Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: No. 18 Wisconsin Week

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen met with the media for his weekly in-season press conference. Below are the notes and quotes from his press conference ahead of Indiana’s trip to Wisconsin to face the No.18 Badgers

Notes:

- Michael Penix tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season

- RB Stevie Scott named Big Ten offensive Player of the Week

- Covid Numbers and Non-Partipants will be announced Saturday.

Tom Allen Quotes:

Opening Statement:

“ I want to begin by wishing Archie Miller and our basketball team a great tournament in Maui via Asheville. I am looking forward to watching them play. We are wishing them nothing but the best on their entire season.
 
I am really proud of our football team. I had a chance to go back and watch the film and I thought that it was complete team win. I am really proud of our defense for continuing to create takeaways. They play so hard and swarm to the football. They are not playing perfect, there are still mistakes, but the effort makes up for a lot of those. I am proud of the offense line for responding, especially in the second half, to help us run the ball very effectively. We were able to really take the game over. The safety was huge. D.K. Bonhomme, a player that we believe has a very bright future, made a couple of great plays and that was the turning point in the game. After we got stalled on fourth down, I thought it was a tough spot, but that is part of it. The defense came out on the very next play and got a safety. Maryland punted us the football, we drove down the field and scored, went for two and that was a very important part of that game. Big Ten football is tough, hard-nosed for 60 minutes. That is what it takes. I am really proud of our guys for that. Because of that, we have some guys that we want to recognize.
 
Stevie Scott III was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. Congratulations to him, but he knows that is his offensive line and the whole group and how we played. Tim Baldwin Jr. did a great job. I got some texts that said 'who is that guy?' but he is a guy that we have talked about that has been so steady in practice. He has earned everything that he has gotten and he is a guy that we really trust. Those two guys were our offensive players of the game for our team. Defensively, Tiawan Mullen and Jerome Johnson continue to make plays. Jerome now has three games in a row with a sack. It is tough for defensive tackles to get those, but he is playing hard and doing what we are asking him to do. On special teams, Haydon Whitehead and Noah Pierre. Noah is the guy I really want to talk about because he has been such a warrior on those units. He is playing 25 snaps per game on all of our special teams. He is blocking, tackling and doing a great job. Haydon continues to punt the ball with great consistency. He was able to flip the field and he averaged over 45 yards per punt. He had good locations and hang times. I am proud of those guys. The defensive scout team player of the week was Beau Robbins. He is a really good football player that just keeps getting better all of the time. His best football is ahead of him. The effort he gives, he makes the offensive line work every day, and we love that about him. Offensively, Cameron Knight and Grant Gremel are two tough, hard-nosed players that embrace their role. Cameron is a guy that has a bright future along the offensive line and will play center here for us. We love the way he works and how hard he practices. Grant gave us a great look and really led the scout team as the quarterback. It is critical for our preparation. On special teams, McCall Ray and DeKaleb Thomas are two guys that continue to show up and give great effort. I am really proud of the toughness of our team. We have guys battling through injuries, discomforts, and guys just being banged up as we continue to play these consecutive Big Ten games with no bye week. I am just really proud of the guys.
That takes me to the next thing, the opponent for this week, the Wisconsin Badgers. Paul Chryst has done a phenomenal job there. When you watch them play you see a model of consistency and a culture that they have created. They play the game with so much discipline. They have so much size and play with such a high level of execution. They are really impressive. We have not played them for a couple of years, but the last time we did was in 2017. That was an impressive team they brought to Bloomington. I left even more impressed after playing them. We know that we have a fight on our hands up there in Madison. We have to have a great week of preparation to play our best football.
Finally, before we move into questions, I wanted to give an update on Michael Penix Jr. He has torn his ACL and will be out for the season. It is a really tough situation for all of us. My heart breaks for Michael. His family is here with him and I am thankful for that. It is tough, it is hard. I really feel for him and all of the work he has done to get back. The bottom line is that setbacks and adversity is part of this life. We told the team, even last week, it is about how you respond to these challenges that define who we are. This is a great opportunity for him to grow amidst the difficulties he has been put through. I am excited for the opportunity that this presents for our football team to come together and rely on our defense, the run game and Jack Tuttle to come in. As you saw on Saturday, he made a great first throw right out of the gate for the 2-point play. He has worked extremely hard a prepared at a high level. He is a very good football player. That is why we recruit, why we develop, and why he came to Indiana was for opportunities like this. We will support Michael in every way possible, through prayers and physical encouragement, to help him through this process as he will have a chance to overcome another hurdle in his life to grow closer to meeting his full potential as a man and eventually as a player. I appreciate the ability here to lead this football team.”

On How Penix and Team Will Handle Adversity:

“Michael and I spent some time together. What do you say? It is a tough thing. It is about love and support at this point. It was a challenge, even before we knew the result. We were talking to him and preparing him for what he might have had. It attacks the core of who you are. How are you going to respond to things that happen that do not seem fair when there is no good answer? That is the case here. You fall back on what you believe in. You fall back on your faith, your family, all the people that care the most about you, and you battle. You fight, you do not back down. It is discouraging, disheartening when it first happens but once you get through the first part of that, you realize it is time to fight. That is why grit is such a great word. It describes this program with perseverance and passion towards a long-term goal. Michael has some big-time long-term goals. It is going to take tremendous grit to fight through this. It is going to create more character, toughness, and resolve inside of him that you could ever get if you do not face adversity. As a football team, it is very indicative of those same words. To me, it is about every group elevating 1%. Every position group, every phase of the game. Our defense has played phenomenal this year but that needs to be elevated. I talked to them today and said that we needed to get one more takeaway, one more key stop, or one more big play on defense. The offensive line needs to elevate their attention to detail and their preparation. The receivers need to elevate their attention to detail, their route running and do one more thing that allows this team to be great. Jack Tuttle is a special player, too. I know that he has not played a lot here, but he has a big-time arm and has tremendous football instincts and football IQ. He is extremely bright, but his greatest quality is his work ethic. He was the first guy to our walk-through this weekend and was doing drops on air. He did not even know if he was going to play a snap. As you could tell, when he entered the game, he was ready. That is part of the opportunity that has been presented to him. Same with Dexter Williams II who is now our backup quarterback. We recruited these guys to come here and they have dreams, too. When the opportunity presents itself, you step up and seize those moments. That is what great teams do. This is a football team. It is offense, defense and special teams. All of the other areas need to step up. That is what happens when you lose a special player. Michael is a special player and an even better person. Like I said, our heart is with him and we will continue to support him in every way possible. He will be a great leader on the sideline, in the film room and all of the ways he can continue to help this football team be great on game day.”

On QB Jack Tuttle:

“I think the consistency has really helped. He came here and the inconsistencies of that… I think I probably noticed it the most during spring ball and fall camp. I think we got four practices in back in the spring before everything was stopped, but then we came back with the system not changing. That has been a big benefit for him and his development. I was really impressed with how he performed in fall camp. I think he was consistent across the board and our staff was impressed and thought he was playing at a level that we brought him here to play at. Sometimes it takes time. There are a lot of variables that go into a young man's performance. This is why he came here. He was a highly-recruited player out of high school and has a lot of arm talent. He just needs to understand that he has a lot of talent around him. He has a great receiving corps, tight ends, running backs, an offensive line, and a great coaching staff that is going to support him. He needs to go out there and relax, just play football. He needs to help lead this team. I am excited for him in the midst of this situation and being able to give him a chance to prove who he is as a football player. You only get those opportunities when they are presented and this situation has presented itself to him and he needs to take it on.”

“You can call it what it is, it was a tough moment. As Michael went out of bounds, I did not even think anything of it. When he went down, I did not even know what happened. Obviously, we took him off the field and then Jack had to run right in there. That throw that he made on the 2-point play was not an easy throw. That was a tough angle but we work on that a lot. He made that throw in practice many times. We cannot emphasize it enough, the critical component of next man up and always being ready. I was excited for him to be rewarded for his preparation because he was ready to play when he was called upon. Was it unfortunate circumstances? Without question. The team has to rise up and has to be able to execute as a football team. As that happened, the play of our team kept getting better and better fir the rest of the game. To me, that is indicative of this football team. This is a tight group of guys, a close-knit family that trusts in each other, loves each other and cares about each other. Part of that is being ready when called upon.”

On the Potential of Playing in the Big Ten Championship Game:

“We have not discussed this with our team. There is one focus: beat Wisconsin. That is really the approach. This is the biggest game on our schedule because it is the next one. That is how we talk to our guys. I understand there is a lot of things going on, but it is earmuffs and blinders. It is the attention to detail, being able to focus on the task at hand. It has been crazy when you look across the country, you do not know week-to-week what program is in jeopardy and having these things happen to them. We are not immune to that. We are aware of that and we are on very high alert to continue to be extremely disciplined in everything that we do. We take nothing for granted. Right now, our single-minded focus is to prepare this football team to play our best game of the season in Madison.”

On the Challenges Wisconsin Presents:

“They have only played three games. We have played six and they have played three, so we are watching film off of that. We are looking at things beyond that as well. They have a new quarterback that we have not faced and has only played limited snaps so far this season because of their shortened schedule. He is a very talented player. You saw that in week one against Illinois. He made some tremendous throws and is very poised. He is a big, athletic guy that can make all the throws. He gives them a pretty impressive player at the quarterback spot. When you match that up with their talented offensive line, a whole bunch of running backs and they keep coming at you. They have really talented tight ends and wide receivers that make plays. I think the quarterback is a great fit for what they do and is a very talented football player. They create challenges for you because of the size of their offensive line and the way they run the football. That sets up everything else that they do. They do a really good job schematically of really stressing the defense. They personnel you and formation you and they have a really good coaching staff. We have a ton of respect for the football team we are about to play.”

Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan Quotes:

On Jack Tuttle:

“I think Jack has continued to improve since the day he got here. And we are excited for Jack. Obviously, not the circumstances that you would want but we had a lot of confidence in Jack. He works really hard. He prepares his tail off. He has a lot of talent and so he is ready. He did a good job Saturday when he came in the game. He executed and did the things that we asked him to and helped our team win. So, we have a lot of confidence and faith in Jack and we are excited for him to have that opportunity. And we know that he will do a great job.”

“He has prepared really hard. He has each and every week. I think that gave him confidence to go in the game. And so, he really, he just did his job as soon as what happened, happened. He just put his helmet on, ran out there on the field, took a couple snaps like we normally would. It was really very normal and the conversations that he and I both had were normal just like you normally would with Michael Penix when Mike is in the game. So, he really did a nice job and did not flinch and did not blink and just went out there and his first pass was a two-point conversion, which was a big play and he did not throw an incompletion Saturday and what we asked him to do. So, I thought he did a nice job of managing the game. Helped us put some drives together that helped us get some points and kind of secured the game toward the end there so I thought he did a nice job.” 

Defensive Coordinator Kane Wommack Quotes:

On D.K. Bonhomme:

“As we have evolved more as a defense that position has become more of an outside linebacker spot for us and D.K. was the perfect fit for it. He is a big physical guy. As he continues to grow and put more weight on, he is naturally a strong football player at the point of attack so he can play on the line of scrimmage or he can play backed off. It gives us a lot more versatility in some of the coverage things that we are doing, which has been obviously so pertinent and important in terms of us getting sacks, takeaways, allowing us to blitz a linebacker, inside linebacker, and drop him out in coverage. I did not want to lose him as one of the two inside linebackers, but as you talk about maximizing your roster and getting your best athletes on the field, we felt like it was important to get D.K. in that role. We thought he took another step in the right direction on Saturday. He is starting to get a feel for the position. His physicality up front in the run game, his ability in zone coverage, and his ability to read the quarterback in terms of whether he is throwing the ball or keeping it. Taulia Tagovailoa kept the ball on Saturday and when you have a player that can run him down is when you create some good things. I thought that safety that D.K. had was a critical point in that game and changed the momentum. If you look at that scenario, we get the safety, go down and score right afterward and then started to get after them on defense. It was a big momentum swing in the game so I am impressed with the way he is progressing.”

On Aaron Casey:

“I am really pleased. He is one of those four inside linebackers that we have rolled with. I recruited him out of high school when I was at South Alabama and originally recruited him as a safety. We were playing a lot of roll down three coverage, kind of like a Cam Chancellor roll down safety in cover three, so that is where we recruited him to be. Certainly, I do not think I knew he was going to get this big but it is neat to be able to come here and still coach and develop him over the last couple of years. Aaron, James Miller, Cam Jones, and Micah McFadden all came together and right now those are the four guys that are playing right now. I am really pleased with how fast he has come on with less reps than the other guys who played a lot more last year.”

On Playing Wisconsin and the Challenges they Present:

“A positive for them is that they are a little fresher having played three games compared to the six games that we have played. They have had a little more time off but you could look at it the other way and say we are hitting our stride with our group. Being able to keep playing football is a big deal. The argument could be made both ways but I guess we will find out on Saturday. I am impressed with their quarterback. I think for a young player, Graham Mertz is very efficient with what they ask him to do. As always, you see a guy grow, build, take his licks a couple times and then answer back. If you look at how he started the season against Illinois, he was 20-of-21 with 248 yards, had five touchdowns and no interceptions.  You cannot ask for more out of a young quarterback in terms of efficiency. I think he does a nice job of keeping them out of negative situations. Northwestern did some things that confused him and threw him off balance which has been the MO of our defense all season long so we have to be able to those things. When you can attack a quarterback, whether you are confusing him on the back end or you are hitting him in the backfield, you do not have to play against the same efficiency that you do when the game starts. That is always going to be something we try to do and get done so we will see how Wisconsin responds on Saturday.”