INDIANAPOLIS — After several months of waiting for an announcement, the Indianapolis Colts have finally made it official. The team’s training camp, which has been a staple in Terre Haute since 1999, will return to the Rose-Hulman campus for the 10th straight year.
While there had been strong indications since the end of the 2007 season that the Colts would most likely come back to the east side campus, neither the school or Indianapolis officials would offer any kind of confirmation that a deal had been reached.
That all changed Friday afternoon, however. Team president Bill Polian, during his annual pre-NFL Draft press conference, acknowledged that the Colts’ preseason workouts will remain at Rose-Hulman for the foreseeable future.
“We’ve always said the facility works perfectly. There’s absolutely nothing that you can find wrong with the facility or the locale or anything like that. It was just a matter of, A, the school wanting us back and, B, us being able to work out a contract that made sense,” he explained.
Although the full details were not released by the Colts, Polian said that the new agreement is more than just a one-year extension of the previous deal.
“It’s a multiyear contract that I think has options for both parties,” Polian said. “Forgive me. I’m thinking about 40-times and pass rush more and how quick a guys feet are. I’m not focused on the details of training camp. But it’s a multiyear contract. I can tell you that.”
Rose-Hulman President Gerald Jakubowski, in a written statement, praised the decision by Indianapolis officials to continue their association with the school.
“The Indianapolis Colts and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology have reached an agreement that will bring the Colts summer training camp to Terre Haute in 2008. We are very pleased to know that the Colts see our world-class facilities as their best choice as a site to prepare their players and team for another run at the Super Bowl Championship,” Jakubowski said.
“The Rose-Hulman community looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the best franchise in the world’s premier professional sports league.”
Players are scheduled to report on July 24. The earlier reporting date due to the fact that the colts are scheduled to play against the Washington Redskins in the Pro Football Hall of Fame game on Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio.
• Indianapolis ready for draft — With the start of the NFL’s two-day draft set to begin at 3 p.m. today, Polian says that his player personnel staff is in place and ready to get to work.
The group is composed of head coach Tony Dungy, Chris Polian (vice president of football operations), Tom Telesco (director of player personnel), Dom Anile (senior consultant to player personnel), and Steve Champlin (director of football administration) along with scouting interns Jamie Moore and Jon Shaw.
Champlin will be “talker,” the person who will be calling in the team’s draft picks to the Colts’ representatives at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Moore and Shaw are kept busy moving the player cards around on the team’s draft board.
The Colts don’t have a first-round draft pick after trading the selection to San Francisco last year. Indianapolis used the 49ers pick in the 2007 draft to take offensive tackle Tony Ugoh, effectively making him the team’s No. 1 draft pick this year. Their first selection today won’t come until late in the second round (59th overall).
“In the second round, you stay right with the round pretty much from start to finish because you want to see if there is a trend developing. Runs begin at the bottom of the first round,” Polian said. “You have to stay on top of those. By the third round, now it’s just pick-by-pick. It’s trying to stay on what pick was made and if a trade is made.
“That can get a little bit dicey in trying to find out what the terms of the trade were. It’s important to find out what options you may have going forward and potentially why the trade was made. [Rounds] three through seven is hectic. You’re drained after that’s over. [The second round] will be very calm. From about the middle of the second round on, we’ll be right on top of it, following every pick. We fully anticipate that our board will be emptied. We don’t like a lot of talking [in the draft room]. There shouldn’t be a lot of chatter. Just follow the board, make the picks and deal with whatever trade opportunities present themselves.”
• Colts not interested in Alexander, Taylor — While there has been some speculation that former Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander and current Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor may end up in an Indianapolis uniform, Polian nixed those possibilties quickly on Friday.
But he did not rule out the Colts talking to former New England Patriots outside linebacker (and Indianapolis native) Roosevelt Colvin at some point after the draft.
“We have no interest in either [Alexander or Taylor],” he said. “[Colvin is] an interesting name because he’s local [a graduate of Broad Ripple High School and Purdue]. I don’t know. It’s a secondary issue. Once we get through the draft, then we’ll take a look at that.”
• Draft preview — Here is a quick look at some of the names with local interest to keep an eye out for during this weekend’s NFL Draft:
Indiana State -- Rafael Price, WR; Shonda Faulkner, OLB.
Gateway Conference -- Nick Hill, QB, Southern Illinois; Luke Drone, QB, Illinois State; Louis Irizarry, TE, Youngstown State; Curtis Hamilton, WR, Western Kentucky; Alan Turner, WR, Southern Illinois; Darren Marquez, C, Southern Illinois; Brandon Keith, OT, Northern Iowa; Chad Rinehart, OT, Northern Iowa; Isaiah Wiggins, OT, Illinois State; James Terry, ILB, Youngstown State; Brannon Carter, OLB, Northern Iowa; Craig Turner, CB, Southern Illinois; Vince Giatta, SS, Youngstown State.
Purdue — Dorien Bryant, WR; Selwyn Lymon, WR; Robert Powell, C; Jordan Grimes, OG; Josh Ferguson, ILB; Dan Bick, ILB; Cliff Avril, OLB; Stanford Kegler, OLB; Terrell Vinson, CB, Purdue; Justin Scott, SS.
Indiana — James Hardy, WR; Tracy Porter, CB; Leslie Majors, CB; Timothy Bugg, LS.
Illinois — Rashard Mendenall, RB; Akim Millington, OT; Christopher Norwell, DT; J. Leman, LB; Kevin Mitchell, FS; Justin Harison, FS; Justin Sanders, FS.
Notre Dame — Travis Thomas, RB; John Carlson, TE; John Sullivan, C; Trevor Laws, DT; Joe Brockington, ILB; Ambrose Wooden, CB; Thomas Zbikowski, SS.
Eastern Illinois — Micah Rucker, WR.
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