Spring Practice Number Two Had Hoosiers Getting Back to Takeaways

Coach Brandon Shelby works with the corner backs on shedding blocks Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle

Written By Nathan Comp

On a day that again felt like a fall, college football-filled afternoon, the Hoosiers took the field for the second time this spring. For me personally, it was my first ever experience at a college football practice and it did not disappoint. To begin practice, Coach Allen established the one word for today as “strive,” a focus to make strenuous efforts towards a goal. A couple things stood out in their pursuit of honoring this word.

The first goal the Hoosiers could check off the list, which always comes with an added importance to Coach Allen, is today’s defensive takeaways. After “taking a couple away to add stress and teach working through adversity,” the Hoosier defense finished the day with five takeaways and avoided having to run. With a defense last year that fell well short of Coach Allen’s goals in terms of takeaways, a practice filled with them will always bring a smile to his defensive-minded face.

Continuing with yesterday’s theme of execution, today had an added focus on player’s execution in terms of their technique. I watched a drill led by wide receivers Coach Heard (Happy birthday, Coach Heard) in which he focused solely on the technique of a wide receiver’s movement at the snap of the ball. Although it focused on a part of a play that only lasts the blink of an eye, the footwork and reaction involved in this drill is critical to a successful start off the line. In terms of technique, Coach Allen had this to say, “The technique work is constant. You’ll notice our individual periods are really long. We spend a lot of time on offense, defense, and special teams just with technique.”

In day two of spring ball Coach Allen also emphasized bringing high energy without sacrificing fundamentals. After completing practice, he had only positive words to say in this regard. “I love the effort. I thought the energy was extremely high today, which is good with having a practice yesterday and a short turn around.” In terms of fundamentals, he reminded the media that it will always be a work in progress and will certainly be “a constant for the entire spring.”

With the completion of today’s practice, the Hoosiers wrapped up their final no-pad practice of the spring. Tuesday will bring the addition of shoulder pads, and Thursday they will go full-pads in their final practice before spring break.

Other Notes

New Additions

It’s always interesting to see how some of the new faces have begun to settle in and adjust to the system. In a position battle we will be watching all offseason, incoming freshman QB Mike Penix impressed Coach Allen today. There is no doubt he has a cannon of an arm, but what really impressed Coach Allen today was his ability to recognize the defense and call an audible. “He was checking some fronts, with blitzes, which is not easy to do for a young guy. It’s a good sign he understands what he is doing, outside of his very live arm.”

Allen also made an emphasis on the learning curve experienced through the first practices of both WR Jacolby Hewitt and RB Ronnie Walker. “Coach Heard was all over [Hewitt’s] tail,” and sarcastically added, “I think he was starting to question if he wanted to come early. But he still had a smile on his face when it was all said and done.”

Linebackers

A smaller piece of information that is still worth noting is that Coach Allen has changed the way they group players during individual positional drills. “We’ve taken the husky position and moved it into the linebacker room.” While I was surprised to see Marcelino Ball working with the linebackers in their drills, Allen assured us that, “he’s still at the same position. He won’t be in a different position than he has been in the past, but where he drills will be more with the backers than the safeties.”

In terms of replacing the likes of Tegray Scales and Chris Covington, Coach Allen pointed out the leadership abilities of both Thomas Allen and Mike McGinnis to help ease the transition between such impactful players at the position. “The pressure is on for them to step up.”

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