<span> <span style="">THE COACHES </span>
Saints Head Coach Sean Payton has posted a record of 38-26 (.594% winning percentage) in the regular season and 3-1 in the postseason. He is the lone head coach in club history to open a season with 13 straight wins and post a 13-game winning streak, and has the top all-time winning percentage for a Saints head coach.
Payton is also is the club's franchise leader in postseason victories (3-1; 750% winning percentage). His 19-13 (.594) road mark also stands as the top winning percentage in club history in that category. Payton has recorded a 29-19 (.604) mark vs. NFC opponents.
In 2006, he took the Saints to the NFC Championship and was named the NFL Coach of the Year by most major media outlets. Payton has earned the distinction of being only the second NFL coach, joining New England's Bill Belichick, to lead his team two conference Championship games since 2006.
By guiding the team to Super Bowl XLIV, Payton became the first head coach in team history to take the team to the Super Bowl in the franchise's 43-yard history. In addition, this marks the second time in his coaching career that he will coach in the game, with the other occasion coming as the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV (vs. Baltimore).
Payton was hired as New Orleans' 14th head coach on January 18, 2006, after serving on the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff from 2003-2005. He has successfully overtaken a rebuilding project by reshaping the majority of the team's roster. Prior to joining the Cowboys, Payton served on the New York Giants staff from 1999-2002, including the final three seasons as offensive coordinator. A Super Bowl berth highlighted his tenure in his first full season in New York as offensive coordinator.
Payton's prior NFL coaching experience came as quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1997-98.
Indianapolis head coach Jim Caldwell is in his first year as head coach of the Colts after serving on their staff from 2002-08, first as quarterbacks coach, eventually adding assistant head coach and associate head coach titles.
He is in his ninth season as a coach in the NFL. He led the Colts to a 14-2 record and Super Bowl berth in his first season. Caldwell came to the Colts in 2002 from Tampa Bay, where he served one season as quarterbacks coach after a 20-year collegiate coaching career, including, where he enjoyed a seven-year stint as head coach at Wake Forest.
Caldwell served as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois (1978-80), Northwestern (1981), Colorado (1982-84), Louisville (1985) and Penn State (1986-92). Caldwell joined Penn State as wide receivers coach. He then coached quarterbacks the following season and added passing game coordinator responsibilities in 1988. At Penn State, Caldwell tutored QB-Kerry Collins, who went on to win the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top college quarterback and the Maxwell Award as the nation's most outstanding player. Caldwell has coached in six bowl games and won a national championship with Penn State in 1986. In addition to serving on Joe Paterno's staff that won a national championship, Caldwell tutored under three other coaches who won collegiate titles (Rey Dempsey, Southern Illinois; Bill McCartney, Colorado; Howard Schnellenberger, Louisville).
Caldwell was a four-year starter as a defensive back at Iowa and worked as a graduate assistant for the Hawkeyes in 1977. He holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa.
