Notes and Quotes from Tom Allen's Media Monday (Akron)
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Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Indiana head coach Tom Allen took to the podium on Monday after the Hoosiers 21-7 loss to Louisville and ahead of their matchup against the Akron Zips
NOTES:
Injuries:
The following players were all ruled OUT prior to Friday’s game. An updated availability report will be out Saturday at 10am.
5 Dexter Williams II
9 E.J. Williams
Players of the Week:
Scout Team Players of the Week
Brody Foley and Sam West (Offense)
Aden Cannon and Drew Pearce (Defense)
Aaron Stewart (Special Teams)
TOM ALLEN QUOTES:
Opening Statement:
“Good morning. Just follow-up from Saturday, obviously disappointing finish for our guys. Proud of the response in the second half.
Obviously did not start the way we needed to start in the first half, but really proud of our guys' ability to regroup, make adjustments and come out and play the way we expected us to play from the beginning.
Saw some progress with our young quarterback. Obviously continued to build off of his strengths and what he's able to do, and continue to grow and develop him and grow and develop our offense around him.
Excited to see our defense strong and get a strong performance in the second half. Still not enough takeaways. Got a goal of three every game. Only got one. Needed another one; and three, it would be ideal to get what we need to get to be able to set up our offense in a better way.
Special teams, eliminated the penalties, executed the onside kick there to perfection which helped us get jump-started in the second half but just continue with more consistency out of our punting unit that has been really strong, but still, was good but still not elite, which it needs to be elite every time we take the field.
So recognizing our scout team players of the week, Aden Cannon and Drew Pierce were our defensive scouts of the week. And offensively, Brody Foley and Sam West were selected by the staff, and then special teams was Aaron Stewart.
So continue to get strong after some of our guys in our practice which is necessary to get ourselves prepared each week. Go back, evaluate, adjust and get better.
And so we've got an important game coming up here at home against Akron to be able to continue to develop our team, build our team and then get better in all three units.
So an important week for us to be able to lock in and welcome a team that's got a lot of good athletes on it. A lot of guys that are good enough to make it really challenging for us. They play really, really hard. Coach Moorhead does a great, great job there. Joe is a great football coach, and gone against him many times when he was at Penn State. They will be very good schematically on both sides of the ball.
So looking forward for the opportunity for us to continue to improve and continue to get better.”
On the Rhythm that Walt Bell and Tayven Jackson Found:
“ It's an important next step. Obviously that was the first game that he's been, you know, where Tayven was the guy the whole game. So just to be able to, as you said, grow that chemistry and be able to get in a good flow; and that's the thing, too. You think about the first half, we just didn't finish our drives. We had two good starts to the drives but did not finish them, and had enough individualized mistakes, individual players that kind of collectively short circuited those.
But I think you can just kind of see what we can become from a scheme perspective, as well as the play calling itself and being able to distribute the football.
I think, you know, Tayven's ability to make reads in the throw game was impressive. He's obviously -- they are loading the box and trying to stop the run and make the young quarterback make plays, and he was able to do that. He created several out of nothing.
I always talk about, that's kind of like a key quality you're looking for in a quarterback is, hey, can he make something out of nothing. When something breaks down can he extend the play long enough to get his eyes down the field, which he's able to do that, and either beat you with his legs or beat you with his arm.
I think just recognition of that part of his game was good. Just got to keep growing that and there's no question, he just needs to play football. The more he plays, the better he's going to get, I believe that, and just the mechanism necks of everything and working around the huddle and taking share of the shot clock, we are trying to maximize that through everything we do.
And so obviously a couple times that we had to burn some timeouts that you don't want to do in those situations, and so we have to do a better job both as a staff and execution as players.
But I think you just see that growth, and obviously we got one more game before we get back into Big Ten play. But they are all important. That's a team that is 14-3 late in the third quarter at Kentucky; a team that's got a lot of athletes, a lot of length. Kids play extremely hard.
Yeah, you've got to be on point without question and that's what it's supposed to be every time you take the field, and a lot of respect for the way this team is coached and how hard they are going to play. That's what sticks out to me is how hard they play, and so that's a tribute to their coaching staff and their players.
So we will have to be offensively at our best and we have to continue to move forward. That's the whole point, it's an obsession with getting better. That's our focus this week just to be able to improve as a football team and continue to progress on both sides of the ball and special teams.”
On Chris Freeman Handling the Onside Kick:
“ I think that was a really huge step for him. It's one thing to do it in practice. Those are hard to get. You have to -- the placement has to be perfect. The spacing is pretty compressed, and there's a little window that we took advantage of, and -- but if the ball doesn't hit just right, sometimes you overthink it and you don't hit it quite hard enough or whatever.
And so matter of fact, of the three that we did, like I said, we were two-for-two during practice and that might have been the best one of the three, the way it just popped up perfect right there for Lucas (ph) to recover.
Just to be able do in that moment, yeah, that gives him confidence. There's nothing like doing it in the game and practice is great, that's where it all begins. But executing it in that moment in that setting at a critical time was very important.
So he's a guy that's growing in his confidence each time he takes the field. Obviously he's been our kickoff specialist a year ago, and now he's grown into being our field goal guy now, as well as just being able to have the ability -- that's always one thing I felt like Chris because of his soccer background, his ability to have a multiple skill set of different kinds of kicks that he can bring to our arsenal.
And because of his ability to -- being such a talented soccer player and understanding ball placement and different things like that, guys with big legs like he had, they can just crush the ball, and that's pretty much what you're going to get. But he has got the ability to place the ball, and felt that way coming out of high school, too.
So great to see him do that, and just proud of him because he's worked really, really hard and he's earned a scholarship here. We put him on a year ago, and just really proud of him for coming here and earning it the way that he has, and an excellent student, awesome young man and just a great representation of our program in every way.”
On What Went Wrong on Defense on Louisville’s Last Drive
“ Two things. No. 1. Didn't contain the quarterback that. To me jumps out the first, the first play, gave them a chance to get off the hook and get out of inside the five area, obviously tighter than that initially.
And then the third down one, that's what sticks out to me, the third and nine. We had a great call on the call that we made. We've just got to be disciplined.
To me, I think it was kind of the theme. Did some good things defensively. Held a very explosive offense to 21 points but obviously too many points, we didn't win.
But you know, we had breakdowns, just some individual breakdowns where a guy that's supposed to be the edge, we brought pressure from one side obviously, and then you've got to understand that to know that he's going to get flushed out away from the pressure most of the time where he's going to step up.
And so just to not have that executed properly was kind of telling for some other things that happened, even earlier in the game, especially in the first half when we weren't getting off the field on third down. It just takes one person to not be able to do your job.
There was so much emphasis about this phrase: Do your job, and I felt like that kind of broke down. Those last few plays were kind of a microcosm of the whole game, especially the first half, for our defense. Because to me, we had a chance. There was two minutes and 12 seconds to go in the game when we had third and nine, and you get that stop there, and you either get an incomplete pass; if you get a sack, call a timeout, get the ball back with two minutes to go and you go try and win the game.
Just really disappointed our defense didn't give us a chance there at that very, very end to have another shot. So just got to stop the run. We didn't stop the run effectively enough and several of those were quarterback scrambles, which has got to be eliminated. Just got to tighter on our run fits and do some things better, and it's really about execution for to me.
Those last few plays summarize that, so we've got to continue to work. We're not where we need to be yet but we've got to continue to get better.”
On His Game Management, Especially Using Timeouts Early
“ In the first half, I would say one once, would have been on our staff to be able to get the call in sooner, and that would be an issue that we have to get corrected.
Then the second one was the ability for us to -- quarterback has to be able to manage that as well. But once again, being young, that will improve each and every week.
But yeah, you don't want to burn those. Obviously you like to have two going into the final situation. I know for us in the final drive, we obviously took that last one there, second-to-last one prior to the fourth down. So it's kind of a good time just to be able to make sure you talk things through.
But at the same time, you would like to have two going into a final drive if at all possible and for sure one. Second half, for sure you want to save those timeouts and got to do a better job, both the staff and our execution offensively.”
On Building Consistency Over an Entire Game
“Yeah, there's no question, that's a great focus for us is you have to play 60 minutes. We talk about it all the time, and obviously we didn't do it. Didn't start the game the way we needed to start it, and go back and evaluate why. Obviously you're encouraged by the response but you don't want to have to be down by 21 points.
And so to me, it's about I want to see us come out and play with the confidence that we played with in the second half from the get-go and so to me, it was a noticeable difference without question.
I think we've got a lot of new faces. I get all that. But to be able to make sure we are doing a good job of being simple enough to where our guys can play with that confidence from the get-go right from the opening kickoff, and that's going to be the focus for this week is to be able to come out.
And like I said, I feel like that it was individual breakdowns that really hindered us in the first half. It wasn't collective breakdowns, but it just takes one. And so offensively same thing. Defensively, same thing. To me it's making sure we are simple enough so we can execute because they are always going to do some things a little bit different. Especially when you think about offensively, they are going to have an opening script, everybody does. And so what that looks like compared to what you thought they were going to do, and now you can adapt that so that our guys are playing fast and playing with confidence, and playing reactionary and not having to over-process things.
To me, that's going to be what the emphasis is. We have to to make sure we are very confident in our reads and our keys and our execution of those reads and keys, both offensively and defensively; and make whatever adjustments we have to make this week, both schematically, as well as in process of getting ready for a game to make sure that that happens.
So that's my responsibility as a head coach. It gets to that point where we are playing with an edge about us and playing with some confidence and playing with some swagger.”