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The Indiana football program had its first live scrimmage of fall camp on Friday and despite it being closed to the media, head coach Tom Allen addressed the main takeaways after it wrapped up.
"I thought today (Friday) was a really good scrimmage," Allen said. "...A lot of guys got a lot of good reps. I thought it was competitive back-and-forth and it came down to the final snap: fourth-and-goal on the one [yard line]. to be able to decide the winner for that portion of it. Both sides made plays and I thought all three quarterbacks did some really good things and really protected the ball pretty well. We tried to do a lot of things difficult on them for that."
Indiana kicks off its season-opener on Sept. 2 against Illinois. Up to this point, the Indiana staff has been extremely quiet with detailed reports about offensive and defensive schemes.
The Hoosiers bring in new coordinators on offense, defense, at the running backs spot, defensive line and wide receiver spots. So, while scrimmages can't tell you everything, there were some areas of focus heading into Friday.
"The whole objective [of today's scrimmage] was coaches off the field in the scrimmage, but don't even yell, because [the natural tendency for a coach is to correct someone], but don't say anything to them and make them make the checks and adjustments. That way, we know exactly where we are at.
"The biggest goal [of the scrimmage] is evaluation. Where are we at schematically with our installs? And where are we at depth chart-wise and where do the guys stack up against each other at each position? We will go through and grade this just like we would a normal game, this afternoon, then bring the guys back tonight, watch it and get [the mistakes] cleaned up.
"Then, the final thing to me, objectively, would just be able to start playing well as a team. We talk about offense, defense and special teams. The best team wins on game day and to have a chance to really see those special teams units transitioning in and out, the substitution patterns you have with that, can be challenging. We had offense on one side and defense on the other in a scrimmage situation. At the same time, in the pre-practice portion of the scrimmage we do our substitutions, we call them pop-up meetings, just showing them how it is going to look on game day. We are trying to simulate game day and I thought it was a good first step for that."
The offense has been a huge point of emphasis this summer. Indiana scored just 21 touchdowns in 12 games. IU had just two touchdowns in its first four Big Ten games. It also had seven or less points in six games this year.
Quarterback play was ineffective all season. That unit threw for just 1,959 yards and nine touchdowns to 14 interceptions. They averaged 5.4 yards per attempts and just a 50.3 completion percentage. And, in five games, the Hoosiers failed to throw for 100 yards.
Running the ball wasn't any better. There was a 3.4 yard per carry average and only three games where the Hoosiers had a 100-yard rusher.
So, bringing in a new offensive coordinator, potentially a new quarterback, three new running backs and numerous new wide receivers, has its growing pains.
"To start on offense, just wanted to be able to move the football efficiently, get the ball in the end zone and we have emphasized creating more explosive plays," Allen said. "That is obviously a tough dynamic, because we are trying to not allow those on defense, which is the natural tension you have there. Trying to be able to create those and not have to drive 10, 11, 12-play drives to get down the field. That was the emphasis and we had several of those today and that was good. Then, continue to master the offense and play with confidence."
Allen saw improvements and effective play from all three quarterbacks on the afternoon.
"I think the bottom line is that I wanted to get the ball thrown down the field and create those explosive plays and those chunk plays. It doesn't have to be bombs; we are talking about even just the deep 10-15-yard concepts. Just trying to get the ball to the second level and get [the defense] stressed. I thought all three guys were effective at that," Allen said. "The part about reading the defense and we will know that more when we watch the film and do all that to know for sure. It appeared that there was good command of the offense."
Overall, most of the Indiana roster took part in the scrimmage, but Allen did keep some of the key players out.
"We have a couple of guys on defense that we felt [didn't need to see a lot of action in the scrimmage], Tiawan [Mullen], J-Will [Jaylin Williams] Cam [Jones] and Monster [Devon Matthews]. Those guys, we've seen them play a lot of football," Allen added. "I would say getting D.J. [Matthews Jr.] back, he is progressing really well, but kept him controlled today and did a lot of conditioning with him. Just trying to make sure those guys are physically ready and getting enough pops and physicality and tackling on defense and getting hit on offense to be able to be good for game day.
"We haven't watched the film yet, so we will know what that looks like when I get a chance to grad [the film] here in a little bit, but thought it was a very good day for the Hoosiers."
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