Indiana Director of Athletic Performance David Ballou, redshirt sophomore safety Bryant Fitzgerald, redshirt senior wide receiver Donavan Hale and redshirt senior cornerback Andre Brown Jr. met with the media to discuss the program's winter workouts with spring ball just around the corner.
TheHoosier.com has view and complete transcripts of their comments below.
David Ballou
You said when you came it, it wasn't where it needed to be at all. Do you feel like, a year later, the foundation, the base you guys are starting from is a lot better?
Yeah, I do. Sit here a year ago, I'm not going to lie to you, I had some concerns about where we were at and how far we had to go and the timeframe we had to do it in, so you felt like you were kind of trying to rush things. There was a sense of urgency certainly today to try to do things. But when you look at, conceptually, overall, the numbers and the data we track over time, we're in a much better position today than we were a year ago standing here. And that should be the case after being a year in the program.
We tell our guys all the time, we had some dramatic increases last year, and we tell our guys and our coaches, we should never have to have those dramatic increases ever again if you're doing the things you're supposed to do year-round and the way you train guys. We feel good about where we're at right now. Never going to feel great about anything, but we feel like we're headed in the right direction. Feel good about the work ethic, for sure.
Anything stuck out to you about the early enrollees so far?
I mean, I like them all. They're all good kids. They've all adapted well. I think all of them have come in here with the right mindset. I lived in a world down when I was down in another place in Florida where you can get egos and that kind of thing. None of those guys have that coming in. They're all good kids. They really mesh well with the team. Their work ethic has been great. We've got some good athletes in that group. We've got some guys that can bend, some athletic guys, some explosive guys and that's what you want to fill your roster with. They're fun to work with. You can't wait to get your hands on them.
You wish they all could come early, but that's not the case. Can't wait for the rest of them to get here in the summer. There's 14 guys that played a lot of snaps last year and we only had two months to get ready for a Big Ten season. It's just that, you can't wait to work with those guys but the guys that are here have done a great job.
What have you seen working with Sampson again?
Sampson's an awesome kid. I've probably known Sampson since he was in the fourth grade, the fifth grade, somewhere around there. Coached both of his brothers. He's exactly what I knew we were getting. The thing with Sampson, when he comes in, when he enters the weight room or comes in and talks to me, he has a focused look in his eyes and it never changes since he wants to be great. He has an expectation about he wants this sport to do for him and I share that. Me and him have talked a lot about that.
The way he approaches the day-to-day operation of what you have to do, is how you operate in this conference, is how you operate in how you win, it's what you need to filtrate through a roster. I've been around that. I know what that's like. It's what has to be filled within the roster. It's not just him, there's more guys, but you asked about him specifically. I love the dude. Got a chance through the whole process, me and him had a lot of really good conversations and he ended up where he needed to end up. He came to the right place because he knew we were going to take care of him. He trusted us.
We got the chance to talk to Bryant Fitzgerald, Ande Brown and Donavan Hale earlier. What have you seen out of those three specifically from winter workouts?
Andre is a completely different kid from when I came here a year ago. A complete 180. Andre's unbelievable. His work ethic, the way he approaches his business on the day to day. He's the first dude in the building when we have our 6am runs. He's in there at 5:10, 5:15. He's the first guy in the indoor, ready to roll. He's the first guy in for his lift group. he's ready to go. He attacks the weight room. His strength and power numbers are off the chart when you talk about a cornerback and the things that it should be. We don't worry too much about pounds. Power is our thing, but Andre just squatted a 540 in part of a workout on Monday. You don't typically see that in a corner. It's not like we were maxing out. It was part of his workout. Couldn't be more impressed with Andre and the way he's approached it.
Fitz is another kid I've known for a long time. Love the kid. So happy I got the chance to come back down here and work with him because I had so much fun doing it before. He's an explosive athlete, who's very coachable. You can coach Fitz and he's a very coachable kid. You can push him, you can challenge him. I know him really well, so I know how to challenge him. He responds to it. But he's another kid that has the exact right mindset, what you need to go win in this conference year after year after year. The way you approach things, the way you (set) expectations and everything. he expects himself to do big things, and he's going to because he's blessed genetically.
Has Fitzgerald always been that way?
He's always been a very outgoing (person). He's a kid that everyone's always gravitated toward because his personality is such a bright personality that people want to be around. He's never been negative anytime I've ever known him, which is why he's great to be in the room. He's great energy to be in the room, the way he trains. Fitz has always worked hard. He's always been a great athlete. I remember when I first saw the kid, I knew he was big time. I knew when he was 13, 14 years old that he was going to be big time. It's crazy that we both ended up back here, where I started, to do this. That's one of the many reasons I was happy to be back down here.
What are your thoughts on the quarterback room?
Very competitive. All three of them are very competitive. All three of them expect to go out and get the football and go move the ball and go score, which I love. All three have a championship, winning mindframe right now. I love the way all three of them are attacking.
Mike, if you watch him in the weight room right now, you would never know he did anything. Mike's in a good place. Mike's, athletically, very gifted.
Obviously, just getting to know Jack. Jack's a very competitive, hard-working kid. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Peyton with his work ethic and his mindset the way he locked in from the day to day.
Then Peyton's Peyton. Peyton walks in and he's the hardest worker in the room every room he steps into. Peyton is a worker. He's a great representation of how you should go about your business on a day to day basis, which is ... I keep going back to that, but you need to fill your roster with that. That has to be the expectation. It can't be filled with people just taking space who are here to be here. It's gotta be guys that want to go do something and go change whatever the perception is.
Where is Penix at physically and what's the recovery process been like for him?
This is the first time Mike's ever really been hurt, so it was tough emotionally for him. There was some of that - you wear a lot of hats in this position, so there's a lot of conversations that have to take place when bad things like that happen. But he was able to be mentally tough and push through it. Got the procedure done. Mike's in really good place. He's ahead of where I thought he'd be right now. You go in there and watch him work out right now, you'd never know anything's wrong with him. Feel good about him.
I think he's grown a lot through this process, to be honest with you. It's the first time he's really been thrown into big-time adversity from a physical standpoint, and he's grown from it. It's made him tougher, it's made him mentally tougher. I think it's made him a better leader as well. Because sometimes you get zapped out of that, when you get hurt and you get shelved like that, you get pulled back from the team a little bit and you miss that. You get back in there and you've got that energy, and you want to get back around them, he's been a lot more vocal. Obviously Mike came here as an early enrollee, so he's not going to come in vocal, but he's a lot more vocal now than he was even in the summer last year, so feel good about that too.
Anything you tweaked/changed for this offseason program compared to last year?
Absolutely. No question. Me and (Dr. Matt Rhea) talk about that all the time. If we ever have two offseason programs that look the same, we're not doing our job. You've got to go evaluate the season. We watch a lot of football film, believe it or not.
The biggest thing, to answer that question, is this. The number one thing we saw holistically, over the whole course of the year, is in terms of acceleration. We have an acceleration need. Acceleration really is football. You can view the statistics, anywhere from 70-75 percent of the game is played in a 20-yard box. It's played in a 20-yard box. We talk about some of these top seeds and how fast guys are and this and that, and that's great. But if they spend 75 percent of the game and never even get to that top speed because they're not running far enough, acceleration's a big deal.
I know Doc's put some of this out, we have technology where we can measure 5-yard increments, 10-yard increments, 15-yard increments and 20-yard increments. Our focus speed-wise this offseason has been the 20-yard increment. Not to say we haven't ran farther than that, because we have. But when we test our guys, I want to know in five yards, how much power they're putting out per leg and how many meters per second they're moving from a speed perspective, and then 10 yards, and then 15 yards and then 20 yards.
So our guys, they're ranked by position after 5 yards, after 10 yards, after 15, after 20 and I'm telling you it's not the same. You have guys, it takes them longer to get up to top speed. They can get up to top speed if you give them far enough to go and they'll throw a nice number up there, but in reality, on the football field it takes them too long to get up there so you've got to fix that. There are specific things you can do to fix that and we are doing them. We've put those in and we've been heavily involved.
That was the number one thing that we came out. When we sat down in December, me and Doc said we've got to fix acceleration. To answer your question, that was the biggest thing.
Bryant Fitzgerald
How have offseason workouts gone so far?
Great. We got a lot of guys getting after it. The coaches upped the intensity from last spring to this spring, and the progress people are making, the numbers that we're hitting, is ridiculous right now. I'm glad to get it going for spring ball and summer workouts and looking ahead to the season..
What kind of numbers have you hit so far? Any that you're particularly proud of?
The speed within the 20-yard radius, I'm trying to build up to get to 20 MPH is a big thing that Dr Rhea put out there last week. I'm trying to get faster this offseason, cut down a little bit and be more mobile out there on the field.
Second year with this strength staff. Are they preaching any different objectives this offseason?
It's definitely more explosive. We broke the groups down to each position group so they can focus on different things. We won't be doing the same things as a big O-lineman or D-lineman. That's a really smart approach because we don't play the same position. We do different stuff on the field. The way they're utilizing the stuff and the tools they have in the weight room is awesome.
After playing last year, what do you need to work on?
Just be more vocal. be a leader out there. Last year, we had one of the youngest defenses, if not the youngest in the nation, so I'm just trying to be a leader for those guys and bring them along. I'm just trying to be a better leader this year, really.
With Jonathan Crawford gone, are you embracing leadership?
Coach Teegardin, we had a talk about it. He wants me to be one of the leaders, me and KB. We have a young group back there in the secondary. With my experience after one year under my belt, although it's not as much as Jon Crawford as a four-year vet, but that experience, I can help guys and see and tell them certain things that I know during the game and during season.
What do you remember from working with Coach Ballou at Avon, and how is that similar to or different than what you're doing with him at IU?
Hard. (Laughs). Hard, man. At Avon, we always had a high school competition and we were always winning. We had the best strength staff in the nation. Come on, now. You're destined to do great things. His intensity has not changed. The standard has not changed. He still has that stare, that stern look that he's going to give you if you don't hit your weigh. You better hit your weight. It's definitely up since it's a college program since the high school program. But even in high school he was still tough.
So you haven't gotten that look yet?
Oh no, I definitely have. I got it last week, actually.
With spring ball coming up, how excited are you to put the pads back on and play football again?
It's the greatest sport. It's going to be live, there's going to be a lot of energy out there. I'm just excited to see how we've progressed since the end of last season, in just a couple months, just to see how things are going to go. We've got a new system planned. Coach Wommack's leading the defense this year. I'm excited to get things going for spring ball.
How excited are you about working toward becoming a Top 25 defense after gaining experience as a young defense last year?
Very excited, very excited. When you look at the categories, we led categories in takeaways, one of the top (teams) in the nation. We definitely have some skill guys out there. We're just trying to get back to that Top 25 defense. Like you said, we're trying to be better than what that defense was. We're trying to establish a new culture here and turn this thing around.
What can people expect from Sampson James?
Explosive. Very powerful runner. Can see holes. He's good with that stiff arm he has. I taught him that by the way during my days at running back. But no, Sampson's a really good guy. My time at Avon, when I played with him, he was just hungry, he would always ask me questions, 'what should I look for when I hit the hole,' stuff like that. He's a guy that's eager to learn and is a really hard runner.
Did you guys have any battles in practice back in the day?
Oh yeah, no, we definitely had (them). I was the old vet out there when he was out there, so I had to teach him a thing or two. But no, yeah, he was definitely the hardest person I had to tackle in high school besides Reese Taylor.
Donavan Hale
Any weight room goals?
No particular numbers, really. Everybody's just trying to come in each day and grind and get better as a team.
What have you learned about DeBoer's offense?
I mean, I like it. We've got the tools on offense, we've just got to put it all together.
What do you know about it so far, have they given you a playbook?
I mean, yeah, but we've only been in it for about a week so far. So we're all still trying to get into it and learn it.
How would you describe it?
I like it. But being an offensive player, you have to like it.
Now that you've gotten a look at it, how much more excited does that make you for spring ball?
I mean, it's always tough learning new offenses but it's always exciting to get out there and run plays.
How have offseason workouts been?
It's tough. It's fun, it's a grind, but when you see improvements, each and every body on the team getting better, it's fun.
How has it been working with Coach Ballou and his staff for a second year?
Like I said, it's tough, but he's the best strength coach. Best strength staff in the country.
Andre Brown Jr.
How have the offseason workouts gone?
They've been going good. We've just been focusing on everybody competing with one another, coming in, attacking each day, grinding.
Has it been easier the second time around?
Yes sir, it is, but Coach Ballou always brings it every day. You never know what you've got ahead of you, you've just got to come in and attack each day.
Are they emphasizing anything different with this being their second year?
Still working on a lot of speed. We do a lot of focus things where we focus on certain movements, so certain things that you may not be as good in within your body. Everybody's got an individualized thing to work on.
Any individual goals, anything that's individually tailored to you that you're trying to accomplish?
Just honestly pushing my guys, make everybody contribute to the team, make everybody better.
Are you trying to be more of a leader, take on a leadership role?
Yes sir, that's one of the things I've been focused on this whole offseason. Just talking to the guys, making sure everybody's on time to workouts, (making sure) everybody's going hard every day.
Spring football is coming up, how excited are you to get out there and play football again]
I'm ready man. Spring is a grind, wintertime is a grind, so we're ready to put it all together and get out there on the field.
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