INDIANAPOLIS -- Parks Frazier has spent the past four-plus years learning at the feet of Frank Reich.
He spent many of those days contemplating how he might govern himself if and when he was in the position of the Colts' recently fired head coach.
"The mentality of football players is next man up," said Frazier, the Colts' passing game specialist/assistant quarterbacks coach. "So, when you're playing the game, you're constantly thinking, 'I've got to be ready to go even though it's not my time.' So, in coaching, that's kind of been my approach. Whatever role I was in, when I was Frank's assistant, I was taking the approach to the job as if, 'If I was a head coach, what would I do?' When I was the assistant quarterbacks coach, I'm watching and thinking what would I do if I was in that position?'"
We're about to find out.
Frazier, 30, will assume playcalling duties for the Colts on Sunday -- a job held by Reich before his dismissal on Monday. It will be Frazier's first experience calling plays in live action at any level of football.
It has been an unconventional week for the Colts, who replaced Reich with interim head coach Jeff Saturday, a former Colts Pro Bowl offensive lineman and ESPN analyst who has no coaching experience beyond high school.
Frazier's appointment to the playcalling role comes two weeks after the Colts' firing of offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, leaving the team with limited options for their final eight games. Saturday initially targeted veteran quarterbacks coach Scott Milanovich for the job, according to sources, but Milanovich ultimately turned down the job.
That made Frazier a sensible option given his close work with the team's quarterbacks and his history with Reich. Frazier, according to Saturday, is also considered something of a "floater" on the staff who isn't chiefly responsible for any one position group. That, Frazier said, allows him to assume playcalling duties without creating a void elsewhere.
Frazier, who will be among the youngest playcallers in football, assumes the role under difficult circumstances. It's not just the abrupt nature of the changes; it's also that the Colts have the lowest-scoring offense in football (14.7 points per game) and have an offensive line that has experienced a shocking amount of regression in 2022. Throw in Frazier's inexperience and the situation becomes more complex. Frazier believes there's only one way to counter that.
"In a lot of ways, you want to simplify," he said. "Let's pick our best concepts and let's be great at them. And let's accept the fact that we're going to go into a game maybe with tightening our package down and just be great at our details.
"That's something that I've taken along the way. All our coaches on our staff believe that."
Frazier made no promises, except for one.
"I'm never going to say that I have all the answers," he said. "But this is what I told the guys -- I'm going to work my tail off to find them, and that's all I can do, is say: that I'm gonna give you my best."