Picking Up Each Other and Holding Each Other Accountable Will Go a Long Way

Image: Mike Schumann, The Daily Hoosier

Written by: @zachegreene

The message early on in fall-camp was Coach Allen and his staff were going to hold players as well as themselves more accountable than last year, and Friday night’s win showed just that.

There were a couple of instances that showed coaches holding their players more accountable, but players are holding each other accountable and picking each other up.

At the 12-minute mark during the 4th quarter of Friday Night’s game Senior, Taiwan Mullen picked up a crucial Pass Inference call to set up the Illini at the Hoosiers 6 yard line.

“After that play, Cam Jones told us, bow up and let’s get a stop. And that’s exactly what happened. Taiwan knows that can’t happen, but we moved onto the next play and got a stop.” McCoullough explained.

Dasan McCoullough a true freshman said this was the message in the huddle following the play. Guess who said it Cam Jones.

This season, there is a entirely different feel in the locker room and players are picking up there teammates. We didn’t see last season.  

It would’ve been easy for the unit to let the Illini score, but Mullen’s penalty only motivated them even more to pick him up.

Another play happened a little bit earlier in the game. At the 3-minute mark in the 3rd quarter QB Tommy DeVito threw a behind the line of scrimmage pass and then Cornerback Noah Pierre put a big hit on the Illini receiver.

He had this to say about the hit.

“I told Shaun Shivers that I had to get them back for the hit. To make up for it.” Pierre said.

The play he is referring to is the first play of the game when Shivers took a big hit by the Illini cornerback Witherspoon. It blew up on social media and it felt good for Pierre to pick up his teammate.

Going forward, this is an amazing sign that success is going to come, but it will be hard for the players to not get too far ahead of themselves with Idaho and Western Kentucky coming up next.  

The message remains clear. “One game at a time”