With Spring Practice Finished, Hoosiers Look to Player Led Practices to Get to the Next Level
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Image: Indiana University Athletics
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The Indiana Hoosiers wrapped up their spring football session with practice number 15 on Saturday morning, a scrimmage that replaced the annual spring game festivities. Spring practice was a time for the Hoosiers to work on head coach Tom Allen’s “three goals for spring football. Number one, want to do a great job improving our fundamentals and technique, with an emphasis on relentless toughness in everything we do. Number two, for me it's about developing our depth in all three phases, offense, defense, special teams, and also scheme adjustments you always do in the spring time.” Now that those goals were accomplished it is time for the players to take ownership of the offseason.
The Hoosiers open up the 2021 season at Iowa, in what should be at least a top—25 matchup, on September 4th, but it’s what happens in the months of May, June and July that will determine how good the Hoosiers can be.
“It will define what this team becomes.” Allen explained. “You think about all the time you spend together during spring practices, all the work, all the drills, and they have to take those things and apply them when we cannot work with them. Our strength staff will be with them a lot and we can be with them some. As the team develops, as the team grows, as the leadership component gets put into hyperdrive, we will have workouts that are senior led. The guys will have to take ownership of that part of it during these different periods.”
Assistant coaches Charlton Warren and Deland McCullough also put out videos on Twitter of them speaking to their players about the importance of the summer. McCullough challenged his group to “grow”, while Warren said “It ain't gonna happen in two days. It's gonna happen with incremental steps, each and every day until it's time for September 4th. We won't worry about that right now. We're about getting our bodies right finishing school strong and getting with (strength) coach (Aaron) Wellman, and changing the way you look how fast you go. The one thing I know about this group, you guys like to play. Okay, one thing I know about this group, you fight to the end, we just keep that same enthusiasm that same spirit and take over everything we do, we're gonna be where we want to be when the time comes, you feel me on that. Guys, I'm super proud of you efforts. You guys came in, embrace everything we threw at you didn't flinch and kept swinging, and today, we put a pretty good product on the field and we ain't even close. And that's I'm so happy that we enclose that means we're gonna be this much better, June, July, okay, now as your team. There's no coaches around y'all take it over, y'all leave the program the way, no matter if you're a freshman or senior or super senior, you get in, you put the bull by the horns and you get everybody on the same page, so we can be where we want to be. Come January, forget November to get December, where we want to be come January
Allen is also pleased with how the team has responded since the 26-20 loss in the Outback Bowl back in January, but it will be the next months that are the most critical. “These last couple weeks have been really big.” Allen said. “The eight weeks prior to that were massive with our team because of all that we did not get to do with them in the weight room with our strength staff, so that has to continue. We talk about the cumulative effect of our physical and mental preparation, which ultimately leads to the cumulative effect of our physical and mental toughness throughout a game. We are building that right now. We will be building that through the next several months. It is a critical time for us and we have to maximize it. The 2021 football team will be indicative of how well we maximize this current time.”