Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Week Nine Media Monday
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Tom Allen met with the media on Monday morning Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle
Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Head coach Tom Allen discussed IU’s 33-28 loss to Penn State and previewed IU’s Friday night matchup with the Minnesota Golden Gophers
Notes
Players of the Game:
Offensive: Stevie Scott
Defensive: Marcelino Ball
Special teams: None
Injury Update: Michael Penix (ACL) out for the season
Quotes From Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
Allen Wrapping up the Loss to Penn State:
Just a gut-wrenching loss to our guys. Just so proud of how hard they played. I really challenged them with some things after the Iowa game and really encouraged by the way they responded and how hard they played and how they prepared for a very, very good football team and did a lot of good things, and just really hated to see us fall short there at the end.
But we have to continue to address the little things of finishing and executing at critical times, both sides of the football there at the end and then throughout the game. And as well as special teams let us down and really disappointed in that. And spent a lot of time over the weekend addressing our kickoff cover unit and different things there, adjusting personnel, and making corrections and changes we have to do to be at the level we need to be at in special teams to win those kind of games.
And then we really challenged our defense in the secondary and our linebackers and D-line to be able to do a better job against the pass and did not give up any touchdown passes, which broke their quarterback's 34-game streak of having touchdown passes.
Knew it was going to be a tremendous challenge. Obviously, his legs for us also, part of the equation, and so he hurt us sometimes with that. But proud of the guys for -- we made some adjustments. We addressed it, schematically, and some things, and obviously challenged our guys and they responded.
Offensively running the football the way we did with Stevie getting 138 yards, two TDs. He leads the nation now in carries for true freshman. And he's second in the country in yards for true freshman, second in 100-yard games and fourth and TDs. So he continues to play at a high level.
And the offensive line did a great job blocking for him. But just even then we've got to hold up in the end. They know we've got to throw the football at the last drive and struggled to be able to protect our quarterback there, and we have to be able to do that.
Allen on Michael Penix’s Injury:
“And as we close up the game just want to say that unfortunately we've lost Michael Penix with an ACL tear, which is a very tough thing for him to have to go through and my heart breaks for him. But it's part of this game and we have obviously experienced those with Cole in the season and with what J-Shun Harris has done in our program.
So I'm pretty up front about things like that that and that's part of where we are. And he'll have surgery here in a few weeks once that's appropriate. And then he'll begin the process of getting back and had a great talk with him yesterday. And I know he's hurting and discouraged and down, but it's one of those things you've got to deal with. He has a great mentor in J-Shun Harris to help him through.
But tough blow for us and tough blow for him, but it's part of this tough game that we play. So thoughts and prayers with him through his recovery and we'll move forward.
We sat through that, sat down with our head trainer Kyle Blackman, and the goal is to have him ready for spring football so he can throw seven on seven for spring. And he would not be -- and our quarterbacks are never live in the spring anyways. But he would just be -- that would probably be the most he would do. But he'll be ready to go for that. That's the goal, anyways set that as a target goal. Ready to go June 1, 100 percent full bore, ready to go.”
Allen on Matchup with Minnesota:
“We obviously play a team up in Minnesota, first Friday night game we've had here for a long time. I think the last time we had one was against Minnesota and it's been a few years ago. That was due to the, might have been World Series or some type of baseball conflict with the schedule and played in there and I think in the 80s, and so heading back up there for Friday night game and Coach Fleck has a young team. He's a new coach there that has an amazing amount of energy and passion, what he's built there. So they're going to be a tremendously hard-fought, physical game and they've got a lot of play-makers on offense coming together and playing better every single week and defense that flies around, one of the top in Big Ten in tackles for loss and has the sack leader for the Big Ten right now. And has several good players and they do a great job of playing really, really hard and playing together.
Great challenge for us, get back on the road, get back where we want to be. It's a very important week, both teams on the same schedule. Both teams played on Saturday. Both teams have the same amount of time to prepare so we have to modify our schedule, and we have. Excited about this new opportunity to head to Minnesota and take on the Gophers Friday night.”
“I think, first of all, their defensive front, like you said, with tackles for loss and sacks they create, that's always a big concern. And bottom line is we have got to do a great job up front once again, challenge our guys today, talked about it today, about protecting our quarterbacks and running the football and that's the huge emphasis we have because that's what they present. That's what they do really, really well.
And offensively they've just gotten better and better every single week. They started fast and won their first three and got into Big Ten play and played some really good football teams, but have consistently moved the football. Haven't always scored in the red zone. They've talked about that.
But at the same time they've got themselves down there, and they pin people down. Their special teams are excellent. And really impressed with their kickers. Their cover units are really, really strong. The return units are strong. So well-coached football team, very well-coached. And the coach did a great job in that regard in terms of how the team plays and techniques they play with and special teams is something that sticks out to me for them for sure.
And you go on the road, play our best football. And one day shorter, other than that everything else is the same. And very, very important football game for our program. We have to have our best week of preparation for this one and that's my expectation and we'll have a good day today.”
Allen on Minnesota’s Quarterback Situation:
“Yeah, we don't really know what's going to happen with that. And the backup came in and played the whole second half and did a lot of good things. So similar. So it's not like you're dramatically different styles. I don't see their scheme changing a lot.
But very, very RPO-driven and have ran the ball well and throw off the runs and do a good job with that. They're built for that. And they do a good job with that and have really one of the more talented receiver's we've faced and saw them in the spring. We watched all our opponents in the spring and their spring game and he did some great things there. Got my attention real fast in that game and he hasn't disappointed since in regards to his production and how well he's played.”
Allen on the Backup Quarterback Situation:
“In regards to who the backup is, Reese Taylor, the backup quarterback which we already moved him there, got a lot of work there. So that will be part of it and continue to utilize him and do whatever we have to do to win football games.
“Much more work that will increase, he wasn't getting, hey, he's the number two. I will say, we do insert run and the last two weeks he would be the quarterback for that and did all that. He was in that position. And so I'd say maybe at certain times. But to say full bore, we had some packages we put him in there, did some things. Now it's obviously intensified. So before it was just more drill work and isolated situations. But he's played that position his whole life. So he was pretty natural at it.”
“Yeah, we'll utilize him. But obviously you've got to have an understanding of his other role that he plays as well. But, yeah, a little bit of a unique situation in that regard. Just gotta do a great job as a staff of preparing him and utilizing his talents as well as having him prepared for that role as well.”
Allen on Friday Night Big Ten Games:
“I believe in what I said in the past. I stand by it. I believe Friday nights are for high school football. And I stand by that very strongly. It's not my decision. We'll go play, be ready to play wherever we're asked to play, whether it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I just like to protect that for -- and no matter what state it's in -- for those guys to be able to enjoy that night of the week for them. So that's how I feel.”
Allen on Kick Coverage Busts:
“I would say, number one -- this is kind of how I said it to our staff: I said, okay, first of all, the first thing we have to address is the quality of the kick. So the way that we want to be able to cover kicks, the kick has to be set a certain spot, to a certain spot and that didn't happen at all on the first one. Then the second one they ran back was, the hang time was very, very low.
So those were -- so the kick itself is step number one. Step number two is personnel. So we adjust in personnel, made some changes and to get guys that we feel like will do a better job. Obviously the guys we had in there we thought were going to do a good job, did not get the job done.
So that was addressed and then you look at once again the placement of the ball. We're trying to do a better job of that and also who can do the best job of placing the ball. So it's a critical part of the game and it's the first play of defense.
So that series that's going to be taking place next, it's the first play of that series is the kickoff team. And so that was emphasized once again in our meetings today and trying to put some more guys on there that maybe you can say are starter type guys we've got to have great coverage. So it will be addressed.”