Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Week Two Monday Press Conference

Indiana head coach Tom Allen met with the media in Bloomington on Monday Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

After a 38-28 win over Florida International the Hoosiers return home to open the renovated Memorial Stadium against Virginia on Saturday night. Indiana head coach Tom Allen met with the media on Monday to recap the win and preview Virginia.

Notes:

• Cole Gest is out for the year after suffering an ACL tear
• Players of the Week:
• Offense: Donavan Hale
• Defense: Jonathan Crawford
• Special Teams: Logan Justus
• Scout Team: Zenden Dellinger, T.J. Ivy, David Felton and Sam Slusher
• 11 former Hoosiers enter the 2018 NFL season on NFL rosters

Quotes:

Allen on Cole Gest’s Injury:

“Cole Gest has torn his ACL and will be out for the season. So hate it for him, I know how hard he's worked and played extremely well when he was in there and great, great person, works unbelievably hard and, obviously, has a setback now he has to handle and we'll be with him side by side through this whole process and he'll come back stronger than ever and he'll be with us again in the future.”

Allen on who has to step up in Gest’s absence:

“In regards to that position, obviously, Stevie Scott got a lot of work on Saturday night and showed some good promise as we saw in fall camp, and but needs to continue to develop and grow. Mike Majette, obviously, has to expand his role. And really want to see Ronnie Walker step up and other guys and really feel like that we have a group in that room of young men that will be called upon now. And bottom line is that seasons always give you things you don't expect and, obviously, this is one of those for us, and you have to adapt and move on and we'll be able to utilize our whole personnel that we have on the offensive side of the football. And Ricky Brookins is a guy that works his tail off and really excited about the other guys in that room to have a chance to rise up now and get opportunities, and we'll see who comes out and is able to make plays and be the guy.”

Allen on IU’s defensive performance:

“I did not think we played well defensively. After watching the film, I obviously saw it live and didn't feel great about it. Really disappointed in our fits. I know we got a lot of new faces and I get that, that's part of the growth. But I expected to have some of those issues, but I felt like there were too many and just didn't feel like that we were able to get off the field. Now I will say this, they were 5-12 on third downs and three of those five conversions were off of penalties. So they really converted two on their own. And two of those three penalties I would highly contest to say that those were tough calls to take in terms of against us, but we're going to play a certain style of defense and there's going to be some of those, I get that. But so third downs wasn't bad, we just didn't get our third down goal because of the penalties that gave them a couple that I didn't think they should have been given. Did not feel like that we did a good enough job on first downs. That, to me, was probably the biggest issue, getting them in manageable situations and created too many third and mediums and third and shorts that are hard. Did not feel like that in the red zone we played to the level I know we have to play at.”

Allen on the sequence of events at the end of the first half:

“We talked about that as a staff and I had really -- unless it was going to be, unless we got the ball inside -- we had a head wind at the time, they had gotten a lot of push in the interior and if you recall we had not kicked a field goal up to that point and so I did not want it to be his first field goal would be in that kind of environment and that situation. So unless we got the ball well inside the 25 we basically were just going to -- we did not want them to get the ball another snap. We knew we were going to get it in the third quarter, in some ways it was a little bit of a conservative type approach to the way we ended it. Actually, the way I did it was I told the official I was going to call timeout with 20 seconds to go. And I called timeout and then I look up and there's 15 seconds on the clock. And so talked to the officials about it and they're just like, well, there was no real answer for that, so they did not choose to put those five seconds back on the clock. So, but bottom line was unless we were going to get the ball inside the 20 area I was not going to kick a long field goal for that being -- what I didn't want, I didn't want to get a blocked field goal and give them any momentum going into halftime. I felt like we had a chance, we had some bigger receivers, try to take a shot at the end zone -- I wanted to get two shots in the end zone was kind of my initial plan to try and get -- and I thought that the one we did throw at the end to Nick, I wanted him to go up and get that ball. So, but they didn't and so that was kind of how I played that out. I was really, it's kind of was multiple reasons, the head wind was number one and then they were getting a real good push and so long field goals are low, typically, and I didn't want to create any momentum for them going into halftime.

Allen on this week’s opponent, Virginia:

“The Virginia Cavaliers and Coach Mendenhall does a great job. Very disciplined team, very -- as you expect from his kind of teams, they're very good on defense, they have added a new dimension offensively with a junior college quarterback that is a very gifted athlete that can beat you with his legs and his arm, and that was obvious in week one. And his name's Bryce Perkins and so he's got our attention very quickly. And so very impressed with their offense and so now you mix an explosive offense with a very stingy defense, and they're always consistent and very effective on special teams. So coach and his staff there do a tremendous job and they were impressive in their week one opener against Richmond, a very good 1-AA program or FCS, as we call it now, and they did some very good things.”

Allen on Virginia QB Bryce Perkins:

“Well the thing that sticks out to me is he's six foot three, 215, 220 pounds and he can run. And he took that football and just split the defense right down the middle on 50 yards and he is fast. So great athlete, throws the ball good enough to you have to honor that. He's a good, really good quarterback and he's big and strong. So really impressed with his physical attributes and the way he -- he's got weapons around him and really impressed with their receivers and running backs, runs extremely hard. So he will create a definite challenge for sure. It's a totally different football team than we played last year offensively. The quarterback last year was ball control, was not a runner, very accurate and really just a completely different philosophy that they approached their team with now with a different type of player at the quarterback position. So they're going to be much a lot of respect for us for Bryce Perkins.”

Allen on giving the game ball to manager Matt Stauder:

“I tell you, pretty special moment. He's been through so much and it was the one year anniversary of the passing of his dad and then obviously we all know what he's dealing with now with his cancer battle and so just a really special young man that loves, absolutely loves this university, our program. And even though he's he doesn't feel great, after treatments he comes to practice, doesn't miss, was the same way a year ago when he lost his dad. And he just said, he wrote me a note afterwards and just said that that would have been the happiest moment of his dad's life would be able to be there for that to see that transpire. So just a special time. I just respect him so much and I know our players do too and we're just pulling for him and praying for him. And he's got a tough road ahead and we're right there with him. And it's helped to raise support and money to be able to help his family because all those things don't pay the bills. So we're just trying to do what we can to help him and Ricky Brookins has led the way as you all know with that. So just a special time. He was caught off guard, I don't think he expected that, so I really am glad we were able to do that for him and that was pretty neat.”