Wilson Urges Defensive Coaches to 'Get More Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable'

Hoosier head coach Kevin Wilson fired a shot across the bow of his defensive staff after Saturday's ugly performance. Image: BleacherReport

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head football coach Kevin Wilson didn't mince words when criticizing the defensive performance in his teams's 48-47 season-opening victory over Southern Illinois. He came out and said he has told his defensive staff "for several weeks is that you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. I made a comment to the defensive coaches, I think you should go to practice without a script, feel how unprepared you are and now solve your problems," essentially throwing them under the bus.

The Hoosier defense was dominated for three quarters of their opener, surrendering 47 points and a mind blowing 659 yards to a Football Championship Subdivision foe. Even more concerning was the fact that IU had just one sack and two tackles for a loss.

Wilson was extremely critical of his defensive coaches saying, "I think the way we practice. We like to choreograph everything. I don't think the game is choreographed. Defense is trained reaction. You have these battle plans. First play, wad it up and throw it away because the plan never works. You have to adjust."

Wilson believes the errors the defense committed against Southern Illinois are basic communication errors and has challenged the coaches to "go out there with(out) all the answers. Go out there with no info. What happens now is you get on your heels, you get static. Calls get in late, there's missed communication because you're in a reactionary mode."

Indiana should be getting back the services of Tegray Scales, Darius Latham, and Ralph Green for their next game against Florida International (1-0) and that should provide a boost, but ultimately it will be up to Wilson and his defensive staff to make the adjustments necessary to clean up the communication errors that happened Saturday afternoon. Defensive coordinator Brian Knorr was not made available to the media on Monday.

Other Notes:

• Cornerback Rashard Fant is listed day-to-day after taking a knee to the head late in the game Saturday
• No new news of safety Chase Dutra
• Tight end Jordan Fuchs was unavailable Saturday vs. Southern Illinois after missing several practices due to injury.