Hoosiers Try and Learn For Other's Mistakes on Defense and Special Teams

Image: Indiana University Athletics

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Hindsight Is always 20/20 when it comes to learning life lessons. The Indiana Hoosiers have the advantage of learning from others’ mistakes as they prepare to take the field for the first time in 2020 against Penn State on October 24th. If you have watched any college football at all in 2020, you probably have seen shaky tackling, porous defense and crazier special teams gaffs than the last five seasons combined. It is such a concern for the Hoosiers that head coach Tom Allen is getting texts whenever these issues arise in games around the country.

“I got a text message during one of the games on Saturday night questioning the defenses in the country right now and the struggles that they are having across the board” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said last week. “It is definitely real. It is real on Sundays, real on Saturdays and you can see it unfolding in front of us.”

The Hoosiers have made tackling and special teams a priority over their first three scrimmages. In the first scrimmage the Hoosier coaching staff was encouraged.

“I thought for a first scrimmage it was exciting to see because the physicality was there” defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said. “Our ability to line up and communicate with ones, twos and even some of our threes did a really good job. But probably the most exciting thing was the tackling. I think we had four total missed tackles out of the ones and twos for a total of seven yards after contact.”

Tackling is not just a new 2020 concern. The Hoosiers had some rough outings in 2019 that has made Wommack take a larger look back.

“In the offseason I looked at what type of tackles continue to show up. We did an in-depth evaluation of our tackling fundamentals” Wommack explained. “The one thing that we spend a lot of time on is hard-shoulder tackling. What that means is, if I am moving to my left and a ball carrier is on my left, I need to finish with a hard-left shoulder tackle. We want to get that left foot in the ground, left shoulder in the ground, and not to get too intricate with it, but if this shoulder (left shoulder) does not turn, I am way more likely to get the opponent on the ground. If I let that shoulder turn or do not maximize the punch, those ball carriers will be able to roll off. We found different ways to emulate different types of tackles. Tackles inside the box, which are a little more position specific to linebackers, so we have position-specific tackles that we work with each group during individual, and then we do a ton of tackle circuits.”

Things have been even wackier on special teams where we have seen unfielded onside kicks, muffed punts, multiple blocked punts per game, missed field goals and fair catches at the one-yard line. Add all those things up and the failures from Indiana on special teams in 2019 and new special teams coordinator Kasey Teegardin is concerned.

“We have been cutting up all of those clips” Teegardin saidin a Zoom meeting. “Throughout the weekend Ryan McInerney, Coach Tom Allen and myself have a text going and every time there is a special teams gaffe or something we see watching games, pop-ups on our phone, stuff we see on Twitter, we are contacting our video guy and we are having him pull those clips. Every single special teams meeting, every single day we have been showing those clips and teaching. I think that is the biggest thing. It is so hard to replicate the speed, the environment, the play itself, but teaching those guys about the situation that occurred. We are going to learn from other people's mistakes and be ready for those when the opportunity comes. We have executed a few of them, like the Dallas Cowboys-Atlanta Falcons onside kick. We call that the 'watermelon' onside kick. We do not really see that one that often when the ball spins at a slow pace. Atlanta backed off and there was a huge controversy if the players knew what to do in that situation. We have physically executed that with our hands team multiple times already. We are learning from those mistakes that we have seen other teams make and that has been really beneficial for us. We are trying to show those guys as much film as possible during meetings.”

Teegardin’s message has gotten through to senior punter Haydon Whitehead, who is a leader on the unit and recognizes the importance of executing.

“Special teams is one of those things that it is fourth down and that is it, so you do not get a second chance. The message is, looking at those games in the first couple of weeks, how important special teams have been to the outcome of the game. Do your job as best as you can” Whitehead said.

The trouble with tackling and special teams is that you really don’t know what you have until your team goes against someone else. You can practice tackling and go full-speed on special teams, but it sometimes it just does not translate on the field against an opponent. The Hoosiers coaching staff will be holding their breath to see if they learned enough lessons from watching six weeks of other teams try and figure it out.