WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Former Xavier men’s basketball walk-on Matt Terpening confers with Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano.
SCOUT’S HONOR MATT TERPENING, NOW AN NFL SCOUT, IS FOREVER LOYAL TO HIS ALMA MATER. BY RODNEY McKISSIC
I
IN THE EARLY 1990S, XAVIER UNIVERSITY’S MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM USED THE gym at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis in preparation for an NCAA Tournament game. Matt Terpening, a 14-year-old freshman at Cathedral, watched the Musketeers in awe. He saw how coach Pete Gillen and his players ran through drills with precision, and he was immediately hooked. At the time, Cathedral was a bit of a feeder school for Xavier, sending an estimated 15 to 20 students to Cincinnati annually. Terpening couldn’t wait until he was next. “There was something about them,” Terpening remembers, “that was super, super cool.” Terpening attended Xavier University, was a walk-on basketball player during his junior and senior seasons in 1997 and ’98 and graduated with a degree in sports management. He is now assistant director of college scouting for the Indianapolis Colts, where he helped build
5 4 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 6
the team into a Super Bowl winner in 2007 and had a nice sideline view of legendary quarterback Peyton Manning. But in some ways Terpening is still that 14-year-old boy at Cathedral—or maybe even the young 20-year-old trading elbows with Torraye Braggs and James Posey during practice at Schmidt Fieldhouse. His memories of Xavier are enduring. “Playing for Xavier was like a dream come true,” Terpening says. “It sounds kind of phony but it’s true. There’s a spiritual connection that the school has for students and alumni and there’s tremendous loyalty. It’s not like a normal school. There’s so much school spirit and you really don’t understand unless you’re on that campus or around it. It’s a small school, but it touches people everywhere. Xavier Nation is everywhere.” Terpening should know, considering his job has taken him all over the country and although he fought it initially, NFL scouting is a natural fit. His father, Bob, was a longtime Colts executive and Terpening was a one-time ball boy for the Colts in high school and a summer intern in the public relations office prior to his senior year at Xavier. After graduation in 1998, Terpening wanted to be a basketball coach, but thenColts president Bill Polian was looking for a football operations intern and sought Terpening. He’s been with the organization since, heading into his 19th season. “I’ve been lucky enough to grow with the organization because of my dad,” Terpening says. “I had mixed emotions if that’s what I wanted to do, but I started in that position and it kind of escalated.” He did everything from picking players up at the airport to making coffee and food runs. Two years later, Terpening was an area scout, which he did for 13 years, and most recently he was the Colts national scout with a focus on the Midwest. He was elevated to his current position in May. “I’m in the NFL and every year I try and do the best job that I can do,” Terpening says. “My goal is like when I was at Xavier: Give my best effort, dial in and focus, and live in the moment.”
XavierNationMagazine.com
P H OT O G R A P H B Y M AT T B OW E N / I N D I A N A P O L I S C O LT S
COOL DOWN