Saints Appear to Have Interim Head Coach Candidate in Mind After Dennis Allen Firing

A local beat reporter named the "most likely" candidate to take over on an interim basis.

Josh Wilson | Nov 4, 2024

Rizzi is reportedly the "most likely" candidate to coach the Saints on an interim basis / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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New Orleans Saints

After a Week 9 loss to the Carolina Panthers put the New Orleans Saints at 2-7 and last in the NFC South, the franchise fired Dennis Allen Monday morning. The team will now embark on a journey to find its next head coach but will need to name an interim sooner.

Signs are pointing to special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi according to an inside report from Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football. Underhill called Rizzi the, "most likely candidate." He has been with the team since 2019 and has been assistant coach since 2022.

Shortly after, Ian Rapoport and Dianna Russini confirmed Rizzi has been named interim.

Rizzi brings a clear spunk and intensity to the locker room and is nothing if not inventive. While the format has been criticized in its first season, he was a major influence on the new dynamic kickoff rule that debuted this year.

Allen was in the midst of his third season as head coach of the Saints. He lasted 43 games as the head coach, just a handful more than his 36 as coach of the Raiders. Underhill's report also illustrated heavy involvement from Saints owner Gayle Benson in the decision to part ways with Allen.

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Published Nov 4, 2024|Modified Nov 4, 2024

JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.