Indiana Hoosiers Football: Offense Installation Progressing
Indiana will have a new-look offense this fall, and the first steps toward installing it are taking place this spring.
While Hoosiers offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer would like his system to be at its most efficient this spring, his expectations match the current reality that it will take time for his players to understand it. Still, he's pleased with what he's seen through nine spring of Indiana's 15 spring practices thus far.
"Everything I've asked of the guys they've come through with," DeBoer said. "They're a great group of guys. The coaches are selling out to it, just love kind of the way we're all coming together. It's a process. And you want to focus on results and that's important, we gotta have production but right now we're just trying to get our install together."
So far, DeBoer has matched that mindset with a patient approach.
He entered the spring with the idea of how he wanted the install to progress mapped out. However, if some concepts take longer to learn than others, he can adjust by pushing them back in order to spend more time on them.
"What's really happened is, because of the scheduling and how the week's worked out, (practices) 1, 3, 5, 7 were big installs. Then 2, 4, 6, 8 were days that we were better," DeBoer said. "The install days are always a little bit rougher, then the followup days are usually cleaner and better execution."
IU has done five installs so far. A few aspects of the system still need to be covered across the six spring remaining practices, including red zone, goal line and short-yardage concepts according to DeBoer. DeBoer will get to that eventually, as he's primarily focused on putting his personnel in the best position possible before spring camp breaks.
"What we want to have is the guys understanding at the end of the spring, the pieces that we have in place, with our system and then we'll figure out how to get the right guys in the right spots over the summer and in the fall and in the season," DeBoer said.
By the fall, DeBoer wants Indiana's offense to be multiple - in other words, a unit that has several concepts and packages.
According to SB Nation's Football Study Hall, an offense that is multiple is able to attack multiple weak spots of an opponent using a variety of formations to get as many of the 85 scholarship players on a roster onto the field. However, it's also unrealistic to develop each player to excel across multiple styles of play, which goes back to DeBoer's comment about finding the right fits for the players he's currently working with.
"Right now we're running a concept, and I would like to have this guy playing that spot. And we have ways of systematically getting him there," DeBoer said. "Right now, we're not focused on that, we're just running the play, letting the quarterback go through the read and guys execute.
"And we have guys that we're holding out, so it really throws things out of whack if you try to get your people in all of the right spots and all of a sudden he's sitting out, and now you're on to the next guy. But we want to be diverse, multiple, we want to be balanced."
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