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Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, a 1988 Whitmer grad and former University of Toledo linebacker.
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The NFL's next big coaching star is from Toledo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The NFL's next big coaching star is from Toledo

That eastward blast of air you heard rattling your shutters?

I suspect it’s the exhales coming from Indianapolis.

For the Colts, the Browns’ hire of Freddie Kitchens means their star defensive coordinator from Toledo isn’t headed anywhere.

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If you’re just tuning in, Matt Eberflus — a 1988 Whitmer grad and former Toledo linebacker — has become the Next Big Thing in the NFL, most recently interviewing for the top job in Cleveland.

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Implored a Sports Illustrated headline: “Hire Matt Eberflus: He’s the Best Defensive Mind Among Head Coaching Candidates.”

Now, it isn’t that easy.

These days, it’s all about the whiz-bangers on offense. Five of the six coaches hired this off-season have offensive backgrounds, including Arizona’s Kliff Kingsbury, who went 35-40 at Texas Tech but I believe knows a guy who was once in the same room as Rams boy genius Sean McVay.

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The defensive guys? They’re going the way of the Rolodex and beepers.

Still, sometimes you can be so good as to transcend the times, and the 48-year-old Eberflus is that good.

At least he has been this season. Put his defense — or the Bears’ goal post — on the border and nothing would get past. The first-year coordinator has transformed a D that ranked 30th in points allowed last year into the most tight-fisted unit in the league. Since the Colts began 1-5, they have ceded a league-low 15.8 points per game, winning 10 of 11 games and counting.

Their next trick: Stopping Patrick Mahomes and the powerful Chiefs on Saturday.

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We wouldn’t put it past them. What’s one more twist in a season full of them?

If you remember, the reason Eberflus is in Indy at all is because of Josh McDaniels, the Colts coach for a day last February before leaving the franchise at the altar — and the assistants he had already hired without jobs. Eberflus stayed on, set up on a blind date with a new coach he had never met. “[GM] Chris Ballard was very persuasive and very strong in his conviction that Matt was the right guy,” coach Frank Reich said. “It’s really an odd way for it to come together, but it literally couldn’t have come together any better.”

Dumb luck, in one respect. In another, it’s Eberflus making the most of an opportunity, same as ever.

“We’re all really proud of him,” said Pat Gucciardo, his teammate at Whitmer.

From Eberflus’ days in Toledo, friends and coaches remember a team-first live wire who stood apart. He helped lead Whitmer to the state semis in 1987, then walked on at Toledo, where he willed his way to all-league honors as a junior and senior.

“What a special young man he was,” said Pat Gucciardo, Sr., the former Whitmer coach

“As intense of a player as I’ve ever coached,” added ex-Rockets coach Dan Simrell. “He made himself great.”

A great coach, too. He spent nine years as an assistant at Toledo, then followed Gary Pinkel to Missouri, where he was a coordinator for eight seasons. He’s now put in a decade in the NFL. 

The guess here is Eberflus gets his head coaching shot soon enough, and deservedly so.

For now, though, to the delight of fans in Indianapolis, he isn’t going anywhere.

With the possible exception of the Super Bowl.

First Published January 10, 2019, 10:55 p.m.

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Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, a 1988 Whitmer grad and former University of Toledo linebacker.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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