{"id":211768,"date":"2025-01-22T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=211768"},"modified":"2025-01-21T19:55:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T00:55:25","slug":"colts-fans-should-be-optimistic-about-lou-anarumo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/22\/colts-fans-should-be-optimistic-about-lou-anarumo\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Colts Fans Should Be Optimistic About New Coach Lou Anarumo"},"content":{"rendered":"

After parting ways<\/a> with their three-year defensive coordinator, Gus Bradley<\/a>, the Colts were looking for an upgrade. The news broke on Monday that the Colts will be signing their new defensive coach in Lou Anarumo<\/a>. They officially hired<\/a> him the next day. After being with the Miami Dolphins<\/a> for seven years, Anarumo got a defensive coordinator job with the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> in 2019. Although his unit had a rough 2024 season<\/a>, ranking outside the top 20 in almost all major categories, overall the Bengals defense was a solid unit that contributed their Super Bowl run<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

The initial outpour amongst Colts fans to this hire was skepticism. Anarumo is not a flashy coordinator like Robert Saleh<\/a> or Jim Schwartz<\/a>. He has not even been a defensive coordinator for very long, despite his age. The 58-year-old play-caller has only been a defensive coordinator for six years and all with the Bengals. However, it’s what he brings to the Colts and his scheme as a coordinator that makes this new coaching hire something to be optimistic about.<\/p>\n

Colts Fans Should Be Optimistic About New Defensive Coordinator Lou Anarumo<\/h2>\n

Anarumo’s Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n

Lou Anarumo’s career as a coach<\/a> began in the late ’80s and early ’90s until landing a defensive backs coaching job at Marshall in 2001 and then at Purdue in 2004. He would eventually move on to the NFL as the defensive backs coach for the Dolphins. He would spend six seasons as a defensive backs coach in Miami from 2012-2017, and would also get an interim defensive coordinator gig in 2015 when he replaced Kevin Coyle<\/a> midseason.<\/p>\n

Anarumo’s specialty was with the defensive backs and he would go on to coach that unit with the New York Giants<\/a> for one season in 2018. However, it would be his stint with the Bengals that really cemented him as a sound defensive mind. It was his 2021 and 2022 seasons that were the best in terms of ranks and production. In 2021<\/a>, his unit ranked 17th in points per game and 16th in yards per game. In 2022<\/a>, they ranked 6th in points per game and 15th in yards per game. These two seasons, out of the six that he coached in Cincinnati, are his best years. This is telling as 2021 and 2022 are not elite years. Therefore, skepticism is warranted, but the optimism might be in how Anarumo coaches defense.<\/p>\n

Anarumo’s Scheme as a Defensive Coordinator<\/h3>\n

Anarumo is an interesting defensive mind and one who is the complete opposite of the Colts’ former coach, Bradley. Anarumo has an unconventional approach<\/a> to coaching in the sense that he does not stick to one scheme. Again, his specialty is defensive backs, so teams know that whatever he throws at an offense will have some kind of pressure up front. That being said, though, Anarumo does not hold back on experimenting and being a “mad scientist”<\/a> on the field. He was called this by cornerback Eli Apple when he explained Anarumo’s style.<\/p>\n

Bengals head coach, Zac Taylor also praised Anarumo’s style of coaching and stated, per ESPN,<\/a> “It’s not about, ‘This is the scheme and we’re just gonna do it whether it fits the guys or not… He’s constantly evolving it to make sure we’re putting guys in position to do the things that hit their strengths.”<\/p>\n

Now, this unconventional way of coaching will be very new for the Colts. Since Ballard has been their general manager, Indy has been coached by very conventional zone-style coordinators. Anarumo does not coach like that. It will be hard to predict or pinpoint how this defense will fair with their new coach. It will also be hard to tell how the players will adapt to his style. Nonetheless, the Colts needed a new face, a new approach, and a new scheme. They have that in Anarumo. If there is anything to expect with this Colts defense in 2025, it will be for Laiatu Latu<\/a> to have a breakout year and the entire defensive line to be the stable of this unit.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Cara Owsley\/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After parting ways with their three-year defensive coordinator, Gus Bradley, the Colts were looking for an upgrade. The news broke on Monday that the Colts will be signing their new defensive coach in Lou Anarumo. They officially hired him the next day. After being with the Miami Dolphins for seven years, Anarumo got a defensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5012,"featured_media":211996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5683,56,7800,4817],"class_list":["post-211768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","tag-cincinatti-bengals","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-lou-anarumo"],"modified_by":"Josh Buckhalter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211768"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211998,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211768\/revisions\/211998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}