Hoosiers Tweak Practice Routine to Jump Start Early Game Production

Written by: @zachegreene

The Hoosiers haven’t gotten off to good starts this season and have put themselves behind the eight-ball during games. One of the ways the program has worked to improve this is heading straight into competition and increasing intensity at practice.

“We haven't started fast enough or strong enough, so we tried to do some things to help correct that “ Tom Allen said; “Basically this past week, once we got ourselves stretched and physically warmed up to practice, we would go right into some type of competition; either offense versus defense, which we don't do a lot of during the season, it is mostly versus scouts, so we added that, as well as even some one-on-one work, some pod work -running backs versus linebackers, receivers and defensive backs, o-line versus d-line.”

The intensity has picked up this past week and I walked by practice the other day and you could hear Tom Allen screaming from a mile away. He knows how important this game is to his program. If the Hoosiers can pick up a win this weekend, the Hoosiers will be in the driver's seat for a bowl game which is ultimately the program goal. To get themselves back in a bowl game and win.

To get themselves in a bowl game, the Hoosiers need to start out strong, one of the main goals this week. Last week and the previous two weeks the Hoosiers put themselves in a hole and weren’t able to control the game as they would’ve liked too. Tom Allen hopes the increased intensity and competition can change this.

“It was segmented, controlled competition—best on best, good on good, right away at the start of practice.” Allen explained. “We did something like that again today and did something every single day just trying to as soon as we got our bodies warmed up go out and compete and get things playing at a high level. Wanted to make sure we're locked in and focused. It's gotta be all three phases. It has been different phases that hasn't been as focused in the beginning and we have to be able to play strong in the first quarter. That is the goal this week.”

Going into Lincoln and getting on the gas pedal early is going to be essential but also it is not going to be easy even after the Cornhuskers fired Scott Frost.

Tom Allen said that he does not see anything in any film as far as major play-calling changes for Nebraska but with new coaches, there will always be new plays and play-calling schemes. Nebraska is also coming off a bye.

“There has only been one game since that to be able to evaluate that one. It is kind of hard to tell, especially since they were off this week. We didn't notice anything different from the week before until the last [game].” Allen said. '“You would expect with the bye week is a chance for some more of those changes to have taken place in that type of situation. We are definitely preparing for all possibilities in all three phases.”

The Hoosiers are in for a battle on Saturday night. They need to compete from the start and not drop themselves in a hole. I am expecting new play calling and schemes from the Cornhuskers so we will really see coaching in full effect for the Hoosiers. They will need to make adjustments and stick to their game plan. If they can do this, the Hoosiers have a good chance at pulling out an upset win on Saturday night in Lincoln.