Nick Sheridan Just “Excited” for Football

Written by Matt Smith

Offensive coordinator has never coached in front of fans during his tenure at IU. The season opener on Saturday against Iowa will be the first game he will have a full stadium of screaming fans.

“It’s gonna be awesome, I’m excited for our players, I’m excited for their players, I’m just excited for college football,” Sheridan said in a press conference on Monday. “It’s going to be an incredible environment and I’m just thankful that the players get to experience it.”

 This year the Hoosiers open up against a Big Ten team, which is something that head coach Tom Allen is used to, but most of the players are not in a normal year.

“I think it really sharpens your focus and grabs your attention when you have such a great opponent during the first week, we recognize that the margin for error is small in this league and certainly in opening games it is even smaller, and I think it is a good thing,” Sheridan said.

According to Sheridan, the urgency for the Hoosiers has always been high, but opening up against Iowa pushes the urgency even more. In addition, IU will find out a lot about their team during the opening game as it is a big test.

As far as Saturday, the game plan and play scripting going into it is something that a lot of people have a say in.

“We usually collaborate towards the end of the week as a staff on what our favorite plays are. We also communicate with the quarterback on what he likes and what he feels more comfortable with,” Sheridan said.

To continue, transfer Stephen Carr was announced the starting running back for Saturday. Indiana’s rushing offense last season was something that needed a lot of improvement and they will meet a big test on Saturday as Iowa is usually one of the top run stoppers in the Big Ten.

“Talk is cheap right now as far as the progress we made and certainly in the first game we’ll get a much better sense of where we stand and the things we improved on and the things we continue to work on,” Sheridan said.

As far as Carr, Sheridan said that his “maturity,” is one of the things that has impressed him the most.

Carr will need to have the offensive line improve as well, one thing that has helped the group improve is that they are veterans and have worked and bonded with each other over the spring, summer, and fall. Sheridan also expressed how important their performance is to the Hoosiers success.