Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Scrimmage Availability
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Image: Indiana Athletics
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Indiana head coach Tom Allen talked to the media prior to Indiana’s first fall scrimmage on Saturday. Below are the notes and quotes from that interview.
Notes
“The goal for today is to go 50-50 between the two quarterbacks.”
“Christian Turner. Nothing serious, but he’s not going to go [play] today and Kobee Minor is not going to go (play) today, but they should be back Monday and Nico (Nicolas Radicic), one of our kickers is nursing something, so he's not going to kick today.”
“(The quarterbacks) are not live, so it’ll be similar to they’ll just tag off on them. For pocket presence, we use the flags. We’re trying to, without hitting them, we’re trying to compress the pocket a little bit on them and make them feel that pressure, so we use the flags out there to give them the pocket presence.”
Quotes
On How He Evaluates a Scrimmage vs. a Regular Practice
“It’s about how can you make it as close to game day as you possibly can. When those situations happen, that’s where your evaluation is the most valuable. This past week we had third-and-short goal line, full-go-live, so I thought that was great. Two-minute situations, I think we can evaluate live because of the clock and the pressure with that. The rest of that, a lot of it is going to be today. Position battles how do guys perform, we call this preseason game No. 1 so how you perform today, it’s going to be a big deal.”
On How the Quarterback Rep will be Broken Up
“The goal for today is to go 50-50 between the two quarterbacks. It’s purely the ones going the same number of times, the two going the same number of times. They’re the only two guys who are going to take snaps today. We want to get as many game-like situations as we can. They’re the exact same age and both young. We have a set number that we save for each group, for each section and we’ll wait until we get to that point before we switch to the next one.”
On the Test a Scrimmage Presents to the Coaching Staff
“I will say this, because you want to see how, what they call, how they respond when things aren’t scripted. And today, a lot won’t be scripted. So, that's a really good test for both sides.”
On Playing with the New Clock Rules
“It’ll be the first time we will have the mechanics of it. So, I’m looking forward to that part, too. We had the Big Ten officials here last night talking to our team, going through all that progression. Obviously, within the last two minutes of the half in the game it’s the same as it used to be, but up to that point, the clock’s going to run. So, that will be different. This will be the first time I’ll have that done.”
On His Main Concern for the Defense in the Scrimmage
“First of all, tackling, just because we haven't done a lot, so I want to see us tackle that during the live periods. That's going to be a big emphasis on me. Block destruction, so getting off blocks, how well we can do that and how well we can tackle because to me that is the essence of defense.”
On the Importance of Getting Kickers Live Reps
“It’s a big deal today to me. I want them to feel the pressure of the situation. You know you’re on the sideline, you're kicking, you don’t run out there and kick three or four in a row. It’s true, game-like situation. So, how they handle that and how they perform. So, to me, it’s just being the best when it counts the most. That's what they got to do. So yeah, today’s a big evaluation for our kickers.”