The Shutdown Corner Interview: Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck (Shutdown Corner)

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After 41 completions in 66 attempts for 522 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions in his first NFL preseason, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is ready for perhaps the most anticipated rookie season since Peyton Manning first went under center for this same Colts franchise in 1998. Luck knows that he has a tough act to follow, but he's also about as pro-ready as any young quarterback we've seen in a very long time. We were able to speak with Luck as he was preparing for the Chicago Bears this Sunday. As Luck told us, he's enjoyed running around and playing outside since he was a kid, and that's why he also wanted to talk about the initiative he has going with Quaker Oats and the NFL's PLAY 60 campaign, in which you can win a free trip to Super Bowl XLVII. You can find out more here . As for Luck, here's what he had to tell us. Shutdown Corner: Everyone has asked you this, I'm sure -- the whole thing about defenses being faster in the NFL. But now that you've faced NFL defenses, how specifically are they faster, and what challenges have you faced in your first preseason from that perspective? Andrew Luck: Besides the obvious -- bigger, faster, stronger at all positions on the field, the linebackers are noticeably faster. Your tight end is not going to run right by a linebacker -- that flat-out speed. In college, the guys we had could do that. That's been the biggest difference. SC: There's a lot of Cover-3, straight quarters and more standard coverage schemes with the defenses you played against in college. Cal runs a 3-4 of sorts and you would see different things, but how much more advanced are the defensive concepts when you hit the NFL? Certainly when you faced the Pittsburgh Steelers and Deck Lebeau's defenses, that must have been a different experience. AL: I was lucky enough at Stanford to have Vic Fangio as the defensive coordinator for a year, and then Jason Tarver. [Note; Fangio is currently the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator and Tarver now does the same for the Oakland Raiders.] They ran sort of a 3-4 scheme with a lot of different personnel groupings and different blitzes, so I went up against that type of structure. That's obviously not a substitute for a Pittsburgh Steelers defense by any means, but it did prepare me in that sense to go from a 4-3 one week to a 3-4 the next. Back and forth, you know what I mean? So that was good, and going up against our [the Colts'] defense and what coach [defensive coordinator Greg] Manusky and [head] coach [Chuck] Pagano do with defenses has been great as well. SC: So, Fangio ran hybrid fronts at Stanford, and the Colts are transitioning to a hybrid idea after years in that more conventional Cover/Tampa-2. How much of what you see in practice now did you see in practice at Stanford? AL: A little bit. This is the NFL, and there are better players and everyone's more on the screws with things. There are much more complicated blitzes and coverages, but there's a decent baseline understanding of defense from the Stanford days. SC: Everyone made a big deal about the 63-yard pass to Donald Brown; the touchdown you had to open your NFL career ... AL: It was a three-yard pass [laughs]. SC: I know. And I was gonna say -- that's a nice way to start your NFL career, but it was the 23-yard touchdown pass to Austin Collie that really impressed me. Not only did you put perfect touch on the ball, but you looked off the Rams defender to make way. People always talk about your command of the little things, and having a father that played in the NFL certainly helps, but how did you acquire that over time? AL: I've been lucky enough to be around some great coaches, all the way from Pop Warner to now. In high school, I had a great offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach named Jeff Green, who, funny enough, was a graduate assistant for [current Colts offensive coordinator] Bruce Arians way back when. So, it's a small world. And then, with Coach [Jim] Harbaugh and Coach [David} Shaw at Stanford, and BA and Clyde [Christensen] here, I've been fortunate to have coaches that know football and care about me, and I bought into what they teach. SC: I talked with [Stanford guard] David DeCastro at the scouting combine, and he said that when he watched the 49ers in 2011, he know what plays were coming before the ball was snapped, because he had an easy familiarity with an offense that would work at the next level. How was it to have a relationship as you did with a coach in Jim Harbaugh who helped you become so NFL-ready? AL: It was great, especially to have a coach who was an NFL quarterback. To go through a lot of similar situations was good. He was great with on-field stuff, but also educating me on the media, how to answer questions, and why it's important to build relationships with people in terms of leadership -- how you don't have to change your personality to be a leader. So. I thought we had a great relationship. SC: You had a lot of reps in the preseason, while Robert Griffin III -- the man with whom you'll be connected for all time -- really didn't. Not asking you to criticize that approach, but how specifically did having that extra time in games help you? What did you learn that you did not know?

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