One-on-One with Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen (Part II: 2019 Team Q&A)

Tom Allen is looking for his first bowl berth as head coach of IU Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Earlier this month Hoosier Huddle sat down with Indiana football head coach Tom Allen to discuss the Hoosier football program. This is the second part of a three part series, it covers the 2019 team. You can read Part I of the interview here.

On what characteristics the starting quarterback has to have

The first thing, we have been through this the last couple of years, the first thing that jumps out to me is that take our offense down the football field and score points. Who has the skill set, who has the arm talent, the moxie, the confidence of his teammates is a huge component. To me, that is one of the more important variables is who do they believe in. Who do the guys believe that as long as there is time on the clock, if that guy is in our huddle, we have a chance. That to me is a powerful thing. That’s just from taking the team, put them on your back and let’s go score and win the game. That mindset. So that is what jumps out to me.

Then having the physical traits to do that. There’s an arm talent with that, whether it’s accuracy. Accuracy is a big deal in the pass game. Then there is also the ability to stretch the field and force them to honor certain parts of us as an offense, so they can’t gang up on us in the run game or in the short game, so I think that is a big deal. Then, to me, it’s that ‘make something out of nothing’ type of guy. Escapability, it falls in that category. The ability to create something, extend the play, put pressure on the defense. Those are the things that jump out, obviously it’s who is the guy I don’t want to defend. The quarterback, that when things breakdown, that’s when he’s at his best. That’s when I get the most nervous as a defensive guy. Those are the quarterbacks that you don’t want to play. I want to create a system and have an offense that, that’s what he is known for. To me, that’s what I think of, I think of a guy that can help us and help us win. At the end of the day, it is about winning the game. Obviously, in today’s game with the amount of points that are scored and the way the rules are set up to help those points be scored. That’s really what it has come down to. But that guy doesn’t have to do everything, doesn’t have to be 100 percent of the offense, but it all flows through him and just having that moxie and confidence that he creates and exudes to his teammates is a big deal.

On turning the ball over, cashing in on scoring opportunities and explosive plays being a concern on offense and his confidence in Kalen DeBoer to fix those issues

I think that you go through and you try to find a new system to have, when we went with Kalen (DeBoer), one of the first things that stuck out was the ability to score points. He has done that consistently and in different ways, with different styles of quarterbacks and with different styles involving in terms of it might be the pass game or one year the run game. But the end result was similar. Then number two was production in the red zone. That to me is a big deal. You gotta be able to convert and score touchdowns in the red zone, at minimum points, but touchdowns are what you gotta do to win. That goes back to the ability to be good on third downs, but I really think that just the play action part of his system is really important for us and something I really liked and thought it could help in a lot of ways, it helps with more high-percentage type throws maybe, but not just to take advantage of what we do well, which is run the football. We have a good group of running backs, a good core o-line and good receivers to compliment that. I think that system approach to address areas of concern absolutely. You go through and look at last year’s issues or concerns and to be able to address them both schematically and then also address them personnel wise.

On the biggest key for the defense to reach the goal of being a top-25 defense

Third downs. We dropped off on third downs this past year in terms of being able to be as good. I think part of it was the fact that we weren’t as good on first down so therefore you had more manageable third downs that we were put in. I think just being so young, we had to really, that’s going to be addressed by being in year two for a lot of these guys. We will really benefit from being a much more experienced defense. I think of all, so third downs as number one, I think d-line play is number two that to me is how you become a top-25 defense is creating pressure in both the run game and in the pass game because negative plays in the run game, tackles for loss, puts them behind the chains and creates more third down-and-longs. We were really good on taking the ball away last year, like we have been in the past, but that needs to still be a huge emphasis. If we would have been as good as we were last year in taking the ball away the year before we probably would’ve been an even higher ranked defense. We didn’t get a ton of takeaways in 2017. Our defense was really good, but I just think continue to be a takeaway focused team and would love to see our d-line be more disruptive, more pressure on third downs, so you know it doesn’t mean we will always have to blitz to get that, but the ability to do that to create what you want. To me, the third downs, really, there are so many different variables that go into that leading up to being good on third downs and that obviously has a ton of determination on you being able to get off the field which affects your yards, it affects your ranking and all those different things. That is kind of where it all starts.

Is there a little bit of luck in takeaways and how do you go about creating your own luck?

I think the first thing is you create it with technique. You get what you emphasize. Now, I will be the first one to tell you, we emphasize takeaways a ton every year. So, it wasn’t like we didn’t emphasize it in 2017. But what I do think is true, that I found, is the athletic you are on defense, the more takeaways you get. Just makes common sense. I am going to be able to get to the ball quicker, get my hands on balls, strip balls, recover balls. We were more athletic, even through we were young last year, we were more athletic playing defense last year. I think the more athletic you are, the more chance you have to both create them and then get them. We had some many chances the year before that we either didn’t convert on or dropped interceptions, or just inches away from just. Sometimes, yeah, the ball just happens to go your way in certain year, you know, but at the same time I think you create those opportunities by one, working on them consistently and number two by being athletic.

Kick-off return and kick-offs, the rules keep changing, but they were another area of concern. What needs to be improved on kick-off returns and find the hidden yardage on kick-offs as well?

I think, first of all on kick-off return, I will always say that, kick-off return is a little different. The magic is in the returner. That I believe, especially on punts because you are going to get chances to return them. With the way the rules are now. There is no doubt they are trying to legislate that part of the game out of it, because of the risk for injuries. So, the way the rules are, and now, without the double-team (blocks) they are making it more and more difficult to return kick-offs. A lot of teams have chosen, if the kick is high enough, to put you in position to fair catch it and put you on the 25 and roll. To me, I still want to see us take advantage of, with a quality returner. I want to increase our production by continuing to work on that. It is all going to be individual blocks, it has to be, so it is almost like a big punt return now, it’s the way it’s structured and I think the next is that they are going to affect, like they have in the NFL, where we are going to line up on kick-off returns. At this stage of the game it is just, now no double teams (blocks). We have to do a great job, you have to based on we see a lot of good kickers with a lot of hang time, with a lot of speed on those units, you know it makes it hard to just isolate block one-on-one everybody. To me, it’s just going to be more challenging to return the ball. But, it’s just something that you work on and once again having the right guy back there and you get more depth, you want certain guys touching the ball in situations, so to me, we have already talked about guys we want to see back there and give them a chance to create big plays for us and just get us an additional first down or two or better yet get up the field completely.

Then on the other side, kick-off cover, again more depth, with recruiting more speed then that helps us cover better. We in the past have gotten overwhelmed by good kick-off cover units that create hang time on the kick and have so much speed covering that it just makes it hard. We want to do a great job of, I think the toughness of you team is shown in how well you run the ball, how well you defend the run and your kick-off cover unit. That’s all a defensive mindset. It’s about having depth and still having good players on the kick-off cover unit without gassing your starters and being able to get more speed on the field.

Did Jared (Smolar) kind of hit a wall, 19-of-24 of his touchbacks were in the first half of the season? There were also a lot of weird weather games.

If you track most kickers, as the season progresses the touchbacks are diminished in the second half. Number one, weather is probably the biggest thing. Number two is just the wear and tear on your leg and so we have to be smart. We have a couple guys competing for the job this year, maybe as many as three. All of our specialists are back kicking wise. Just trying to find, and maybe part of the answer is (Smolar) not kicking every single time. Maybe get a couple guys that kick to be able to keep both of their legs fresh. I just think there is no doubt, I think the weather is probably the bigger, you kick a cold football, it’s a little bit different.

On replacing long snapper Dan Godsil and holder Drew Conrad

Dan (Godsil), it’s interesting because we get into spring ball and I have never been here when Dan wasn’t here. He’s been here every single year. It kind of dawned on me the first time we went out there to snap a punt and I was like ‘man, Dan’s not here’. That’s a big reason we went out and signed Sean Wratcher, a guy built just like (Godsil) and very, very talented long snapper. He was so dependable, you totally took it for granted and I don’t think I remember one snap since I have been here. There is no question you’re going to miss that consistency, but good Lord willing that Sean Wratcher is going to pick up right where he left off. That’s the expectation, I put that out there. We have another guy out there competing for it, but ‘Sean that’s why we brought you here’.

Drew (Conrad) is such a special guy, and once again totally under the radar. Most people probably didn’t know much about him. He took so much pride in what he did. He ran the whole summer workouts with the specialists and made sure everyone was always together during the timing of everything and just really, really, really owned it with a ton of pride and precision and all the things that are going to make him really successful in the business world are what made him successful on our fields. He wasn’t here all spring, we kind of knew this was coming down the pipe. He and I met and he is going to have a great opportunity with what he is doing, but I think Hayden (Whitehead) is going to do great. He’s very similar in terms of very detailed and very, very understanding of everything it takes. The nice thing about having a specialist do it is, the fact that their together all the time. I have been at places where we have used quarterbacks and Peyton (Ramsey) does do it and does a good job, but obviously he’s with the quarterbacks all the other time. All summer long, all the things that we do during practice when everyone else is doing their deal, all the specialist are together and it’s either the punter or the backup punter or whomever, another kicker that’s holding, it makes a ton of sense. It’s such a timing thing. I feel pretty good about both of those, obviously time will tell but other guys have got to rise up and we have to move forward.