Spring Practice Report 3/31/15

Written By: Nick Holmes (@HoosierHuddle)

Champions are made during the spring, a motto all successful football programs take to heart. Coach Wilson and the Hoosiers were on gridiron Tuesday morning working hard to hone their skills in preparation for this upcoming season. During this beautiful, slightly breezy, spring day the energy was high as the players went head-to-head in both drills and some situational scrimmage work. The scrimmage revealed no obvious winners, as the offense would break off a big run and the defense would counter by stuffing the next play at the line of scrimmage.

In addition to taking in some game action, a couple of offensive coaches and players spoke to the media following practice. Here are some of the highlights from the interviews.

Offensive Coordinator Kevin Johns on having Senior Quarterback Nate Sudfeld back on the field, “Good, it’s good to have him back. His leadership is something we can’t put a price tag on right now. But he’s doing well…he’s got a little different sense of urgency about him, I think this year. Just knowing this is his last year. But it’s definitely good to have him out.”

Running Backs Coach Deland McCullough talked about Jordan Howard’s transition to playing for the Hoosiers.  “Well I think the tempo is something he’s got to adjust to, we go fast. Running the ball is running ball. I think again getting used to my coaching style, and just the demands and high standards that we have. He’s got high standards for himself, but I’m trying to pull everything I can up out of this guy. I think he’s going to be a great player, along with the rest of the guys."

He also talked about how Howard has looked so far, “The guy’s good man, he’s got some juice. Again, just getting him (comfortable) with the finer points of how we do things here. You put him in these live situations and you can tell he played. He’s got good body control, he’s got good body lean, he knows how to pass protect, so this is a guy who played at a high level.”

Anthony Corsaro talked about how the program has evolved since he arrived in Bloomington, “It’s insane honestly, I remember when I first got here during 7-on-7, there’s no coaches here and all that. Now there’s such more a culture of players holding other players accountable. Whereas, if somebody did something wrong or something wasn’t going on right, it was always the coach that had to say hey, that’s not how we do it, this is how we do it now. It’s the players self-governing the whole team. A whole more culture of accountability and the talent level has gone way up since when I first arrived."

Sophomore wide receiver Simmie Cobbs discussed how winter conditioning went, “We had a great offseason. I definitely improved with numbers weight-lifting wise, been getting better with my flexibility, agility. Definitely had a great offseason."

He also talked about who has stepped into the leadership role after the graduation of three veteran receivers, “Damon Graham, Ricky Jones, they’re our seniors. Mitchell Paige, Danny Dunn, they are stepping up too. They are definitely holding that leadership role because they’ve been here for a while and so our sophomores, freshmen, and juniors are looking up to them."

The Hoosiers take the practice field again tomorrow. Look for more practice updates in the next few days.