8/31/2019 football Edit

Quoted: Tom Allen reacts to Indiana's 34-24 win over Ball State

Taylor Lehman • TheHoosier

Staff

Indiana head coach Tom Allen had honest thoughts on Indiana's first game of the 2019 season from Lucas Oil Stadium. The Hoosiers defeated the Cardinals, 34-24, but Allen is hoping to learn from what wasn't the most dominant victory of his tenure.

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To begin the 2019 season, Indiana launched a kickoff out of bounds. It would later do the same thing again. But special teams remained a strength for the Hoosiers, as Haydon Whitehead pinned Ball State inside its 10-yard line and David Ellis brought out multiple kickoffs past the 30-yard line.

Logan Justus also connected on four field goals which represented 16 of IU's 34 points Saturday. Tom Allen took notice of the effort in that phase of IU's effort, but he spoke very highly of freshman long-snapper Sean Wracher.

"We got a new snapper and a new holder, so everything is really new for him. We’re trying to get that consistency. Sean Wracher, no one’s mentioned his name one time, but he’s a true freshman. He’s never played in a college game in his life, but every single snap was perfect. We signed that kid right out of highs school, which sometimes a lot of people will take those guys for walk ons and then develop them but I don’t believe in that. We went out and found the best in the country we could find and it was a great fit for us. I’m telling you, those things get forgotten really quick until you have some bad snaps.”

Allen was not happy with the tackling effort shown by his defense r the dropped passes by his receiving corps. While Mike Penix had a solid performance at quarterback, he was also not perfect, and the run game struggled, as Stevie Scott average just over two yards per carry.

There was a lot to be learned from the season-opening game, and Allen said sometimes learning fro an ugly win is healthier than learning from an ugly loss.

“To be able to win and play sometimes not very good, and get a W and learn from a win, it’s a great feeling. Learning from an ugly loss really stinks. We’re going to learn from it and we’re going to be a much better football team. We’ll take the field next week as a whole group. We’re still young. A lot of those guys on the defense are still young. That’s the part that you can’t forget.I was surprised because that hasn’t been the way we’ve been. I think it’s a matter of flushing the first-game jitters and getting better next week.”

Freshman athlete David Ellis returned kickoffs, but he also made one of the most significant plays of the game for Indiana. To push its lead to fourteen points after scoring and leading 29-17, IU pulled out a reverse pass play, and Allen was wowed by Ellis' execution.

“We thought he was going to run it because we just figured that’s how they were going to play it. Really, the only thing we’d ever worked on was him throwing to his first read. He went to his second read. It was his third choice. His first read was covered, and then he threw it to a guy (Peyton Hendershot) we never threw it to in practice. And he’s a true freshman, so that was pretty impressive.”

Junior husky Marcelino Ball committed two 15-yard penalties, including one unsportsmanlike penalty where he roughed up a Ball State player after a play was finished. Allen didn't venture too far into how he handled Ball, but he was clear that he wasn't happy with his defensive leader.

“I don’t get it. To me it’s just stupid. Those are selfish penalties, so that's why I took him out and ripped his tail. So we’ll have a nice little week with him for that. He’ll never do it again.”

Throughout the second half, IU was finally able to force pressure on Drew Plitt in the pocket, and the Ball State passing game, which had been finding gaps in the center of the Hoosier defense all day, suffered because of it. Allen said he wants to be a team that applies pressure rather than a team that defends receivers until pressure is successfully applied.

“To me, I want us to be a pressure first and cover as they change. I foresee us being that way. I want to see us continue to be more of that. That’s how I am and what I believe in. As the season progresses. I expect us to be more effective rushing the passer with our pressures.”