Colts owner Jim Irsay said Thursday night that assistant head coach Jim Caldwell is next in line when head coach Tony Dungy retires.

Irsay said he’s still holding out hope that Dungy will coach the Colts in 2008, but said that if he doesn’t, “Jim Caldwell would be the guy.”

Caldwell has been an assistant to Dungy for Dungy’s entire tenure as the Colts’ head coach, as well as for one year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001. Prior to that Caldwell was the head coach at Wake Forest for eight years.