Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

The only way you build the monster is by sticking to the process. The only way you stick to the process is by keeping the blinders on, by keeping the earmuffs on, by staying humble and hungry, and by controlling the controllables.

Most of all, remember: When the going gets tough, keep chopping wood, keep swinging that ax. Eventually the tree’s gonna fall. Sixty minutes, all you got, don’t judge. Because man sharpens man and iron sharpens iron. And because grit.

If you've played for the Indianapolis Colts over the past five seasons – or merely attended a news conference at the team facility – you've heard this. All of this. Over and over and over.

By NFL mandate, Colts coach Chuck Pagano speaks to the media four times a week, every week, for 16 weeks. Throw in training camp and the preseason and that’s roughly 85 times in five months. He survives what is very likely the least favorite part of his day with a collection of platitudes that have stuck with him over his three-plus decades in football, a trusty bucket of clichés he’s become synonymous with around the Colts' West 56th Street facility. Chuckisms, if you will.

“Chuckie loves his sayings,” Pagano’s father, Sam, said in an interview last season. Indeed.

All football coaches rely on footballspeak. It’s a game of inches. It’s going to come down to execution. We’re taking it one game at a time. Yada, yada, yada ...

But in recent seasons, Pagano has turned it into borderline sport. It’s become something of a running joke, and he’s in on it. Two-game losing streak? Keep chopping wood. Star quarterback in a slump? Blinders. Earmuffs. Can’t scrape anything together resembling a consistent pass rush? Stick to the process.

“My favorite is probably ‘Do your job,’ ” says left tackle Anthony Castonzo. “It’s so simple. There’s no frills. It is what it is.”

And your least favorite?

“Can I give a least favorite?” Castonzo asks, smiling. “I feel like he’s going to come at me. (But) I’ve heard ‘60 minutes, all you got, don’t judge’ about a billion times.”

Tight end Dwayne Allen is a fan of Pagano’s faithful retort to any player going down with an injury: Next Man Up. It’s certainly not a Pagano original. Those three words go back to the Tony Dungy days in Indianapolis.

“My least favorite?” Allen says, thinking aloud. “He does this one all the time: ‘So what, now what?’ Like, what do you want me to do? It’s very similar to ain’t no sense in crying over spilled milk.”

Nose tackle Zach Kerr is a staunch supporter of this Chuckism: Be where your feet are. “I tell my girlfriend, ‘Be where your feet are!’ all the time,” Kerr says. Right tackle Joe Reitz loves “Keep the main thing the main thing.” Linebacker D’Qwell Jackson’s favorite: “60 minutes, don’t judge, all you got.”

Equally admired and adored in his locker room, Pagano never trashes a player, never even tiptoes toward criticism. (Heck, he defended Trent Richardson for a year and a half with a straight face.) He became a beacon of inspiration in 2012, the public face of a successful cancer fight. He texts his players when they become dads. He flies across the country to attend their weddings. He is who he is, and he’s going to stick to the process. He isn’t changing. Neither are his clichés.

His players hear them before games, during games, after games. In position meetings. In the lunchroom. Probably, in their sleep.

“He’s always got my attention,” says Jackson, an 11-year veteran. “He’s well-prepared for every meeting. Sixty minutes, don’t judge, all you got? That’s classic. His messages have a lingering effect. It registers with me every time.”

“Build the Monster,” was the slogan at the start of Pagano’s first training camp with the Colts, back in 2012. A more apt “Humble and hungry” was what they wore on T-shirts at training camp this summer. A late-season slide last year prompted Pagano to pass out poker chips to each of his players with his favorite word inscribed on each. “GRIT,” they read. Some still keep them in their lockers.

Start 2-4 on the season? This was Pagano last Friday: “Eliminate some mistakes here and there, keep working, keep chopping wood. You keep chopping, the tree will fall.”

Scrape out a narrow win to avoid an 0-3 start? This was Pagano after the Colts beat the Chargers in September: “They stick to the process and keep practicing and keep grinding and eventually if you keep swinging that ax, the tree is going to fall.”

Stumble in December and miss out on the playoffs for the first time in four years? This was Pagano last December: “I just know you keep grinding. You keep chopping wood. If you don’t drop that ax and you keep chopping wood, that tree will fall. Trust me.”

Have a star quarterback who’s stuck in a slump? This was Pagano on Andrew Luck early last year: “We've got to go back and look at the film, keep working and keep grinding and keep looking for answers. Just like I told them, ‘You keep the ax swinging. Keep chopping wood. And eventually the tree’s gonna fall.’ ”

Pagano leaned on another favorite – keep those blinders and earmuffs on – amidst the chaos that was late last season. Over a month-long stretch from late November through late December, he used the saying at least seven times in news conferences.

A few days before the Colts were walloped 45-10 in Pittsburgh, this was Pagano: “Blinders and earmuffs on. Focus on the things you need to focus on. Control the controllables.”

A week later, after getting pummeled 51-17 in Jacksonville, this was Pagano: “We’re all going to come under fire, all that stuff. Blinders on. Earmuffs on.”

Before the team’s season finale, while rumors swirled that it could be his last game in Indianapolis, this was Pagano: “Blinders and earmuffs to the nth degree.”

And there he was, on the second day of training camp this July, a cliché master at the top of his craft. “We’re gonna stick to the process. No matter what you see or hear, you keep your earmuffs on – I’ve said it a million times.”

A million times? To be fair, that seems a little low.

An adaptation of Proverbs 27:17 is another of Pagano’s personal favorites. “As iron sharpens iron,” the verse reads, “so one person sharpens another.”

Asked about his young offensive line in 2014, this was Pagano: “We’ve got a lot of guys. You know, iron sharpens iron, man sharpens man.”

Asked about team at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, this was Pagano: “We always go by the motto of man sharpens man like iron sharpens iron. So we are trying to get better in every spot.”

Asked about his defense in training camp this year, this was Pagano: “Man sharpens man and iron sharpens iron. It’s all about competition.”

His players have picked up on it. Andrew Luck has adopted the phrase and used it in news conferences at least three times this season. Former cornerback Greg Toler used it last season. Rookie safety T.J. Green has dropped it twice this year.

Pagano’s team is 3-4, inconsistent and incomplete. A brutal two-game stretch awaits, at home against Kansas City followed by a game at Green Bay. The next two Sundays will reveal whether the Colts are a good football team or a bad football team. They will be praised, criticized, doubted, tested.

And their coach will not change. Why would he? They've been here before. Start a season 0-2? Done it the past three years. Lose back-to-back December games by a combined 70 points? Been there before. Face a torrent of rumors about job security ahead of the season finale? Been there, too.

The Colts always seem to find a way to bounce back. Maybe those earmuffs actually work.

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