Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: Week 3 Louisville Cardinals
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Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Indiana head coach Tom Allen took to the podium on Monday after the Hoosiers 41-7 win over Indiana State and ahead of IU’s Saturday matchup against the Louisville Cardinals at Lucas Oil Stadium.
NOTES:
Injuries:
The following players were all ruled OUT prior to Friday’s game. An updated availability report will be out Saturday at 10am.
5 Dexter Williams II
9 Jamier Johnson
Players of the Week:
Offensive Player of the Week
Omar Cooper (WR)
Defensive Player of the Week
Lanell Carr (DE)
Nic Toomer (CB)
Special Teams
Jamison Kelly (DB)
Sean Wracher (LS)
Scout Team Players of the Week
Josh Witt and Jackson Wasserstrom (Offense)
Finn Walters and Aaron Stewart (Defense)
Jaz Boykin (Special Teams)
TOM ALLEN QUOTES:
Opening Statement:
“Good morning. Appreciate everybody being here. Just follow-up from our game on Friday. Just solid performance by our guys. Thought it was a good next step for us. Build off the positives, correct the mistakes.
Feel like our offense got in a good rhythm. And, so, move the football and score points. Did have a lull by both units in the second quarter that I already addressed. Not happy about that. But I thought the guys responded well in the second half.
I thought that effort was what you want. Just gotta stay locked in and focused throughout the course of the whole game, in regards to that. But I thought our guys did some good things. Obviously cleaned up the penalties. Went through and evaluated each one of them.
When you talk about the aggressive nature of some of them and also just the elimination of the two running into the kickers, unacceptable, can't happen. They were stupid when I mentioned it the other night and they're still stupid. And then kicking the ball out of bounds, that just can't happen. So that will be corrected.
And then just playing aggressive, physical football is the key.
Just also wrapping up the game, think about our scout team guys that give us a great look each week. I like to recognize those guys each week. Finn Walters and Aaron Stewart, our defensive scouts of the week. Josh Witt and Jackson Wasserstrom were the offensive scouts of the week. And Jaz Boykin was our special teams scout player of the week. So those five young men and many others continue to help us get ready each week.
Players of the game. Omar Cooper was our offensive player of the game. Really, encouraged, excited, not surprised, really good football player, and he had an opportunity to break out, make a lot of plays and be rewarded for doing things the right way each and every day.
Defensively Lanell Carr and Nic Toomer were our defensive players of the game. Lanell continues to make explosive plays and be a dynamic run stopper and pass rusher. And Nic obviously with a very important interception there in the red zone on fourth down.
And Nick has really continued to play well for us. And really encouraged by his progress and learning our system.
And special teams players of the game, Jamison Kelly, really excited about what he brings to us, our cover unit. His athleticism and effort and toughness and tackling ability is really important for those. And Sean Wracher, just steady, does his job, leads our special teams units and did a great job with that.
So just excited about the opportunity we have with the Louisville Cardinals coming up here in a neutral-site game, Lucas Oil Stadium. Love that venue, great place to play football.
And obviously familiar with Coach Brohm and his staff, coaches that we coached against these last several years when they were at Purdue. And so a lot of familiarity with them both personally as well as in what they do.
And so really good football team. A lot of talent. A lot of athleticism, physical football team. Played really hard and they're coming into this game 2-0. And excited about the opportunity we have this week to continue to develop as a program, grow this team and continue to get better.
Obviously we've made a decision with our quarterback, you go through, like we said in the beginning, and you go through this process. And it has been a process to go through and did not feel like we had a distinct individual at the end of fall camp. So made the decision to go into the first two games.
And so have had a chance to do that, evaluate all the film, be able to go through this and be able to pick the one that we feel like is going to allow us to be able to be our best on game day.
And the one thing I will say, said it earlier, continue to say it even after the second game, we've got two quarterbacks that I believe can both successfully lead our program and do great things on game day.
But Tayven Jackson is going to be our starting quarterback. Excited for the opportunity for him. And excited for Brendan to be able to be in this role and together they'll do great things for us in 2023. Questions.”
On What Separated Tayven Jackson in the QB Race:
“I felt like we needed to get to just full game evaluation because it was so close and to be able to see, okay, who moves the ball down the field and scores points. That's really what it comes down to at the end of the day, and there's a field presence you have during games. Practice is important. We know that, and we evaluate that and how you handle things.
But there's nothing like the game, the ebbs and flows of the game, motions of the game. I felt like there was just a poise to that part of it and an ability to move our team down the field.
At the end of the day, that's really what it comes down to, being able to score points. And I think both guys can do it at a high level, I really do. I think you saw that from both of them. Obviously two different opponents we're playing, but at the same time I think at the end of the day you've got to make a decision.
And I'll say it was close without question, but at the same time this is where we are. I'm excited about the decision moving forward.”
On the Point the Decision Became Clear:
“ I would say on Saturday, after you had a chance to go back. I always want to make sure, you know -- I wasn't going to make a decision when we walked off the field. I wanted to be able to see the film, see everything, take a deep breath, evaluate it, and just make sure we were all on the same page, which we are.
So Saturday was the day you make that decision. And both players, yesterday, told them together, face to face, at the same time. Because we've been this way since the beginning with these two.
So we told them -- we first made the decision about playing each one of them, did it together, and made this decision with them and talked them through it together.
Excited about the way they're handling it because I know they both want to be the guy. I get that. You're competitive. You want to be in this position. But Tayven knows he's got to perform, and Brendan knows he's got to be ready. That's the reality of competition and performing at an elite level. Saturday was the day the decision was made and we communicated it yesterday.”
On the Trust he Has in Matt Guerrieri:
“I do trust him, and I think that's probably the best way to start. That trust is earned. I trust him as a person first, which is why I hired him. I think he's a high-character guy that is a hard worker, is going to do things to represent us in a first-class way on and off the field. That means a lot to me. Talking ball with him all these years, I knew he was a good fit with us in that regard.
And, honestly, when I had like two or three things I was looking to add to our defense, when I was going through the interview process, and he was able to bring some of those with him as we talked at that point and now to bring them into what we're doing schematically.
I wanted to bring someone in to learn our stuff and then add to it. And that would allow us to really take this where I knew I needed to take it to.
I just feel like he's very, very thorough, extremely bright, humble guy that listens to his assistants. I sit in on most of the meetings, between that and offense, going back and forth.
But I feel like I can walk out of there and he'll update me on what's been either added or adjusted or whatever. And feel really good about it and I can bring things to him. He always does a great job of articulating exactly why we're trying to do some things a certain way.
But it's been a real good fit so far. I think he's great on game day. He's a great communicator. Does a good job -- he's up in the press box with several of our coaches -- but making adjustments.
They do a good job of identifying things. Even during that long drive we were able to make some adjustments and things we've got to be able to do to get off the field. They were doing some good things schematically on a couple of things against us.
Just gotta keep building it, getting the guys to play hard, getting guys to buy in. I think our back end as a whole group, corners included, as a group give him credit for that. It's got to continue. And Coach Shelby has done a great job.
He's a really good teacher and he's a really good -- has the ability to capture the whole room and make guys feel a part of it as a staff, which is critical in that role.
I think that I have high expectations for are our defense, and it all starts up front. But I think he's doing a good job of taking the skill sets of the guys we've added to our team and trying to highlight those, and that's what we're going to continue to do.
And obviously got a big, big test coming up this week. So feel good about where we are, but we've got a lot of work to do and he knows that. We've got to keep elevating our defense each week.
On the Familiar Matchup with Jeff Brohm:
“First of all, he's an excellent play caller. Followed his team for many years. He's one of the best in the whole country.
And the good play callers usually they have a great feel. It's timing of when to call things. And he has a system, and they're not gone away from that. But obviously adapts it to the personnel each year. It's always a little different based off of that.
And they've got a really, really talented receiver corps, two really good running backs and a good quarterback that knows the system. Obviously recruited him to Purdue. Plummer is a big athletic, quarterback with a big arm. And they love to stretch the field vertically, and they also stretch it horizontally.
And they're running the football a lot better in these first two games than maybe they have in the past places he's been, which puts more pressure on your defense, without question.
So you're looking at both. You're trying to go through and figure out, matching personnel. You obviously put a lot of stock in the first couple of games, but at the same time it's holistic. It's big picture. And it's trying to teach concepts because you don't really know, have a whole lot of data for this year yet. You have one game and maybe half of a second game to really look at to be able to see this is where they want to be able to do things. But going to be a lot of in-game adjustments for us.
But just gotta a ton of respect for Coach Brohm and the job he does offensively. He's a special play caller.”