Notes and Quotes: Spittoon Week

By David Sugarman (@David_Sugarman2)

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:

Offense: Luke Timian

Defense: Tony Fields, Rashard Fant

Special Teams: Haydon Whitehead, Griffin Oakes

Offensive Scout: Tyler Natee, Justin Berry

Defensive Scout: Andrew Stamm, Thomas Henderson

INJURY NEWS:

Donovan Hale, A’shon Riggins and Marcelino Ball are all considered doubtful against Michigan State.

Mike DeBord said Ian Thomas is day-to-day after being banged around some in the Michigan game.

NOTES:

Indiana’s game will be on ABC at 3:30 this week.

QUOTES:

TOM ALLEN:

Allen on the similarities between Michigan and Michigan State:

“I agree. I think it's going to be very similar in that regard. You look at the Michigan-Michigan State game, and it was 14-10 and a very defensive-oriented game. I think very similar style that they play compared to what Michigan plays.

So yeah, I think you can -- you always can learn from having that experience, and now we're going into the next week with a very similar situation.

I think that's very true, and our guys -- we're still not as a whole team, got a lot of younger guys, and that experience last week and even just hanging in there and fighting, and coming back and seeing what happens when you -- we had a chance to teach about field position in certain situations in that game, and to be able to see the benefit of it and of the huge punt return and how that changes everything for us and setting up our offense and giving them good field position, and what the end result of that usually is. So those are definitely good lessons we can take and build off of.”

After looking at the film, Allen hasn’t changed his mind on the controversial calls that went against IU on Saturday:

“Yeah, don't feel any different, and we're moving on from that and understand that's part of it sometimes. But yeah, I feel the same.”

On the progress of the offensive line following the Michigan game and where they still need to improve:

“When I go back and watch it, and you see how they -- some guys struggle more than others for sure, but they've got some of the best D-linemen in the country, and really impressed with 73 and 3. I just think those guys are pretty special, and have qualities that are very rare.

And so they just -- they create, by the style that they play, they create a lot of one-on-ones, both up front and in the back end, and you've got to win those, and then you don't -- you can't get as much help as you'd like because of the style that they play. It does put you on an island in some ways, and that does include the offensive line in certain situations. It can be hard for sure, but that's what you sign up for.”

Allen’s thought’s on the current state of the run game:

“I think when you go through and evaluate where you're at -- there's no question, we talk about the quality of the opponents we've played, there's a variable involved with that, and so you've got to be able to run the football. We know that. And we didn't run the ball as well as we would like to against Michigan. We need to, moving forward, but I just think that as you continue to build what you do and get better at what you do up front, that to me is where you just have to just continue to grow, and that includes the runs that we use with all of our backs, including the quarterback.

And so I just think that they're -- I believe they're progressing. I believe they're moving in the right direction, even though we've still got guys that still don't have the starting unit together yet, and sometimes you get through the unit and you never get back to that point, but hopefully we will, and so I just think that it's about balance. We've got to get to where we're balanced in our attack, and that's an area that we want to keep growing for sure, and got to run the football. Got to stop the run, got to run the football.”

On Michigan State’s great defense and what they do well:

“They just play extremely hard. They play a style that basically takes away the run and kind of dares you to throw a little bit in a lot of ways, by the way they play their scheme, and that's what I like to do, too. I just think you've got to play that way and force them to throw the ball over your head to beat you with those less high-percentage throws. Coach Dantonio is a defensive guy and always respected him in that role before he became a head coach, and so I just think that they play hard, they play physical, they're fundamentally sound and don't give you -- there's just not a lot of creases. Everything is very compressed, and they contest the throws, they play the coverage that allows that to happen, and I just think that they're just a good defense. Good, solid, fundamental defense.”

Allen touched on the troubles Indiana has had forcing turnovers:

“I thought again, we had a pick that was overturned, unfortunately, and then another dropped interception, you know, that cost us. I thought that was one we got to make that catch. And then the other one, the third one, was a backer jumped in there and could have been able to -- that would have been a tough catch, but still, we got our hands on the ball. So just raking at the ball, punching at the ball, just continuing to fight and claw and scratch for those takeaways. They're big. They're big. We needed one -- we just needed one more to give ourselves -- it's just flipping the field, too. That to me is the biggest thing that happens with it. Just that field position game you play and those kind of situations are -- that's where the takeaways, especially if we get it on their side of the 50, that's huge for us. So getting those is going to always be -- the one that we thought we had and we didn't get, that's huge momentum swing of field position.=

So that's really where you have to -- we worked on it again. We're not going to stop. So we just find different ways to do it and keep working and modified our practices a little bit to even add more of those this week. So we're going to get it right.”

MIKE DEBORD:

DeBord said he had no problem with the play calling late in the game.

“We’ve got to do a better job executing those.”

“The plays just didn’t develop as we wanted them to.”