Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

ANDERSON — When Brian Schottenheimer studied tape of his new pupil’s most recent season, he saw missed throws on screen passes and missed throws on post patterns. He saw a quarterback that seemed to be aiming the football rather than throwing it. He saw 12 interceptions in seven games.

Andrew Luck wasn’t himself in 2015. We all know that.

He was injured, of course, and that changes things. But even with that in mind, Schottenheimer decided his first task as the Indianapolis Colts' new quarterbacks coach was to refine the throwing motion of his three-time Pro Bowler. To be clear: This isn’t Tiger Woods rebuilding his golf swing from scratch in the early 2000s. This is Andrew Luck going back to the basics and zeroing in on the fundamentals he has — at times, at least — ignored in recent seasons. It cost him dearly in 2015. Those 12 interceptions often came at critical junctures. Some cost the Colts the game.

“Some habits are hard to kick, in a sense,” Luck said Friday before his first padded practice since November.

Like every throw, it starts with his feet. Schottenheimer wants Luck to accelerate quicker after his drop back and before his release. Drilling that into a fifth-year starter isn’t easy. It requires patience. And repetition. It’s among the tedious tasks that make training camp such a slog.

It’s also what pays off in November and December. Luck loves it.

If he’s said it once, he’s said it a million times: He wants to be coached hard. Telling him he’s great does him nothing.

“That’s why you practice, why you do individual drills, why you do footwork during special teams (portion of practice),” Luck said. “(You) focus on your feet before anything else. (Schottenheimer) does a great job of not just telling you, (but) there’s a drill involved in helping that get done. There’s a technique involved.”

Schottenheimer wants the fundamentals to become second nature. That way, when it’s third-and-long in the fourth quarter of a tight game, Luck doesn’t think, he reacts. “The foundation of playing well, especially in tough times when things are hard,” the coach said earlier this week, “are your fundamentals.”

There’s also the job of learning a new playbook. The Colts have spent the bulk of time over their first few training camp practices at Anderson University installing schemes. Then comes the execution — something the offense will refine, over and over, for the next several months. The way Schottenheimer sees it, not only do Luck’s mind and arm have to absorb a new playbook, so do his feet.

“Marrying your feet to a certain play,” Luck calls it. “So what sort of sequence of drop marries with this play and this coverage? And it goes for every play.”

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There is also the issue of ball security. Luck struggled with it in 2015, like he struggled with most things. To be fair, he was trying to do everything, and trying to do it with a bum shoulder and torn cartilage in two of his ribs. And that offensive line of his did him no favors. But turnovers are turnovers; they bury a football team all the same.

Chuck Pagano is amidst his fifth training camp with Luck. It’s the pair’s first with Schottenheimer, the son of a famed coach who last year at this time was tutoring the likes of Greyson Lambert, Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta in Athens, Ga. Now he’s working with one of the NFL’s best young quarterbacks, one coming off the roughest year of his football life.

To be clear, Schottenheimer has worked Luck hard since arriving last spring. He’s harped on the basics. Pagano has noticed.

“There’s been a heightened sense of urgency as far as keeping it seated up here (Pagano raises his arms above his shoulders) and not loose and having two hands on it,” Pagano said. “Guys start to escape (out of the pocket) and they have to extend plays, and a lot of those guys will have that ball sitting right down here (motions toward his waist). It’s hard enough keeping it from strip-sacks when you’ve got it up here, but he’s doing a nice job of that.”

Both lauded Luck’s coachability. Even before 2015, he craved criticism. Luck has joked before that sometimes, after he’s felt he had an awful practice, he’ll grab a video coordinator walking off the field and beg him to destroy the tape. He appreciates the fact that there is no shortcut to stardom in this league; he knows more than most how quickly it can all fall apart. There is no ego. Unlike some veteran players, he won’t resist instruction simply because it’s not how he’s done it before.

“Doesn’t question anything,” Pagano said. “He buys into everything. He trusts everybody. He’s a really smart guy. And when you tell him, ‘Hey, you do A, B and C, you’re going to take your game to this level,’ he’s going to give it everything he has and listen to that coaching and submit to that coaching and buy into that. And he’s dong that.

“You can see from footwork leaving center, pocket presence, the way he carries the football in the pocket, the way he’s taking care of it and the decision-making process outside of the fundamental part has been great.”

It’s not often a three-time Pro Bowler goes back to the basics and refines throwing motion from the ground up. But the 2015 season — and the change that followed — has forced Luck to examine all that went wrong, and why. That way it doesn’t happen again.

Friday at training camp: Players day off; Colts city closed.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.