Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: 10/12/20

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head football coach Tom Allen met with the media via Zoom on Monday to talk about preseason scrimmage number two, injuries, position battles and what keeps him up at night as he prepares his team for the 2020 season.

Notes:

- Indiana’s season opener is scheduled for 3:30pm on Saturday, October 24th and will be televised on FS1.

- “Kahlil Benson has confirmed torn ACL, so he will be out. He is a true freshman, but unfortunately, he will be out for the season. He will be having surgery here soon. I hate that for him, but he is an awesome young man and we have big plans for him. He is going to be very good player for us and that has that has not changed and will not change. We have to get him through all that, help him grow and develop to overcome this adversity.”

Tom Allen Quotes:

Opening Statement:

“Good afternoon everyone, appreciate you guys joining us. To wrap up Saturday, to start with, it was at a biggest scrimmage of the fall camp. It was extremely productive. I had a goal going in and being able to have about 50 snaps for our ones and twos, to be able to give them some live goes. It is extremely important in this process of our development, and a lot of good things very competitive back and forth both sides making plays. It did feel like we had a few more penalties than we did the first time that need to get cleaned up. Both sides had some mistakes, but we were still in the installation mode of things. That has ceased now as everything is of the mindset of fine-tuning what we have and then start working into Penn State here later in the week.
Some guys that stuck out to me, Jovan Swinton continues to make plays. I am really encouraged by his consistency at this point, Luke Shayotovich catches the ball extremely well and consistently, he gets open, so he is really catching my eye. Jacolby Hewitt had a really good day. I am really excited for him because he has worked extremely hard. David Baker, so I have listed several receivers there, but David Baker made some plays in the team session in practice I just left. Those young guys are coming along, developing, learning the offense and making plays. I thought that Harry Crider continues to be so consistent at center and the anchor. We are really encouraged by him. We have really good competition going on guard. Dylan Powell, Mackenzie Nworah and Mike Katic, all three of those guys are really battling every day. They are all going to play, but I really like the way they are competing right now. It gives us a chance to get the best guys on the field. Defensively, Devon Matthews, I was really encouraged by his continued growth. I thought he made some key plays we needed to have made by him. His development and playing in the secondary. Jovan Swann continues to improve. He has come here as a guy that is a very mature player, but it is a new system. Seeing him this last week increase his production, increase his execution, understanding what we are trying to do with him. Aaron Casey stuck out to me a linebacker. That is a group is very solid but he is the one that stuck out to me that did a great job of getting his run fits, making his reads, being very decisive, making tackles and doing some really good things.”

On Tackling in the Scrimmage and Early in the Season:

“I got a text message during one of the games on Saturday night questioning the defenses in the country right now and the struggles that they are having across the board. It is definitely real. It is real on Sundays, real on Saturdays and you can see it unfolding in front of us. I did not think we tackled as well Saturday, not as well as we did that first scrimmage. We went double the amount of plays, so we are going to have more opportunities. It was not bad, but it was definitely something we worked on it today. We are going to work on it every day, like we have been. That is always a concern. We are talking about two, three, four hours however long the game is going to last of live tackling that you can never really simulate. Like I said, we had a certain number of snaps we tried to get to on Saturday, but that still does not equal the number of snaps that you are going to get on a game day. That is a concern and I think the overall stamina and conditioning. You can tell that the defenses in some of the games I watched are fatigued. It becomes so difficult to be able to concentrate, make checks, communicate with the guys and get in good position when your body is worn down. Making critical stops and tackles in space and all those kinds of things. I think the nature of offenses continues to get harder and harder. The way they read everything with the triple option mindset of everything from RPOs to where everything is read and react offensively to what you are doing, defensively. From an offensive perspective, they always feel like they have the extra answer to the equation, oftentimes they do with the way the game is being played. I think it makes it hard for defenses. All those things combined together… we have talked about in the past about the challenges of getting teams ready during CIVID-19. Defensively, it is the physicality part of it, it is hitting both sides of the ball. We have lifted more during this preparation period than we have in the past, trying to get our bodies ready. They just have to go do it. There are no ramp-up games. I have said that many times as well. All these things are repeated, but it is all true for us and it is true for everybody else in the country. The one advantage we have is we have been able to have a chance to watch some of these games being played and try to use those mistakes others have made and help prevent our guys from making the same mistakes. Also, us coaches are trying to prevent some of those same issues.”

On Current Position Battles Heading Down the Stretch:

“I think that [the guard spot] for sure is one I mentioned. I think the linebacker spot, as well. We have several guys and they are all going to have to play, without question, but who plays in what situations and what role they have. We have three middle linebackers with Micah McFadden, James Miller and Thomas Allen. Those three guys have all played a lot football for us and give us some position flexibility. We feel we have five guys that can all play the mike position. I mentioned, Aaron Casey, who I thought did a great job this past Saturday, and Cam Jones is also at that weak side linebacker position. Those five guys give us the most amount of experience. That is going to be competitive and continue to be. Their attention to detail, how well they run the defense, how well they hit the run fits… they are all going to have to play. All the things we are talking about with special teams, the tackling piece, keeping guys fresh. Those are probably the biggest, most competitive ones. In the secondary we have guys competing for spots there. At running back we have three, four guys there that we feel can all make plays. Those are highly competitive positions. Those guys are all going to get their snaps. When they get those opportunities, whoever is the hot guy, or whatever the guy that is playing the best will be getting the most reps on game day.”

On the Increased Physicality of the Defensive Line:

“There are multiple variables. Number one, we have a lot of guys back from a year ago at that position. When I go through and watch previous games. it shows up in how many guys that we have that have played a lot of football out there. I think getting another year maturity helps. I think some things we are doing technically with Kevin Peoples and some of the things that we have adapted to what he has brought to us is helped us in that in that regard. It needs to show up on game day, without question. I think the guys just being a year stronger in the weight room. I know it was an interrupted preparation, but we had eight full weeks of a winter workout that we got completed before spring ball started, and then tried to do everything we could not get a drop off during the pandemic. Now we have had this chance, we have actually lifted three days a week, this entire time. This is the first week that we're going to go back to two lifts and more of a game week schedule. It has been an emphasis. We felt like we had to get more physical at those positions, the point of attack. We knew what we had coming in. Nine-straight Big 10 games without a bye and all the opponents are going to be within conference. I am hoping that what we are seeing is legit and it shows up on game day.”

On Concerns that are Lingering Ahead of the Opener Against Penn State:

“The defense overall probably had some advantages where they would have won some of those situations. When I say that, there was definitely back and forth. For instance, one group went through and drove down the field and the defense held them to a field goal, that is a win for the defense. In today's game, if you force a field goal, that is a win. The twos went down and scored touchdown, so that is 50/50. They were both long drives. Both sides had penalties that kind of assisted or resisted in the in the drive itself. We had some red zone work, and once again, when you hold them to a field goal. I felt like it was pretty balanced and you go back and forth. From an objective perspective, I did not like that we missed some tackles on defense. I thought we jumped offsides too many times on defense, but we did not have any illegal procedures on offense, so I would give the edge to the offense for the overall scrimmage, but it was definitely back and forth. We had the officials there, which was very good to be able to get that, we simulated the crowd noise, which is very good. We are expecting to be able to have to our loudspeaker system in our stadium and every setting that we will be in this season. We are one of the few sports that does not have a preseason game. I have coached in smaller divisions of college where we did have preseason games. It is always the same game one nerves that you have because we have not played a game since the bowl game. The whole execution piece, the tackling piece makes you nervous going against somebody else, especially to someone of Penn State's caliber. They are going to have some of the best running backs in the country, some of the best receivers, tight ends and skill guys and then defensively, some of the best pass rushers in the country, great athletes in the secondary and a very active linebacker corps. They have elite specialists, they get great specialists that have great legs. Covering kicks, you don not really do those live. That is always a big one for me. They always have had great returners. Those are the kind of things that make me not sleep at night and be pretty restless. That has been growing as kickoff gets closer, but that is not that unusual because of what we are dealing with is first game, normal concerns but then I think they are heightened because of the amount of time that we have been apart and not being able to do game-like things full bore as much as you would like before you play a team like Penn State.”