Colts Head Coaching Search Wish List: Jim Bob Cooter

Jim Bob Cooter has coached in Indianapolis before. Would he want to return to the Colts for his first NFL head coaching job?

Résumé

Jim Bob Cooter (also known as James Robert Cooter) began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee in 2007. He spent two seasons with the Volunteers before he was hired as an offensive assistant with the Colts in 2009.

Cooter spent three seasons on Jim Caldwell’s staff in Indianapolis before Caldwell was fired after going 2-14 in 2011.

Cooter wasn’t unemployed for long as the Chiefs hired him as a quality control coordinator in 2012. After a year in Kansas City, he moved on to Denver where he spent one season as an offensive assistant in 2013.

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Detroit hired him as Matthew Stafford’s quarterback coach in 2014, and he was promoted to the offensive coordinator position the following season. Stafford has become a much more efficient quarterback under Cooter’s tutelage, and the Lions’ offense has improved as a whole during his tenure as offensive coordinator.

Jim Bob Cooter’s Fit in Indianapolis

Cooter has worked under Jim Irsay before, and it’s hard to tell if that’s a good or a bad thing. He can’t have fond memories of going 2-14 in 2011, but he was on a staff that made it all the way to the Super Bowl in 2009 and made the playoffs again in 2010.

His stock is extremely high, but he doesn’t have a single season of head coaching experience at any level during his career. Is Indianapolis willing to take a chance on a young coach during the prime of Andrew Luck’s career?

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Jim Bob Cooter will definitely get his chance as an NFL head coach soon, but he shouldn’t be Indianapolis’ first choice this offseason with his lack of head coaching experience.

Here are some of the other coaches on our wish list: