INDIANAPOLIS – Shawn Terlecky's resume has stops as a prosecutor and running an LPGA tournament.
It took some time, but coaching eventually became Terlecky's life and he now enters his fourth season with the Colts after receiving a promotion this offseason.
Get to know Defensive Quality Control Coach Shawn Terlecky:
Describe your journey to Indianapolis
"My first job was at Mercyhurst College (now Mercyhurst University). The guy that recruited me got me into it. It was one of those deals that they had an opening. I took about a $40,000 pay cut. I was making $7,000 and had two roommates that were graduate assistants. I didn't know anything. It was fun. Small Division II school. I played there. It was fun to learn the college game and learn how to recruit. Then I got lucky with the next break that eventually got me to (Indianapolis). When you're at a smaller school, your goal is always to rise up and go a level higher, same with major college guys with the NFL. The graduate assistant at North Carolina got hired in mid-July to go coach at Western Carolina. He recruited one of my dad's running backs (who coached at the high school level). He called him, knew I was in coaching. He called my dad and said, 'I'll help him out as much as I can, but they probably have some guys (in mind). I'm leaving.' So I put in my resume, I went down and there were like two or three other guys, if I recall, that I found out after the fact were former players there. I got the job. I was a Video GA. I didn't make that much more money but had a good deal. John Bunting hired me. We (the staff) got let go halfway through the season. We put up a donut on a Thursday night game against Virginia on ESPN. We get fired the next day. That year we brought in Butch Davis and coaches were coming in slowly. As coaches got hired, coaches that were on the staff got let go officially. We didn't have a coordinator until the New Year because he hired two coordinators from the NFL (Chuck Pagano on defense). We got there and they worked us like dogs. We didn't find out really until after signing day that we got kept. 2007 was the only year coach Pagano was there. He left and went to Baltimore. Just kept in touch with him all the time. When you're younger in coaching, you keep in touch with guys probably more because you think something is going to come out of it. Every time he checked in on me he just wanted to see how we were doing. He was probably the only guy I stayed in touch with who wasn't, 'Can you help me out with a job?' We just always stayed in touch. I stayed there and coached for two years. Then my roommate at North Carolina went to LSU as a graduate assistant. He calls me in the middle of spring ball, in 2010 and says, 'I know you said you would never GA again…but this is a different animal here.' This is the SEC. I was there for three years. We had a really great run. Top-10 in defense every year but one. Played in the National Championship game. Played in the Cotton Bowl. It prepared me because I coached NFL-caliber players."Most memorable moment in football
"It's got be 2011. The 5th of November. Bryant-Denny Stadium. No. 1 (LSU) versus No. 2 (Alabama). Tickets were getting sold on Stub Hub and the black market for ungodly amounts. We won 9-6 in triple overtime. That was pretty dang special. It was awesome."When did you know you wanted to be a coach?
"I got into coaching late, age 29. I graduated college, didn't know what I wanted to do so I actually worked in corrections for a year and a half. I worked in a juvenile correction facility back in Warren, Ohio, where I'm from. I got a job at the time, doing what I thought I wanted to do what I went to school for. I ran an LPGA Tournament in Warren. I was the operations director for that. Then mid-20s, at the time a lot of guys I knew, a bunch of people were either in Law School halfway or about to graduate. I was toying with the idea of getting an MBA. My friends said you are more marketable with that than the other (law school). This is post Jerry Maguire a couple of years so I'm thinking, and my cousin was (an agent) at the time. The goal was always to be around sports. I went to school and I went full-time to be a prosecutor, worked for the prosecutor of Franklin County, which is basically Columbus, Ohio. I worked an additional year after that studying for the bar. To be honest, every time I studied for the bar, I was thinking about coaching jobs. Kept getting doors shut every place I went. Had a couple of interviews but the question was always, 'Why do you want to do this?' In my mind it was an easy transition because coaching a sport and preparing for a case, you analyze your strengths and weaknesses. You protect your strengths and you attack other people's weaknesses. And there's strategy involved in that. I grew up in a coaching family. My dad was a high school football coach for over 30 years, back in northeast Ohio. I have seven uncles and cousins coaching so I always grew up around it."Favorite part about coaching
"Interacting with the guys. I think a lot of people that coach, they love coaching because they love the game. And No. 2, a lot of guys that coach because they can't play anymore. All the things that you loved about it as a player, still are there for the taking, as a coach. You get to prepare. You get to game plan. Your competitive juices take over. You want to see if you're as good as the staff on the opposite sideline each week. For guys that love to compete, love the camaraderie, where it's about the team, that's what appeals to me about it."Describe your coaching style
"It has evolved. My coaching style will probably now be more encouraging, corrective, in a positive manner."Who was your biggest influence growing up?
"Probably my dad. Just as a coach and probably why I ended up doing what I'm doing. I saw how his players just gravitated towards him, even after he long coached them. You didn't know it at the time, but as time went on you saw it."Favorite hobby
"Going to concerts."Favorite food
"Italian."Favorite movie
"The Godfather."Favorite music/genre
"70s Funk, hip/hop."Favorite quote
"Mark Twain: 'The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.'"Favorite place you've traveled
"The Bahamas on my honeymoon."Why Indianapolis?
"It's definitely the NFL. (Pagano) called. I've always wanted to work with him again. I believe in him. I whole-heartedly trust him and my family with everything. He's a guy you want to play and coach for. Hands down."Favorite Spot/Part about Indy/Colts
"Friendly Tavern (in Zionsville)."How do you want the Colts' defense to play in 2016?
"Physical. They play so fast it looks like there are 13 guys on the field. Suffocating. Dominant."Family
Wife: Nafeeza. Child due in July.
