For 25 years, the NFL Scouting Combine has called Indianapolis home. Last week the most elite prospects from college football arrived at Lucas Oil Stadium and underwent intense interviews, examinations, measurements, and probing. But the real action took place when the athletes put their talents on display in skill drills and workouts. As expected, all eyes were on the quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, and not only did they deliver, but they exceeded expectations, leading to trade talks for the Rams second draft pick. But teams not in the mix for the two rising stars have their options open as well. For whom? Well, the man overlooking the very stadium that was housing his possible successor: Peyton Manning. Yes, No. 18 is still the talk of the town…as the best quarterback of all time (completely unbiased) should be.

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For the third consecutive week, the Colts organization announced breaking news: the hiring of a new head coach. The chosen one is Chuck Pagano, the former defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Raves, who just missed the Super Bowl after losing the AFC Championship last week to the New England Patriots. In this edition of #HorseBytes, I’ll relay the series of events leading up to the hire, as well as the reactions to the hiring, via the tweets of #ColtsNation.

The week began with a surprising announcement from DE Robert Mathis. Two weeks ago, Mathis, originally voted a first alternate to this year’s Pro Bowl in Honolulu, was named a starter for the fourth year in a row after New England’s Andre Carter was placed on IR. But Mathis has decided to bypass the all-star event. His reasoning? His fiancé has given birth to twin boys, and he’s elected to stay home with his new family. I applaud the decision, but others were not so accepting. Mathis took to Twitter to respond to the negative reactions.
Mathis is going to be a great father.

On Tuesday, Bob Kravitz, columnist for the Indy Star, released a revealing interview with Peyton Manning. During their discussion, Peyton talked at length about several issues, including the deterioration of the Colts coaching staff, Rob Lowe’s announcement of his “retirement,” and who ultimately will decide his future as a Colt: owner Jim Irsay.  Peyton even went as far as to call the Indianapolis training facility “not a good place for healing” and say he “may be behind” all the fired staff departing Indianapolis (a horrifying thought). Kravitz tweeted some additional comments regarding No.18 and the interview after its publication.

Meanwhile, the Colts continued to interview candidates for their head coaching vacancy. The original list included Saints OC Pete Carmichael, 49ers special teams coach Brad Seely, and former Vikings HC Brad Childress. That list began to grow, however, to include Jim Tressel, the Colts’ game-day consultant and former head coach at Ohio State, and Ravens defensive coordinatorChuck Pagano. Upon hearing the news of Pagano’s candidacy, Robert Mathis got excited.

Read the rest of the week’s Tweets after the jump …

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