Colts coach Chuck Pagano is just trying to be himself.

He's resisting the urge to flip his baseball hat backward and sneak over to the defensive position drills as he's done for more than two decades.

This year he's handing off duties to assistant coaches, spending more time with the offense and the media, less at positional drills and tugging at the bill of his cap over his forehead. It's a big change for the 51-year-old who is finally running his own team.

''The hardest part is administrative. You're delegating, you're trying to get guys in practice in the right spots, make sure everything is working from an organizational standpoint,'' Pagano said. ''At the same time, you want to get hands on. That's the biggest thing is you got to stay involved, and you want to stay close to coaching and teaching as best you can.''

Of course, there will be times Pagano can get back to those basics.

On Friday, when safeties coach Roy Anderson left training camp at Anderson University because of a death in the family, it was Pagano who filled in as the position coach.

The Colorado native knows that cannot be the norm if he's going to make a successful transition from longtime assistant to first-time head coach. Some have made the jump seamlessly, and others excelled when given enough time. But the league is littered with assistants who have failed to make that jump, especially on their first attempt.

Pagano may wind up being one of the lucky ones.

Team owner Jim Irsay has spent much of the offseason pleading with fans for patience after presiding over the franchise's biggest housecleaning project in more than a decade. Besides hiring Pagano, Irsay brought in a first-time general manager (Ryan Grigson), oversaw the release of Peyton Manning, the hiring of new offensive and defensive coordinators, adding a new franchise quarterback and changing at least seven offensive starters.

That's the predicament Pagano walked into in Indy.