Notes and Quotes From Tom Allen's Media Monday: Week Three vs. No. 23 Michigan

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen met with the media for his weekly in-season press conference following the win at Rutgers and ahead of facing No. 23 Michigan on Saturday.

Notes:

- Hoosier kicker Charles Campbell was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week as well as a Lou Groza Award Star of the Week.

- Indiana will kick off at 12pm on either ABC or ESPN2 against Michigan State on Saturday, November 14th in the Battle for the Old Brass Spittoon.

Tom Allen Quotes:

Opening Statement:

“Alright just want to welcome everybody. Appreciate you being here. Just proud of our football team for going on the road and taking care of business. A little sloppier than I would have liked for it to have been. Too many penalties but did have a lot of positives. Thought our kids competed hard. Played really hard for each other and defensively, playing through takeaways is a big, big deal. So, talk about after the game and go back and watch everything, led to 17 points, which is huge. Did not start as fast offensively neither half like we need to so we have to address that, but we continue to play well in the red zone. And that's a key element of our success as well. Just being able to get off the field, defensively and get our offense in position to make plays. On special teams was solid, but the kickoff return we did not cover effectively. But they have an excellent partner. And does a great job of spreading that ball around. It was an issue for us a year ago to address that and keep that ball secured, it was important for field position. Charles Campbell, kicking three field goals, he got the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week, which congratulations to him. He's done a great job for so far. But, just really hats off to Coach Greg Schiano. Excellent football coach and really see a big difference in the team since he has been there in a short time. He will do a great job. A lot of respect for him and knew it was going to be a tough challenge to go there and find a way to keep winning football games. I think as we talked to our team a lot of things to clean up. Have not played our best football, yet. Need to start getting some of these mistakes corrected but I thought we made progress. We have addressed and continue to tackle well. Can you play really hard physical point of attack? Inside the Football I think defensively it's improving and offensively we showed signs as well. Staying on our blocks, seeing more of that but things that we addressed and worked on this week, I thought our guys responded well. Once we dropped a few balls there in the beginning, caught the ball much better. Probably the second half of the first quarter on Michael Penix Jr. got in rhythm and gave him some time and he did a great job. So, encouraged by the way our guys responded after a big win week one, making sure we stayed locked in and focused and I thought the guys did a good job of that. So, just go here and list some guys from the game. Just so you guys know we go through and pick players of the game. And so, offensive player of the game was Peyton Hendershot. A couple touchdowns and just really blocked well and had a complete game. Really challenged him to step up after week one. He sure did that so we are proud of Peyton. Jaylin Williams was our defensive player of the game and several guys were candidates for that. Got another interception, tackled extremely well. I thought Reese Taylor played, I told him I thought he played his best game as Hoosier, overall and just really coming into his own as a corner in our program. Jaylin was our player of the game, defensively. Then special teams was Charles Campbell with what he did with all the PATs. Every point matters every single game. It is a very, very important part of what we are doing here with special teams. So, proud of those guys and also for our scouts, the effort that they give us each and every week. The scout team player of the week was Damarjhe Lewis, very talented freshmen that I see just continue to get better every single week. Cameron Williams did a great job as well, to improve. Ryan Barnes was our offensive scout team player of the week and just love his effort. Love his unselfish mindset as somebody who is helping his team get better every single day but he has bought into that and special team scout, was Joseph Daniels Jr. Just another guy that continues to work hard. High character young man, excellent student. Those things drag on and off the field. Those guys just give great effort. Several guys, we are mentioning some guys that just overall play hard in practice. Connor Hole, McCall Ray, DeKaleb Thomas and Jeremy Boyd. Guys just busting their tails for this team. Unselfish, living out L-E-O. Helping us get better every day. So, that is what it is going to take. Excited to welcome the Michigan Wolverines to campus on Saturday for a noon kickoff. Ton of respect for Jim Harbaugh and the kind of coach that he is, kind of talent that they have on that football team. One of the top programs in this country. Top-25 program and have to keep getting better every single time we take the field. So, big challenge for us this week as we have a chance to go for opportunity number three.”

On the Trust He has in the Secondary:

“Yeah, that is really important for us. You want to be multiple schematically and I think that is one thing we have really tried to become more of as a defense and take some less pressure off certain calls and techniques. I think that with their ability to play man and zone with both our safeties and our corners. That is a super positive thing for us and I just love the way they are tackling. I thought Monster, Devon Matthews, we call him Monster, but man, I thought he played really, really well. Tackled so well. He can cover. Big physical guy. He has got great range. Jamar Johnson, I know he has got a lot of notoriety for his interceptions, but I thought he played his best game, yet since he has been here on Saturday and just doing everything that he is asked to do like the discipline. Just eyes. They (Rutgers) did a lot of stuff, now. I mean they there was trick plays and motion in the empty and back and forth at quarterback runs, two quarterbacks in there at one time and just doing all sorts. They do a lot of things and a lot of movements and misdirection and you can get your eyes in the wrong place really fast if you are not careful, not locked in. That is where I thought our guys even though I was disappointed that our defense did not finish and put them away in the fourth quarter like I thought we should, something we have addressed and really work hard on but I did think that they did a really good job in the back end of being discipline and being able to play multiple things to be able to protect us on some calls and be more aggressive on others. You see how much we brought those DBs and continued. That is just what we do. We are an aggressive defense and so those guys give us that confidence to make those calls that you are alluding to and just really proud of them. Kane Wommack has done a great job orchestrating all that and just kind of making it into what it is becoming and I think that Jason Jones and Brandon Shelby and Kasey Teegardin all three of those guys coach different positions within our secondary. So, big part of our defense. It is a talented group and there is many of them there. Already mentioned a few but Tiawan Mullen made a couple mistakes that he usually does not make but he also made some great, great plays. So, just proud of that group and their play is allowing us to keep becoming a better defense every time we take the field.”

On Nick Sheridan’s Performance Through Two Games:

“I think he has done a really good job. There is always growing pains through learning and doing something for the first time and I feel like that he has adapted. Things go a little differently from week one to week two, even from the first half to the second half. I thought they did a good job of adjusting. I still want to make sure we can find a way to start faster in each of those halves. Just some subtle adjustments. It is a lot of times not major things that you are able to tweak or dial a certain direction at halftime or week to week. That is the differences is oftentimes those small, subtle things and this is right. Play calling to me is an art, it is not a science that you can do all the study, you can do all the prep you give all the data but just calling, knowing what to call, when to call it at the right time is a big part of this. I have as a defensive play caller, with time, you get better and you learn. He is an extremely intelligent, super, super sharp, bright young man that he will learn and adapt and grow each and every week I believe in and that is part of it.

That is why you hire guys like that you know have the talent, they just need the opportunity and then also just give them that that freedom and leeway to be able to grow and learn and we meet and we talk and we talked again last night about certain things. And so just feel like it is just about continuing to find ways to stay on the field and get your playmakers the football. That is really what it comes down to, offensively. Most efficiency in the red zone is huge. We have gotten better on third downs, has not been an area that we have been good enough and right now, I want to see us continue to work on running the football better. We had some good runs and did some good things in the run game at key times but it is just there is a lot of variables that go into that and I just talked a little sloppy, the penalties and snap over quarterback's head. We had not had one of those since I have been here that I can remember. And those things do not happen very often.

And so, we killed that drive and some penalties really set us back and did not allow us to finish with touchdowns. We still got points on those red zone trips but we still need to continue to get more touchdowns. So, that is really the key. I just think as he continues to grow and you develop trust in certain players as they prove that they are dependable, they know where to line up, they execute when called upon, that is a big deal. He develops that trust in them as a play caller and the quarterback builds that trust in them as receivers, tight ends, running backs and you are going to catch the football and eliminate those drops and so that is just part of his growth and his leadership.

I think he does a tremendous job. I see it in all those meetings. Especially, we have a unit meeting, which is a whole offense, the day after the game or it was day after yesterday because of the different schedule this week with the voting tomorrow and usually it is a day after we have an off day on Sunday and so, whenever we meet that first time, just does a great job of teaching from the game and using video, just really doing a great job of articulating the things that we need to address in the right way, the right tone. Accountability, toughness and love, which is just, you talk about your core values, those core values do not just stick out there for recruiting purposes or when I talk to the public. It is how you function on daily basis and so to me our meetings should reflect that. How he leaves the office should reflect that, how Coach Wommack leads the defense should reflect that and how Kasey leads the special teams should reflect those core values and how we talk to our players and hold them accountable in a very hard, tough way. It is just wrapped up into an understanding that it is out of love and what we want is all of us to be at our best. So, I think he does a great job of that. I have been encouraged by that. And I expect him to leave that way. And I think that is why you will see us continue pretty true.”

Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan Quotes

On Getting the Run Game Going:

“It is always an emphasis and it is always something that is important to us. It is easy when you evaluate the run game to say that the offensive line issue but that is not always the case. It is a collective effort. Coaches making sure that the plays that are being ran are putting our players in the best chance to be successful relative to the box count, the front, or the pressure that you are going against so it starts with us. Obviously, the offensive line has a large part to do with it on how they are blocking and executing. The running backs making sure they are making the right cuts and right reads. The tight ends making sure they are blocking their guys. The quarterback making sure that he is making the right checks or the right read, so it is a full unit task and job. We feel like we made some improvements in the second game compared to the first game, but still feel like we have more to do and more work to be had. That will always be an important part of what we are trying to do here. Then the other thing is you have got to give credit to the teams who have gone against you. I think Rutgers held Michigan State to 60 yards rushing in the first game. As a team, we had a 20-yard minus play when we snapped the ball over the quarterback's head. That is not helpful. It is a collective effort that starts with us as a staff and me specifically making sure that we are running the ball into good looks. We will continue to chop and continue to try to get better at it because it will be important. In this league, especially this year, you are going to have to be able to run the football because the weather is starting to turn. It will be important and we will continue to emphasize it. We saw improvement and we saw the guys get better in the second game than they were in the first game so that is really what we are focused on right now.”

Defensive Coordinator Kane Wommack Quotes

On Tiawan Mullen’s Blitzing and Tackling Ability:

“To me he is a guy that is crafty and explosive. He blitzes about two inches off the ground so he is hard to pick up. That can always be a difficult thing as well when you play low and fast. You find creative ways to get in the backfield. Obviously, from that husky position, he calls it the nickelback position, he will not call the husky, so the nickelback for him. With that position for him we can get him more involved in our rush game so that just allows us to be a little bit more creative with him.”

On the Play of IU’s Cornerbacks:

“I honestly think a lot of people overlooked that of our defensive production, on third downs in particular, last week. It allows you to just be able to do more things than just play zone coverage. When we pressured, we were able to mix some of the man-to-man and zone concepts, but when we played man, we were on and we stayed on him. To me, a lot of credit to the takeaways that we got, certainly the sacks and just simple pressure that we got on the quarterback pretty much the whole game, is a credit to what those guys are doing on the back end. Certainly, they are gifted but their skillset is really honed in right now. They are doing a good job of communicating with each other off of rubs and picks so I feel like we are in a good place in terms of what we are trying to get accomplished from a man standpoint.”

On Michigan Quarterback Joe Milton:

“I am pleased in a lot of ways where we are as a defense. To me there is a fine line between wanting to acknowledge the things that you do well, praise the things that you have done well up to this point and yet being relentless in the detail of fixing things that need to be fixed. There are some things that I am excited about in our pass defense, and certainly there are some things that we got to continue to evolve in as the season goes on. The more things that we put on film are going to give more data for the offense to look at, try to expose, so we got to adapt and adjust as always in games and I think we have players that can do that. Looking on to Joe Milton, you are talking a big body that has the dual threat ability. He can make all the throws on the field, and he is getting better as a decision maker. To me, the name of the game, nowadays, is quarterbacks that can extend plays with their feet. We have one of the perfect examples of that in Michael Penix Jr. over the last couple of weeks. I think Joe Milton is a player that can extend plays with his feet and can get the first down when he needs to. That will be a challenge that honestly, we have just grown accustomed to. Seems like every quarterback nowadays can do something with their feet.”