Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes

Image: Zach Greene, Hoosier Huddle

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen took to the podium on Monday to recap the Hoosiers 20-15 loss to the No. 10 Michigan State Spartans and to preview the home matchup against the 5th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

NOTES:

Injuries:

• Michael Penix: Week-to-week with a shoulder injury

• Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor: “I would say hopeful with those two guys. It's one of those situations where we don't know for sure. I don't know right now.”

Players of the Week:

Offensive Scout Team: Charlie Spegal

Defensive Scout Team: Race Stewart

Special Teams Scout Team: Matt Holht

Tom Allen Quotes:

Allen opened with a statement recapping Michigan State and previewing Ohio State:

“After watching everything, we continue to be disappointed in the outcome. Obviously the goal is to win the game, and we didn't play good enough to win the game. That is what we have to do, look at everything very openly and honestly with the staff.

I was proud of our defense. I thought our defense played extremely well but can play better. We still made some mistakes that gave up some things against a very hot offense that was playing really well. A really good running back [for Michigan State] and did a great job against them, not giving things up. Only gave up 13 points and felt like it could have been less than that if things had been executed correctly. At the same time, I feel like we have to get more takeaways. Needed one more to try and create an opportunity for ourselves. Obviously offensively not getting the job done. Got to protect the football. Not doing that. That's costly, been very costly again. Not scoring in the red zone.

Special teams, still feel like our punt team was not what it needed to be in terms of quality of the punts. Missed a chance to down the ball inside the five. Thought we were going to, didn't. Kind of mishandled that. That changes drives. That was a field goal drive for them because it started on the 20 when it should have started inside the five.

Those kinds of things, that's how you win games like that, close games that come down to [a few] possessions, being able to get the job done there.

Just spent a lot of time the past couple days working on that, and we will not stop. Excited about the opportunity we have coming up against a great football team coming to Bloomington for a night game. Love that type of atmosphere. Excited to have the stadium packed and our guys are going to be ready and we're going to have a great week of practice. Welcome this challenge with an excitement and intensity that I know it's going to demand.

Want to make sure I don't forget to give out our scout team players of the week. Those guys played a critical role. Defensive scout team player of the week was Race Stewart, offensive scout team player of the week was Charlie Spegal and the special teams scout was Matt Hohlt. Three in-state guys that have come here from high schools here in Indiana, working extremely hard for us, helping us get ready. Excited for those guys' futures here.”

Allen had a chance to evaluate Jack Tuttle’s performance at quarterback against Michigan State:

“He did some good things. The two picks were costly. One was pressured, one was not. We have to protect the football, even when you're pressured. A sack is not a bad thing. Got to punt [in that situation]. Defense is playing at a high level, so just protect the football. That's the biggest takeaway. Decisions, he made some mistakes, but it's his first time starting this year.

Still at times he looked like he was a guy that hasn't played a lot of football collectively, which he has not. But still expect him to play a little better than he did. He's got to rise up. He'll learn it from and play better.

He had open receivers and didn't hit them at times. That hurt us even in the red zone. Some of that was protection, but mostly it was getting his eyes to the right spots.

A solid performance, but not good enough. He'll get better. We have to coach better and give him some better options. We need to do a better job. I have to do a better job. The buck stops with me.”

The offensive line has been a point of contention this season, Allen told reporters what he thinks went wrong there:

“I think just continuing to work. I mean, we have to find some ways schematically to take some pressure off and to give them the ability to execute.

When you go through and look and evaluate, the phrase that came back to me was 'consistent execution.' That to me is where we continue to get better at times, but not good enough. I think the end was kind of glaring because that's what you remember, the finish. That didn't give us a chance to be able to get the ball down the field and make the throws we needed to make.

I feel like you've got to look at the big picture of it all to try to continue [and improve]. There's certain guys you might say, 'Hey, we're going to try to put a guy in, get him some more reps with that unit.' That's a possibility for sure. But just to continue to find ways not to allow the defense to be able to gang up and tee off. [We need to have] faster reads and be able to cause a pause in those reads to me is something we really want to do a better job of as an offense.

It starts up front. We did some good things, but not good enough. It's got to be consistent. Timely mistakes, miscommunication, the ability to not pick up a twist here or there at the wrong time when it really shows up. Sometimes those things can happen, and it doesn't create a game-changing negative play. It seemed to happen more frequently in this one when those things did occur.

Still, just not to where we have to be. Obviously we know what the objective is. We need to score points. We did move the football. But, especially in the first half, 46 snaps, 46 plays, nine points. It's not good enough. We need to score points. Can't be kicking those field goals as many as we did. Glad we made them, but at the same time you knew it was going to take more than that.”

Ohio State is explosive on offense, what challenges do they bring for IU. Allen answered that here:

“[Ohio State] creates a lot of issues. They're just so explosive. Their receiver core is different than you usually will see. They have three receivers that are as good as anybody you're going to face in the country. So that puts a lot of stress on you. Talented quarterback and talented running backs, as well.

I just think not allowing those explosive pass plays to me is really [going to be key]. They just get guys so wide open it seems. It's tough and puts a ton of stress on you. Obviously, you have to stop the run, there's no doubt about that. Just giving [explosive plays] up, that's where they can really pile it on, score fast and make it difficult on you.

I think that core concept of pressuring the quarterback, being able to do things there with stressing him out mentally and physically is going to be key.”

Donaven McCulley will not be redshirting this season. Allen discusses that decision on Monday:

“We were going to. Now we're not. When Michael [Penix Jr.] went down, we had to make the decision that he's going to have to go. But before that, that was kind of the thought, to just use those four games in a judicious way. Now he's the number two guy, training to be the next guy in.

Expect to see him more. Really kind of even thought we might use him a little bit more Saturday. I wanted to see us do that, and we will. Obviously, that was his first time ever playing in a game collegiately. He did some good things. Just have to get him to be able to get out there and play football. Very talented guy.

We have to maximize our roster. To me he's one of the guys that can make plays with the ball in his hand. That's the decision we had to make when [Penix] got hurt.”

Allen talked about McCulley’s role in the offense:

“I would say as you go through the feel of the game, it's obviously the tightness of the game that creates a certain type of situation you have for a young guy like that.

But, yeah, I'd like to see him play more. I know we will. I really do believe that. Just kind of grow him as a player. He was nervous. We talked about that yesterday. But now he's got that first snap out of the way, wasn't a very accurate throw, had a couple decent runs.

We just want to be able to do that, he's a quarterback, he can throw it, he can run it. That's what we wanted to see him do. To me, yeah, I expect that role to grow, the things we can do with him to expand each and every week, we'll see where it goes from there.

DB Noah Pierre had a big game on Saturday, Allen talked about his progression:

“I just think the first quality that stuck out to me for him was his competitive toughness. He's got a very good football mind. He's able to play multiple positions. That's what's allowed us to move him around.

Some guys you move them from one position to another, it takes too long for them to pick things up. He's not that way. Noah has a really high football IQ, understands the game and anticipates. What he might lack in size, he makes up for in toughness. He is a very good tackler and you saw that on Saturday.

Tough kid, physically tough, strong, showed up on special teams all last year. To me that's always a great indicator of how well they're going to play if they're a young guy in our defense moving forward.

I think if a guy like Maurice Freeman that's a true freshman right now. We're going to find more ways to get him involved on special teams. A guy like him that shows up in practice, when you go live, just has a knack to make plays. That's how Noah was.

We're always trying to find [ways to get those type of guys on the field]. We had those corners in front of him that were pretty good players. You are like, 'Okay, let's move him to where we have a chance to get him on the field.' We had him at husky position, he has played safety position, does things on third down.

He came here as a corner out of high school. Hey, now when those guys were out, we had to move him back to corner. Josh [Sanguinetti] is the same thing. He was a guy that came here as a corner, moved him to safety, and he's a guy you could move back to corner if you had to for certain situations. You try to get as many corners as you can, and the guys that outgrow that position, move to safety.

That cover skill set that you like, the toughness it takes to play that position, they got the size to grow into safety, that often happens. In recruiting that's what you're trying to do that helps you with your flexibility of your positions. When things like this happen, you got a guy you can move around.

The nickel position, what we call our husky, falls in line. Kind of a bigger, thicker corner, that allows things we're trying to do. That's where it helps you as a football team defensively.”