Forgive Indiana head football coach Tom Allen for not being giddy about his team's 2-0 start to the season with Michigan coming to town this Saturday.
While there are a lot of things the Hoosiers have done well, Allen, who met with the media Monday, states there is still plenty of room to improve, plenty of things to clean up and a Michigan team coming to Bloomington that will be looking to turn its season around at noon inside Memorial Stadium.
"Proud of our football team going on the road and taking care of business. A little sloppier than I would've liked, too many penalties, but did have a lot of positives," Allen said. "I thought our kids competed hard, played really hard for each other. Defensively, quite a few takeaways is a big deal.... didn't start as fast offensively in either half, so we have to fix that."
Allen said he told his team there is a lot left to clean up.
"I do not feel like we've played our best football yet. We need to start getting some of these mistakes corrected," said Allen, who saw his team rise to 13th in both the AP and Coaches polls.
The Hoosiers will look to clean up issues prior to Saturday's kickoff against 23rd ranked Michigan, a team that has owns the all-time series against Indiana, 59-9, while owning an impressive 24-game winning streak over the Hoosiers. Indiana's last win against Michigan came in 1987.
"Excited to welcome the Michigan Wolverines to campus on Saturday for a noon kickoff," Allen added. "I have a ton of respect for Jim Harbaugh and the kind of coach he is and the kind of talent they have on that football team. Top program in this country, top 25 program and they continue to get better every time they take the field so it is a big challenge for us this week. We have opportunity number three."
