BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana head coach Tom Allen met the media on Thursday over Zoom to provide his final updates ahead of IU's trip to Penn State this weekend.
Above is his full Q&A.
Partial Transcript
On how the week of practice has gone...
TA: I do like the response and the way they worked each day. I challenged our leadership guys in different areas: the guys who run our offense, run our defense, run our special teams, and you know, run the team in different groups and be able to challenge [their teammates] to rise up. Also, just talk to them about life and how you battle through difficult times, stay the course, and stay together, what that means and what that looks like. I like the way they responded and now we have to prove it on gameday. We have to come together and play our best football with another big challenge ahead of us this Saturday. It is about locking arms, staying together, and continuing to fight.
On Dexter Williams II status moving forward...
TA: I do think [managing expectation] is important. You just have open lines of communication, which is important. He continues to grow in his reps. His preparation each week he continues to expand as we move closer to getting him ready to play. I care a lot about what he thinks and where he is at himself and how he views himself and where he feels comfortable. We are not stopping that process and continuing to grow that. He did some more things this week than he did last week, so we continue to build off of that. The plan is to continue on that progress.
On if last season's late-year win at Michigan State can provide any motivation to this year's team ...
TA: I believe so. I think from the way our guys just dug deep, made some adjustments and guys stepped up - guys like Dexter [Williams II] stepped up, a guy that hadn't been playing as much. And we made some adjustments schematically to give us a chance. Then, guys in that game, you just think about the adversity of the game in being down and coming back, and all three phases were part of the win. We needed all three phases to come up and make plays at critical times on the road against a team that was playing for a whole lot. [Michigan State] was playing for a bowl game and playing for a trophy and all of the different things that went into that. No doubt that was a culture win with a lot of key guys that weren't able to play. Just the grit that we showed in that moment is definitely something to draw from and continue to draw from, and many guys on this current team were at that game or played in that game. Without question, we just have to continue to find ways and methods to motivate and challenge our guys. We are excited to see guys step up when they get opportunities, which this weekend is a tremendous opportunity to do just that.
On assessing the run defense...
TA: Definitely a major focus. You look at their run game and they are one of the tops in the Big Ten with two talented running backs. Have to do a great job fitting our gaps. To me it is the ability to make some schematic adjustments to be able to adapt to what we believe we are going to see on Saturday. Also, working on block destruction, just getting off blocks, that's a big focus for us this week. Then, just being great tacklers. We obviously missed some tackles the last couple weeks. That has been disappointing because we have been taking a lot of pride in being a great tackling team. Then, challenging our linebackers to step up and play their best football, which I did not believe they did against Rutgers. To me, there is a collective component to that, and we have to do a great job of efficiency on first down which is going to be led by how well we can stop the run and have discipline in our eyes on the play-action pass.
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