FootballScoop Exclusive Senior Bowl Coach's Diary: Gameday from Colts assistant Brian Bratton

MOBILE, Ala. – This is Indianapolis Colts Assistant Coach Brian Bratton’s final exclusive diary for FootballScoop from Bratton’s week on staff at the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

Selected to coach wide receivers this year for the American squad, Bratton shared his insights and observations through a first-person view into the week.

Bratton opened with his first piece Tuesday, and he finishes here:

Friday consisted of a short walk-through, followed by the Mardi Gras parade here in Mobile. Players and coaches all participated. We threw out Reese’s peanut butter cups and Moon Pies and beads to the crowds on the streets. I didn’t really know what to expect from the parades, but it was really cool and fun to be a part of. I didn’t realize they have multiple parades in a day in Mobile while this is all going on.

We also had the Senior Bowl party Friday night, Nelly was in concert and I was able to attend that. He’s one of my favorites from back in my college days, so it was cool to attend that and hang out with the guys.

We started Saturday just like we would a normal NFL game day. We had a staff meeting and a walk-through. Basically, what we tried to do was make this as similar as we could to a normal NFL gameday. Guys had the opportunity to go to chapel or mass. We had a pregame meal, jumped on the bus and headed to the stadium to prepare for the game.

We structured pre-game just like we would for an NFL game, with different groups coming out at different times for work and then it was time for kick-off.

I have to say, the gameday atmosphere was amazing. The stadium had a lot of elements to get the crowd engaged. One that stood out to me was the Southern University band. They played the national anthem, and they were really good to listen to. It was just a really cool atmosphere.

As for the game, anytime you step between the white lines, you want to win. I don’t care if it’s an all-star game or tag football in the backyard, I’m a competitor and I want to win. When that switch turns on, it’s time to go perform and you just want to win. I felt our guys played hard. We made some plays. But there was something that kept drives from being successful and scoring touchdowns.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that if we had another chance, we could go correct it and be better.

I’m proud of the guys learning the offense and going out to execute it.

I feel after the game that the guys played hard and gave maximum effort. You’re going to be judged by how hard guys played, how hard we competed. I think that they did that. I was very pleased with how things went throughout game; we had multiple substitutions and they took the elements of the game and ran with it. They showed that they could adjust on the fly and that’s an important part of game.

Situational football really did show up. I think we had three two-minute drives. We had several third downs, red zone chances, all the situations that came up in practice. It felt like the guys were ready and able to do what they’re capable of doing. We weren’t able to execute on all of them, but we what showed up in the game is what we coached to do during the week.

I think the Senior Bowl did a great job of scouting and bringing in the players. There was a lot of talent on that field. Not just our team, but the National Team as well. There are definitely going to be guys that played in this game that you will hear about on draft day.

From a talent standpoint, I think a lot of the guys we had here can have great careers in the NFL. I’m excited to watch them chase their dreams, follow them and hopefully I’ll get a chance to coach some of them.

For me, the entire process of being a part of the Senior Bowl was a great experience. Very valuable. No. 1, just the chance to coach football. Also, to be around other coaches, network, and get to know other people. It was a great opportunity to share different ideas, and a chance for me to learn from them, as well as talk about the different experiences we’ve had

Obviously the players, that’s what makes coaching so great. You get to learn who they are, learn their story and the next thing you know, you’re becoming a small part of it. The main thing I take away from this week is the experience and opportunity I had to coach this group, a good group of guys to be around, and it’s really the start of their professional careers.

Just a really valuable week for me, and I feel like I learned a lot. I got an opportunity to run the (wide receivers’) room and really do my best to help these guys put their best foot forward and get evaluated. I would absolutely encourage anyone with a chance to coach this game to do it. It’s been such a valuable experience. Really, this game and life are all about people and relationships. I value those and think I was able to make some pretty strong ones by going through this experience here in Mobile.

I just want to say thanks again to the Colts and the Senior Bowl and all who made it possible for me to have this opportunity. I’m very grateful, very humbled to have been able to participate. There are a lot of people responsible for this being such a good experience, the Senior Bowl staff, our head coach Luke Getsy, and all of the other coaches on staff made it a special opportunity. I’m thankful to have participated.