First off, I want to thank ColtsBraZil for finding and embedding Pierre Garçon's absolutely hilarious video from Garcon's own Facebook page. For those of you who have not seen it, Garçon's video recorded the team bowling tournament that we blogged about two weeks ago. This was the event players like Pat McAfee, Robert Mathis, and Jacob Lacey were Tweeting about.

We have a story up at SB Nation Indiana about the recording, including some highlighted moments and a screen grab of Clint Session that is absolutely priceless. Garçon's recording offers a rare glimpse at several Colts players (including Peyton Manning and Adam Vinatieri) goofing off, having fun, and just being themselves. It is pure, unfiltered fun that will make you laugh out loud.  

Special thanks to Pierre Garçon for making and posting this (he reads this blog, by the way).

Colts head coach Jim Caldwell (8/18/10)

On going to Toronto:

It gives an opportunity to work on some things that we are going to face during the course of the season in terms of a road trip with how we travel and what we go through. There are more nuances, particularly dealing with immigration and customs. Other than that, I think it will be a great experience for the team

On running back Devin Moore getting to work at kick returner:

He is going to get some (work), unless something unforeseen happens, but he is going to get a little work back there to see what he can do. We may give him a punt or two as well. We want to see him do his thing out there.

On safety Bob Sanders playing against the Bills:

I’m not certain how much or how many plays, but he will play.

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This Tweet from Jerraud Powers summed it up simply:

Camp is OVER

Pat McAfee seemed to get a little weepy, posting a pic of his dorm room on the last day of camp. You might recall that he did the same thing on the first day of camp seventeen long days ago.

Today's practice was a walk through, preparing the team for tomorrow night's preseason game against the Buffalo Bills. After the walk through, the Colts broke camp. Players packed up their belongings, said goodbye to the University of Anderson staff, and headed back down to Indianapolis.

Covering training camp was fun this year, much more than in years past. With more players active on Twitter, and more Colts-dedicated sites and blogs present, we seemed to get much more information from Anderson than we ever got from Terre Haute. Part of that is Anderson's closer proximity to Indy. In terms of logistics and time, it's just easier to drive up 69 to Anderson (45 minutes from Indy) than to take 70 two plus hours down to Terre Haute.

Fans in general loved the experience. According to Phil Wilson, 88,800 people attended 25 training camp practices (I guess we missed two in our coverage, didn't we). 9,500 showed up on the last night for the final team scrimmage of camp. That's quite a feat.

Now that camp is over, the question is, how did we do? How did Stampede Blue do covering camp? One of the goals going in was to make this place Colts Camp Central. Any and all team or player news, whether it was Charlie Johnson hurting his ankle or Philip Wheeler posting pictures of food, we covered it. If there was something we missed, or if an element of camp was not given the attention it deserved, let us know in the comments. Whatever you tell us will go to improving our camp coverage next season.

Go Colts!

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (8/17/2010)

On rookies and playing on the road:

I think in the preseason it is always said, that you want to experience as many things as possible in the games. A road game, the crowd noise, all of those types of things, especially for those guys that will be playing, the more you can put them through in the preseason and in practice, out here in these scrimmages, the better served they are going to be. There is always going to be a change when it actually is the regular season. I have always said there are three different phases of football; preseason, regular season and then post-season. I think it will be a good test, and I don’t really know what kind of crowd to expect up there in Toronto, but it will be good for those guys.

On wide receiver Austin Collie making 'second year jump':

One of the things we look at overall is how he practices, how he is in meetings, a grasp of the offense, performance is obviously key as well. So all of those things are taken into consideration, and when it comes down to it we’ll make a decision at the end after we’ve had an opportunity to look at all parties involved.

On Tom Brandstater's development:

He is working hard. He hasn’t been here as long as the other guys have, but it looks like he has spent some time of his own in the classroom. I know like Curtis (Painter) and Tim (Hiller), the more repetitions he gets, the better off he’ll be. This is a repetition offense. Learning in the classroom or the sidelines is one thing, but the more reps you get the better served you will be. All the reps those guys can get in practice in these preseason games, those are very valuable.

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Tonight was the twenty-third practice for the 2010 Indianapolis Colts at the University of Anderson. It was also the final night scrimmage (the last of three offered at camp), and Colts fans turned out in droves. It's only fitting that both Eric Hartz of ColtPower.com and Brett Mock of Coltzilla were there to Tweet all of the scrimmage goodness.

Side note before we get into the details (skip all this if you don't want to read me praising Brett Mock and Eric Hartz); I'd like to thank everyone who sent me emails, made FanPosts, and Tweeted their experience at training camp. A special thank you goes to Eric and Brett. Their Tweets from camp were essential reading; more so than anything written by Peter King, Paul Kuharsky, or anyone else.

• Not practicing this evening were Ramon Humber, Dallas Clark, Dwight Freeney, Keyunta Dawson, Jaimie Thomas, Kyle DeVan, Adam Terry, and Jerraud Powers.
  
• Starting offensive line: Tony Ugoh, Adrian Martinez, Jamey Richard, Mike Pollak, Ryan Diem.
  
• Both Mitch King and Eric Foster worked at fullback. Neither impressed.
  

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For all intent and purposes, today is the last real day of training camp at the University of Anderson for the 2010 Indianapolis Colts. While a practice is scheduled for tomorrow, it will likely be more of a light walk through to prepare for Thursday's preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.

Today, there are two practices scheduled. One was earlier this morning at 9:30am and the other is the third and final night scrimmage for this camp. If you have not attended camp, I highly recommend tonight's night scrimmage. Camp is much different, and more fan-friendly, than an actual game (preseason or otherwise).

At this morning's practice was Coltzilla's Brett Mock, along with a few other people. Here's what they saw:

• Practice in shorts today. No pads. I have to admit, after watching a preseason game, practicing in shorts has lost a bit of its luster. I'm sure Taj Smith looked great running around in them, but football is played in pads, not shorts.
• Despite the lack of pads, drills were "aggressive."
• Speaking of Taj Smith, he Tweeted today: "1 who learns how 2 control his thinking learns how 2 control his destiny. Nothing can save us but ourselves." I will add to this with a saying of my own, "1 who learns to catch the ball when it's thrown to him earn him a roster spot on the team. 1 who doesn't is going 2 get his @ss cut."
• Lots of extra reps for Tom Hiller today. We should expect to see a ton of him this Thursday at quarterback. Apparently, he needs the extra time. Gary Brackett picked him off in practice.
  

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After Monday's walk through, the Colts players got together at a bowling alley for a little Offense v. Defense event they call 'The Team Building Bowling Tournament.' The winner got free iPads. Naturally, the always Tweet happy defense provided us with updates throughout the evening.

Jerraud Powers, via Twitter:

Off vs def bowling tourny for ipads right now....people bowling like this their last

Pat McAfee, via Twitter:

4728-4791 in favor of the offense at halftime.. Peyton rigged this sh*t

After the jump, see how Jacob Lacey scored the highest of anyone in the tournament both in his bowling and (in our eyes) his Twitter awesomeness.

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Colts head coach Jim Caldwell

On Curtis Painter's status:

(Curtis’s) status is still the same, it hasn’t changed. One of the things I think is that you have to take it all into consideration—how well they do in practice, how much material they know and understand, how they can regurgitate it, and obviously the performance is an issue as well. You have to look at everything that occurs. You all don’t get a chance to see who was supposed to be where on what route, what was supposed to happen in this situation, and there are a lot of other factors that go into dropped passes and things of that nature. Sometimes I think one can get a bit ahead of themselves and not give an individual a fair shake. He is still our second-string quarterback. We believe in him. He is going to develop and grow. It just takes a little time. That is not an easy position to play.

On quarterback Tom Brandstater:

(Tom) is just coming along and we are getting a feel for him. Obviously, he came in a little bit late during OTAs, so he is getting a feel for our offense, and it was good to see him work yesterday.

On the amount of injuries:

Anytime you are around this game long enough you are going to see situations that arise. Usually it is one or two positions a year. It just depends. This is a game of contact and heavy collisions. Thus, you are going to have some injuries. It is just like anything else. You have to move some things around and just keep on plugging.

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