Week 10 Media Monday: Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen took to the podium on Monday after the Hoosiers 33-24 loss to Penn State and ahead of their home game against Wisconsin.

NOTES:

Injuries:

The following players were all ruled OUT prior to Saturday’s game. An updated availability report will be out Saturday at 10:00 am.

• CB Jamier Johnson 

• LB Kaiden Turner 

• OL Max Longman

Players of the Week:

Scout Team: Jeff Utzinger, Race Stewart, Max Williams, Reece Bellin and Connor Hole.

TOM ALLEN QUOTES:

Opening Statement

“I want to just say how proud I am of our players and how hard they played this past weekend and prepared well and fought their tails off. Just got to continue to finish, stay the course, and keep getting better.

Got a very, very great opportunity this weekend against a very good football team at home. A lot of respect for Coach Fickell, what he does as a coach, especially the last couple of years, and the team plays really hard, very well coached, very talented football team.

Elite running back, elite receivers, big offensive linemen, big physical defense, as you would always expect from them, tackle well, good linebackers. I like their size up front, and they've got some good cover guys too.

So well coached, and his whole staff there does a really good job. Great opportunity for our program. We know where we are, and we know what we need to do. It's just a matter of just locking in folks into the finish line. Very important week for this program.

Defensive scout team player of the week, got two guys, Race Stewart, Jeff Utzinger. Proud of those guys. The effort they continue to give to us is huge. Offensive scouts of the week, Max Williams and Reece Bellin. And special teams scout of the week, Connor Hole.

Very proud of the team and the way the guys keep being resilient as a whole group, continue to fight and battle, and just continue to sharpen each other as we go against each other in practice. Whether the role is a scout guy or good on good, however that looks.”

On How Wisconsin Looks Different Under Luke Fickell

“It's completely different than in the past. It was two and three tight end sets, shift in, power, and just downhill runs, play action off of that.

They still run the ball effectively and well, got an elite running back. But just a different style without question, and Coach Longo's had a lot of success everywhere he's been. So definitely in the passing game significantly.

Just went out and brought in some receivers that have a lot of talent and more suited for that style of offense. Quarterbacks as well that fit that system. So they've done a good job of matching that up, which you need to do.

Yeah, it's really a complete different philosophy than they've had in the past. You kind of knew that obviously by who they hired and the direction they were going. Definitely creates new challenges for you.

The throw game is very vague -- vertical shots and reading and reacting to what you give them. They do a really good job of that, very well coached in terms of finding, as we call it, green grass in your coverages and things that they do well.

Then the RPO system is a big part of what they do and how they are able to set it up. They have a really comprehensive run game. It's not -- sometimes it's a couple run plays and that's it, but they're way more complex than that. So they do a good job with that.

Very well thought out, really good system that I know they believe in.”

On What Allen Would Do Differently Looking Back at Penn State

“You think the last three, and prior to the field goal -- I answered the question after the game, you look at the first and second down, the more aggressive there. The third down, I think, is definitely the right decision to make once you're in field goal range.

You look at what happened before the half, we threw an unfortunate interception right before the half that cost us three points and gave us -- could be a six-point turnaround. We lost a chance to get three. Obviously you want to make sure you don't do that in that third down situation. So that affects your thought process in some ways.

As we talk to the staff, those first couple downs or after the takeaway, you'd love to be able to -- comment on the headsets, let's go score a touchdown. That was my whole thought process there. When we got the ball, that's what you want to do. When you get to third down, it's like we've got to be smart with the football here. Just make sure whatever we call, we make sure we're smart and have a chance to kick a field goal to tie the game up at that point.

Then defensively, we've just got to make a play. We can't stay true to what we've been doing. They're still trying -- game is tied. So they just need a field goal. So you can't just get in a different mode mentally. You've got to be able to stop the run. They've got two elite running backs that can hurt you.

Didn't necessarily disagree with things there. It's just we've got to make a play. We've got to come up. And we played so well, especially that last quarter, defensively. We're doing a really good job and getting them in third and longs. So just got to finish.

Proud of our guys. They fought so hard. You go back, and you look, and you try to make adjustments on things that you do, but, yeah, that would be my thoughts.”

On Allen’s Thoughts About the Situation at Michigan

“Do I have any thoughts? That's loaded.

I've been asked about different things. I don't know what's going on there. I know there's a gamesmanship, in-game signals. That's why you see all the contraptions. We kind of laugh sometimes about all the stuff we go into. We've got three different signallers wearing goofy looking shirts and hats and all these different colors. So that's the gamesmanship of it.

Then there's whatever, there's different things that goes beyond that, that's different to me. But I don't really -- I don't know enough about it. There's no question a lot of conversations going on by a lot of people that don't know a lot of things.

But there's also an integrity of the game. I just believe in that. I believe in doing things the right way. You've got to be able to stand up and give account for how you operate as a man. Look yourself in the mirror and know you do things the right way.

I'm not saying they did it. I don't know what's going on there. I just want to say we need to protect the integrity of the game. That's my stance on that, and I think that's important.”

On What the Offense Can Build off of After the Penn State Game

“Just you look at what we were able to do against a really good defense, and we're playing another really good one this week. So you've got to be able to run the football, and we were able to do that, especially in the second half, in an effective way. We've got to create explosive plays in the throw game. We were able to do that. And you've got to build off of that.

The play of our quarterback, which is critical in every offense, his confidence and growth and development is huge. Just the way our receivers play, their confidence. I was so proud of those guys, and they made a lot of -- some contested catches and just did a great job. And just guys up front, getting better up front. I thought our running backs were running hard.

Just got to continue to build and grow off of those things and continue to score more points. It's about that. It's about finding a way to get one more point than the opponent has on game day. Definitely a lot to build off of, and we're going to continue to focus on those things.”

On the Whole Quarterback Decision Process

“I've gone through and re-evaluated that. The thing I think you see, though, as the season's played itself out, you kind of see the dilemma that we were in. You have two guys that had shown signs of doing some good things and also showed signs of being young. Neither one really separated themselves through the process, which made it challenging to make that decision.

So to me you need to resolve it. Everyone says, figure it out during fall camp. Well, that's great. You're not playing a real football game in fall camp, especially the way college is structured. There's no exhibition games. There's no other than what you do in practice.

With that information, we just felt like we needed to see them play. That played itself out, and we made the decision we made. Then we weren't getting the growth we wanted to get from that spot. So I felt like we kind of needed to do what we did, and now we're where we are.

You just want to see whoever takes over to take it and then just start growing and take the position and run with it. I think we've seen these last few weeks the growth with Brendan. I continue to say we have two very talented quarterbacks that are young, and we've just got to -- I feel good about the progress he's making. I'm excited for his future and for Tayven's future as well.”