After Indiana lost to Michigan State in East Lansing on Saturday, the Hoosiers dropped to 3-2 on the season before the first bye week, and Indiana head coach Tom Allen has a plan and goals set in place before preparing fro Rutgers to begin the next four weeks before the second bye.
He explained those plans and goals to the media, as well as finished recapping Michigan State, on Monday at Memorial Stadium.
Allen addresses emotional moment with Kane Wommack during Michigan State game
At one point during the Michigan State loss, Tom Allen was seen shouting at defensive coordinator Kane Wommack. He was asked about that moment during the press conference, and Allen explained that he wouldn't apologize for getting emotional, as that's who he is as a coach.
The moment came during one of the most vulnerable points of the game, in retrospect, for the Indiana defense, when Michigan State marched 56 yards down the field in 46 seconds to break the 14-14 tie before halftime on a missed check in the offense. Allen explained after the game that he was "pretty heated" after that drive.
"I'm always involved in the defense. If you saw that interaction, you just know who I am. I'm a pretty fiery guy. I love Kane, and we're really close. I'm going to rip his tail when his tail needs to be ripped.
But the bottom line is it was right before half. It was that whole thing there -- we needed to get a stop. Hey, I'm okay with that. Like I said, I'm not ever going to sit here and apologize for being fiery and intense because no sense in apologizing; it's going to happen again.
But at the same time, that's my area. That's where I do feel for Kane because you really don't want to be the DC for the former DC, when he's the head coach now. It's a tough job, just tell it like it is because of every little thing. I'm hard on him in meetings, and I'm hard on him during the game.
But it's like brothers, man. Sometimes you just -- but then you just hug each other because you're family, right? That's how I feel about Kane. If something's not the way I want it to be done or if I'm not getting my way -- I'm never going to second guess. I don't like second guessing calls because I don't think that's fair.
But when we don't execute, that's when I want to make sure, and we're making sure we put our guys in the best position. So to me, it's just football. It's the passion of the moment. It's the fire of the moment. I don't even remember what I said."
Goals for the bye week
Tom Allen has three goals for the bye week outside of preparing for Rutgers.
The first goal is to give the players a mental and physical break after five weeks and an entire non-conference schedule. Allen said there won't be as much meeting time, practices might be a little shorter and there won't be a lot of scheme.
The second goal is to get as healthy as possible before heading into the next four games before the next bye week. Players that need to get healthier include Reese Taylor, who is expected in practice this week, A'Shon Riggins, who is not expected in practice this week, and Juan Harris, who's status is unknown.
The third goal is to "improve fundamentally and technically as a football team in all three phases." That would include tackling on defense and blocking in special teams, as Allen describes in detail during Monday's press conference.
Vulnerabilities in the secondary are more than one thing
Tom Allen said after the Michigan State loss Saturday that he thought the team could have played better in one-on-one scenarios, and he doubled down on that sentiment Monday but expounded on other aspects of the passing defense when asked about things like pass rush and youth.
"It's never one thing. I thought we got some good pressure. We didn't get any sacks. We had several pressures. You always want more pressure. Pressure creates what you want defensively for an offense. Definitely caused some errant throws because of the pressure.
The young secondary has to continue to grow. I know that Tiawan played extremely well, but we challenged some other guys, even between the end of the game and this moment right now, met with some guys already about them elevating their play at that position.
We put those guys -- we put them on an island at times, and that's part of what we do. We know that. They know that, and that's what you embrace. Felt like that lost some of those one-on-ones, and sometimes it was just one-on-one technique and winning those battles. . .
It's one play. We're at the point now where we're in those -- we have communication breakdowns in the secondary that we got, and sometimes it's you, sometimes it's refs, sometimes it's just -- you know -- but time has taught me that you just stay the course. We had some things where guys got cut loose, and a lot of that's communication. They do some clusters groupings and different things and that's kind of what everybody does. And that's part of the game now.
There's just different ways of handling that and reacting to that. We've just got to get better. There's no doubt. It's frustrating to not be able to get some of those at critical times. But at the same time, it's a team game. We dropped the pick-six. They just -- it's tough, and you drill and drill and drill."
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