Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: Idaho
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Written by Sammy Jacobs
Tom Allen met with the media on Labor Day Monday to recap the Hoosiers 34-6 loss to Iowa and to give updates ahead of their home opener against the Idaho Vandals.
NOTES:
Injuries:
Zach Carpenter, OL- Day-to-Day
Luke Haggard, OL- “Luke got dinged up and was -- really expected him to be a starter. and so we've just got to work through that.”
Devon Matthews, Safety- “it's just an upper body injury. but I don't know the short term as far as return to play status yet. but I do know we've got a lot of good test results back, which was very, very positive.”
Players of the Week:
Offensive Scout Team: David Holloman and Nick Marozas
Defensive Scout Team: Husky Maurice Freeman
Special Teams Scout Team: Andrew Turvy
TOM ALLEN QUOTES:
Tom Allen opened with a joke on Monday to lighten the mood after the 34-6 loss to Iowa:
“Well, good morning. let me check something first here. yeah. make sure Indiana is spelled right on my hat before we get started. but appreciate you guys being here. watched the film. and just as disappointed as I was after the game. so that doesn't change. But we had a good day yesterday with our guys. and had some open, honest conversations and just heart to hearts about where we are and what we've got to do to get where we want to be. so thought the guys responded well in regards to our meetings yesterday and lifting and moving on to our next opponent.
So, bottom line for me is it's how you respond to this kind of situation. so that's going to be the focus. and love our guys, believe in them. and excited to see them learn from the things that happened on Saturday and press on and move forward.
So, excited about Saturday's opportunity, first home game for us and our program. and just really excited to get our fans back into our stadium. and it's going to be 7:30 kickoff so want our fans to be able to enjoy the tailgating piece and getting here early and being able to enjoy the atmosphere.
I know our guys can't wait to be able to perform in front of them. so that really is a big deal. obviously everything we've all been through with last year and not being able to be part of it and getting our fans back in the stadium is going to be huge for our guys. so really looking forward to that.
I do want to recognize some guys. we do not give out players of the week when we don't win games. but we do still recognize our scouts and the work that they do for our team. and so our defensive scout team player of the week was Maurice Freeman. he's a young man that's really just practices so hard. does a great job of giving our offense a great look. Then as offensive scouts, we had David Holloman and Nick Marozas. David is a guy I mentioned before. he's a freshman running back and continues to practice really hard. and I appreciate Nick's leadership and what he's doing for our team. Then special teams scout of the week was Andrew Turvy, a young man from Carmel High School here in state. just practices really, really hard. So appreciate these guys and what they do for us every single day as they develop as players and as we continue to move forward. so at this time, I'll take questions.”
Allen was pretty transparent on the performance of his quarterback Michael Penix:
“I think going through and just getting him -- as you watch, you see a lot of high throws and just getting comfortable in the pocket. just being very transparent, I think you've got to go through and he's got to work through the process of being live, you know.
and I just think in practice, you can say what it is, and you're not live, obviously, at that point. and you're not going to make it live. I don't think -- there's no way you can go back and ever do that. but until it is, it's really not the same probably.
I just think that there's -- just wasn't obviously himself. you guys can all see that. I saw that. you saw that. but no wavering whatsoever within him. just got to continue to work through that process, the confidence in that. he's definitely 100 percent in regards to the knee and just being able to play that way.
I think that's the process you've got to go through. and he's going through it with us, and we're going through it with him. and, obviously, everybody is in this together. so, yeah, the first one was a tipped ball and, you know, receiver slipped and then ball was tipped. and, obviously, we saw the result of that.
Then just -- the one to me was supposed to be thrown out of bounds and just got away from him, to be honest with you. the receiver wasn't even turned around. so it wasn't even like -- it was just kind of an odd thing to happen. I've really not seen him ever do that before. The other one just a misread, you know, kind of a thing coverage-wise. guy jumped it and -- just mistake. but those are costly. I mean, turn the ball over on offense -- the turnover ratio, explosive play ratio. that's really what defines games. we talk about it all the time. and everybody knows the stats. when you win those two categories, you pretty much win close to 80 to 85 percent of your games you're going to play in. we lost the turnover battle to them. and that's how you lose games.”
The Hoosiers were called for more than a handful of penalties on Saturday and Allen says it has been addressed:
“Huge emphasis for sure. there were two personal fouls that were both -- we call them selfish penalties. we literally already -- the one issue with the quarterback, you know, had showed video from the previous week. happened to a team that played week one -- or week zero where it's not the hit on the quarterback, it's the driving him into the ground and showed that to our team. and then we made the exact same mistake. so that's being addressed.
The same with the one for the O-lineman, Michael Katic. just inexcusable. so those are addressed. and then the false starts. you can't have those. and those are costly, very costly. and then the holding call, holding penalty, the one we had on the O-line, in addition to the two of those. to me -- and holdings to me are more you talk about, you know, self-inflicted. it's technique, it's positioning. usually the holding is your feet and your hands get caught doing the holding, but your feet are the ones that get you in trouble.
It's a lot of variables for that. but you've got to eliminate mistakes. and those just kill drives, especially on our offense. it just really, really set us back. put us behind the chains and made it really difficult, especially in that environment against that defense. we talk about playing fundamentally sound and not making mistakes, and we didn't do either one.”
Allen also addressed the sense of urgency his team must have to fix the issues from the opener:
“I think that's where -- as we often say, game day's coming. and the clock's ticking. So sense of urgency with that. that's why yesterday was so important to not only just to flush things out but just to be open and honest about where you are with things and address them. and that process is continuing even into today as a staff. Then tomorrow's practice is huge, the way our guys come and approach their opportunity at 7:00, our first team meeting in the morning, and be able to have the right mindset and to have a great Tuesday morning practice and film study and walk-through and everything that goes into this to be able to give us the progression that we have to have.
There's obviously guys -- we've got some guys that didn't play that we hope to get back to play to get them healthy and get them part of what we're doing. that's part of it as well. but it's just continuing to go through the process that we've got to get where we want to be.
There's no question. I mean, obviously, everybody knows that it wasn't what anybody wanted. and it's my responsibility. the buck stops with me. and I have to own it. and I do. it's my responsibility to get it fixed. so that's where we're at. Excited for our guys to be able to have the opportunity -- that's one thing that is great about this awesome game. it was a game, but it was one game. so now we've got to move on to our second opportunity. and that's the beauty of this sport. you've got to be able to respond, and you've got to be able to look yourself in the mirror, and you've got to be able to make honest assessments and evaluations, and you've got to go fix them. and there's a lot of pride in this football team. a lot of guys that worked extremely hard.
so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. but we're excited about the opportunity to get back out there on Saturday and represent our university.”