Ryan Grigson, Chuck Pagano spent Colts bye week catching up on college football

The Indianapolis Colts were back in the building on Monday after a week away for their bye week, and the players and coaches had a good opportunity to catch up on some family time last week.

Or, in the case of some Colts, catch up on college football.

That’s how general manager Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano spent part of their bye week, as they watched a lot of football. On 1070 the Fan’s Colts Roundtable last night, Pagano said that “over the weekend, probably like everyone else, [I] watched a ton of college football and watched a ton of pro football.”

On the NFL side he was particularly interested in the Tennessee Titans (who the Colts play this week) and the team’s opponents, while on the college side he actually attended a game. Pagano said that he and his wife got in the car and drove down to Bloomington early Saturday morning to watch the Indiana vs. Penn State game. Pagano said that he had never been there before, but added, “That’s a neat place. It was a good ball game.”

Tenth-ranked Penn State came out on top in that one 45-31, but Indiana played them tough throughout and actually led 24-14 in the third quarter and 24-21 entering the fourth, then re-took the lead in the fourth quarter 31-28, but after that Penn State just managed to pull away. As for draft prospects from that game, the most prominent one is IU guard Dan Feeney, who could be a first round pick in next year’s draft.

Pagano wasn’t the only one taking in college football over the weekend, however, as general manager Ryan Grigson was using the bye week to catch up on some scouting.

“Actually was able to catch up on some college stuff,” Grigson said last night. “There’s a lot of good players out there, a lot of interesting players across the board this year coming out in this draft. So getting a little bit better handle on that in the second half of the season is kind of usually the way it goes.”

During the season it can be hard for GMs and coaches to get a good handle on the college talent with all of their other responsibilities with their current team, so the bye week offered them a good chance to catch up on that. Pagano also mentioned that the coaching staff spent the bye week evaluating areas where the team still needs to improve and ways they can play to their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. We know that the bye week was helpful for the Colts in regards to getting healthy, and hopefully for them it will prove to have been helpful in other on-field areas as well, both this year and in years to come.