Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

2012

One of the first texts came from the quarterback he’d only seen on TV. It was draft night 2012. T.Y. Hilton was wearing a bright orange T-shirt and a bright orange hat, waiting nervously in his parents’ family room in Miami, checking his phone, checking it some more, checking it some more, watching as seven … eight … nine … 10 … 11 … 12 wide receivers heard their names called.

He waited until 10:42 p.m. Finally, the caller ID spoke to his future. “COLTS,” it read.

“Happy to have you!” came the text message from Andrew Luck. “Can’t wait to work with you.”

And so it began.

The Indianapolis Colts’ future at quarterback had arrived; no one knew it at the time, but so had their future at receiver. Andrew Luck signified a franchise overhaul. He arrived a prodigy. T.Y. Hilton? He arrived an unknown.

Two players, picked 91 spots apart in the same draft, who would shape the next decade of football in this city. And maybe more.

Two players, two different dispositions, two different backgrounds. Here was a quarterback whose earliest football memories consist of tossing the ball back and forth with dad in the front yard – in Germany. Andrew Luck’s first position on the football field? Defensive end.

Here was a receiver who took to the game playing for his dad’s Pop Warner team in the fields outside Miami. Eugene Hilton was the fastest one on the squad back then – what’s changed? – so dad put him at running back. They called Tyron Hilton’s son “Little Ty.” Eventually it was shortened to T.Y.

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That’s the beauty of football: A bookworm architecture major from Stanford, a wunderkind quarterback built like a linebacker who was a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, can mesh so seamlessly with a receiver pundits said was too small coming out of a college football program still in its infancy. Andrew Luck runs from the spotlight. T.Y. Hilton dances in the end zone.

They've made it work. In four-plus seasons together, they’ve connected for 4,892 yards and 25 touchdowns.

“We text every other day,” Hilton says. Luck asks about T.Y.’s wife and kids. Hilton asks about Luck’s girlfriend. Most of the time, though, they talk ball. Defenses. Coverages. Blitzes. Tells. Reads. Routes. Winning.

Hilton sensed it early. It was May 2012, weeks after the draft. Rookie minicamp. No pads, no contact, just routes against air. The first time No. 12 threw to No. 13. Hilton ran a go route. Luck fired a bullet.

“Oooooohhhhh,” Hilton told himself that day. “He’s got a chance to be special.”

2013

Before they could shine under the lights in Indianapolis, and Houston, and Nashville, they must first put in the work under the sun in Miami. That was Reggie Wayne’s rule. Luck and Hilton followed suit.

It was the summer after their rookie seasons. Both had excelled. The Colts had gone from 2-14 to 11-5. Luck had thrown for 4,374 yards — most ever by an NFL rookie quarterback. Hilton had amassed 861 receiving yards – more than Marvin Harrison and Wayne in their rookie seasons. Wayne, entering his 13th year, was the leader of the offense, its most respected voice. He summoned the two second-year stars to his offseason home in South Florida.

The thinking: Build the sort of chemistry and cohesion in June and July that’ll pay them back in November and December. Luck and Hilton have been doing it ever since.

“That bond,” Hilton calls it. “Just understanding what each other’s thinking on every play.”

Then it’s October, and Wayne is lying on the turf, clutching his knee, while 67,196 fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium hold their breath. The backbone of the Colts offense during the Manning-to-Luck transition is sidelined for the rest of the season. The leader is down.

Two weeks later, with Wayne watching from the sideline on crutches, the Colts slog their way to a 21-3 first-half deficit in Houston. Luck’s targets not named T.Y. Hilton? They're named Griff Whalen, LaVon Brazill and David Reed. The season looks bleak.

So Luck looks for T.Y. They’re trailing 24-6 late in the third quarter when Luck hits Hilton for a 10-yard touchdown. That’s one.

Where’s T.Y.? On their next possession, Luck hits Hilton for a 57-yard score. A record-setting crowd of 71,778 inside NRG Stadium grows anxious. That’s two.

Where’s T.Y.? With 4 minutes left, Luck finds him in the right flat. Hilton catches. Stops. The cornerback speeds past him. Hilton scampers into the end zone. That’s three. That’s game.

“That’s what we look for from a guy like you!” Colts owner Jim Irsay tells Hilton in the victorious locker room.

Luck smiles. “Spectacular and tough,” he calls the kid from Florida International, the 13th receiver taken in the 2012 draft. “Gritty.”

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Hilton never forgot draft night. Why do you think he wears No. 13?

Two months later, Luck finds himself asking the same question. Where’s T.Y.? It’s the playoff opener. The Colts have dug themselves a 28-point hole to Kansas City.

Then they claw their way back. They’re down six with 4:21 left.

Where’s T.Y.? Luck fires a beauty over the middle. Hilton snares it. He’s gone. So are the Chiefs.

Hilton’s numbers that day? Thirteen catches for 224 yards, the third most by a receiver in playoff history.

2014

This is when it all starts to shift. Wayne is back, but his body is breaking down. He’s 36 years old. He’s dropping passes. Luck looks elsewhere. Luck looks to Hilton.

Something about Houston. Something about night games. A year after torching the Texans’ secondary for three second-half touchdowns, Hilton roasts them once more. The lesson on this night? Just throw it up and watch No. 13 go get it.

“It’s there,” Hilton kept telling Luck in the huddle.

“Got you,” Luck responds.

He looks Hilton’s way nine times. Hilton catches nine passes for 223 yards. Video game numbers. A number that's 1 yard shy of the Colts’ all-time regular-season record. That record was set by Raymond Berry. In 1957.

“He’s like a ghost,” coach Chuck Pagano says of Hilton in his postgame news conference. The ghost? That’s pretty good. The nickname sticks.

No. 12 to No. 13 becomes a staple of the Colts offense, not to mention one of the most lethal connections in football. The torch is passed. The same one Harrison once passed to Wayne, Wayne has now passed to Hilton.

“You started to see him become the guy,” Colts safety Mike Adams says. “It was his turn to be the guy, and he didn’t shy away from it at all.”

The season is the most prolific of Luck’s career. He throws for 4,761 yards and a league-best 40 touchdowns. He earns a third straight Pro Bowl nod. Hilton catches 82 balls for 1,345 yards. He earns his first Pro Bowl nod.

The wideout shows up to training camp the following summer wearing a pair of socks with Luck’s face on them.

2015

While the star quarterback waits for his contact extension, the star wide receiver earns his. Then everything goes wrong. Luck goes 2-5 as the starter, then watches nine games from the sidelines. Bad shoulder. Bad kidney. Bad year.

Back-up quarterbacks shuffle in under center. Hasselbeck. Whitehurst. Johnson. Lindley. The offense staggers home. Hilton gripes about the play calling. The season is lost.

“The throws have been there, but we just haven’t been calling them,” he says in December.

It’s clear: No. 13 isn’t the same without No. 12 throwing him the ball. Then again, what receiver would be?

2016

After a long winter, they’re back on the field for offseason workouts. Luck is healthy again. He’s throwing again. This team has hope again.

“You look good!” his star receiver tells him during their first practice.

“We just missed each other,” Hilton says of his quarterback.

Even with Luck back in the fold, the Colts drop the first two games of the season. Hilton calls himself out.

“We can’t go down to 0-3,” he says in the locker room one day. “I have to make plays. I guarantee you I will make plays.”

Then he does. Eight catches, 174 yards. Fourth-and-7, game on the line? Where’s T.Y.? No problem. Two plays later, 1:17 left? Where’s T.Y.? Even better. Hilton turns a short slant into a 63-yard season-saving sprint.

“You look to your playmakers in those situations,” Luck says after the win over the Chargers. “T.Y. Hilton is that playmaker. He’s one of the heartbeats of this team. You roll through him.”

“That’s what they pay me for,” Hilton says.

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He’s even better, even more dominant, two weeks later against the Bears. Ten catches on 11 targets for 171 yards. One play – a third-and-14 miracle – embodies their growing on-field rapport. Luck is chased from the pocked. He scrambles right. Then left. Where’s T.Y? T.Y. is falling down. But he gets back to his feet, sprints into space and hauls in Luck’s 20-yard-pass just before hitting the sideline.

Luck and Hilton, at their very best.

“The play is never dead with him,” Hilton says. “People don’t give him credit for that. He can make throws with guys on his back.”

By the fourth quarter, the Colts find themselves craving a big play. Where’s T.Y.? Luck fires one over the middle. Hilton splits the cornerback and the safety with a deep post. Ballgame.

“He is a joy for football and life is infectious when you’re around him,” Luck says. “Professionally, on the field, it’s just reps and being around each other, practice and throwing sessions and the little things like that that do pay off.”

They’re back together, and all is back to normal. Luck is second in the league in completions, fourth in passing yards and fifth in touchdowns. Hilton is third in catches and fifth in yards. With a 100-yard receiving game Sunday in Houston – it’s happening, if history is any indication – he’ll tie Marvin Harrison for the most 100-yard games by a Colt in the first five years of his career.

Manning to Harrison.

Manning to Wayne.

Luck to Hilton?

“That’s what you work for,” the quarterback said this week. “That and winning championships.”

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

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