FootballScoop Exclusive: Indianapolis Colts Assistant Brian Bratton's Senior Bowl Diary

MOBILE, Ala. – The week of the annual Reese’s Senior Bowl has arrived, and practices opened today for the annual college football all-star game that has served as a showcase-opportunity for more than 70 years.

Coaches, personnel executives and scouts from all 32 NFL teams will be on hand throughout the week that culminates with Saturday’s game inside Hancock Whitney Stadium, home to the University of South Alabama football program.

This year, FootballScoop is bringing readers a daily, exclusive insider’s perspective of the weeklong event.

The coaching staffs for the two teams, American and National, are comprised of staff members from around the NFL.

Brian Bratton, an offensive assistant coach with the Indianapolis Colts who was selected to coach wide receivers this year for the American squad, has agreed to provide a daily diary that brings a first-person view inside the sport’s longest-running and most prestigious event.

A former Furman University standout who logged time in both the NFL and Canadian Football League, Bratton arrived in Mobile last Saturday, immediately began in-person meetings with the American staff and recapped events for FootballScoop leading into today’s first practice:

This is definitely an honor, and I want to start off by saying I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be here, to have a role in this game and to represent the Indianapolis Colts’ organization.

This is an amazing chance to learn, grow and further my experience and help take steps in the direction I want to go in this league while getting a chance to help others try to achieve their dreams.

It’s been a really good start to the process. I think the coolest part so far about it is that you’re working on a staff with guys who have never coached together before, we’re all from different staffs, but we’re now working together in a short amount of time to put together a product that hopefully gives this guys a chance to showcase their skills and gives a chance to win a bowl game.

We’ve had phone calls and texts and have been doing Zoom meetings together as a staff since last week, for at least an hour in each of those, before we got together down here in person to get ready for the game.

That’s one aspect of it.

The other aspect, I think, is getting down here, getting settled in and getting my mind wrapped around how can I help these receivers showcase their talents and coach them in a few days to improve themselves, be it with their skill-set or how they’re seen from a player standpoint or getting the chance to be evaluated and interacting in front of the personnel departments of the entire league.

So far it’s been meeting with the staff and coming up with the game plan offensively and then a practice plan for the offense, from everything to installation to the things we want to do and how can we make it as seamless as possible for these players so that they can have the best experience.

We want it to be like we’ve been together as a staff for a year so that when we’re putting this together, it’s the best it can be for everyone. We all came to Mobile having not worked together but we took upon ourselves to know this offense and to be able to teach it here this week so that we’re on the same page as we present it to the players.

Our head coach is Luke Getsy (Chicago Bears offensive coordinator) and our offensive coordinator is Charles London (Atlanta Falcons QB coach), and we’ve been working hard trying to put our offense together. The amount of pride people have in their jobs this week to try to give the players a chance to be successful is really amazing.

It’s actually been pretty cool because we were out to dinner here and talking about the different concepts from our passing game, and as a staff we’re actually calling them and talking about them in this language for this game plan.

I didn’t get a chance to play in any of the all-star games after my college career, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited to be down here this week representing the Colts. I just had a pro day. That’s all I had. So if there’s one thing that I really want to get across to players, it is just taking advantage of this opportunity. They’re getting an all-star game, a pro day, a lot of the guys here are going to get an NFL Combine opportunity, and so they have a chance to improve and learn from each of these experiences.

I had just the one day, and all it takes is one team. But I’m telling them, make this opportunity count. You’re being evaluated on everything. This is a chance to be around people all week who are able to help you achieve your childhood dream of playing in the NFL. Every bit of this can help.

We’ve got eight wideouts on our roster, and I reached out to each one of them before we came down here. I wanted them to know that I’m excited to work with them, excited to help them on their journey and it’s a great chance because I kind of get to be a chapter in their book.

Hopefully, I can teach them something and just as importantly, I am looking at this week also as to how can I learn and become a better coach and better professional in all aspects. I’m hoping this week helps create relationships that last a lifetime.

As we get ready here for our first practice, I just want to see guys come out and play hard. I want them to get after it like people are watching, because people are watching. I want to have energy for them and be able to demand of them and help pull out their potential and I want them to play like it’s a great opportunity.

I want each guy to pick something that they want to get better at, and by the end of the week, let’s reevaluate that and see if they did improve. Let’s see some of the fruits of our labors here this week, go win the game and showcase some abilities that can help them live their dream of playing in the NFL.