboys, he has had the opportunity to talk with some of his old bosses and pick their brains a little bit.
“I talked to a few guys, guys who are close to me and some who are not as close to me, and they have been very helpful,” Payton said. “As teachers we are always trying to cover as much as we can and gather as much information as you can in your preparation.”
Caldwell, on the other hand, says that he is comfortable with the way he has the Colts preparing for the title game.
“We’ll just kind of go over i[the offensive and defensive game plans] again, revisit it. The hay is not in the barn. We still have a lot of work to do. We have to be sharp and crisp. I think that’s extremely important. But also, it’s kind of an opportunity for us to kind of show that we know the [Saints] in relationship to how we respond to their looks. What they do from an offense and defensive standpoint and their kicking game,” he said.
“The real thing that we’re talking about is really trying to get our speed back where it should be in terms of our crispness, in terms of our sharpness. Limit our mistakes. I think that’s extremely important, to execute properly. Those are the things that we’re trying to focus in on this week.”
