When Kane Wommack announced his intentions to leave Indiana University as its defensive coordinator to become a head coach, Tom Allen began looking for someone who would be a "good fit."
The fifth year head coach found that "good fit" and then some in former University of Georgia cornerbacks coach Charlton Warren, who is getting his feet wet during the spring practices as the new defensive coordinator for the Hoosiers.
By all accounts, the transition has been a smooth one, as both Allen and Warren met with the media this week to discuss how the defense has looked this fall.
Allen said things are going "good" on the defensive side of the football under Warren.
"It's going good. He’s learning our system and is a little bit like myself in the leadership," Tom Allen said. "Went after a certain type of person to fill that role and getting guys to buy in and we have a system in place that guys have bought into it. He does great job, very focused and great attention to detail.
"I always tell our team, the defense should be ahead of offense and that has probably been the case. We had some competitions and it was very competitive back and forth and that is what I expect. We have a lot of guys back who played a lot of football and don’t want those guys satisfied, we want to be elite defense, top in country and top in Big Ten and that is what we are chasing."
Warren told the media he is getting a good feel for his defensive personnel and what they can do, noting that he came into the spring practices with a blank canvas and wasn't worried about who was and was not returning to the Hoosiers.
"I have had a good chance at every level of the defense to see what guys can do and how it best suits us with our play calling. To me, it is a blank canvas. If they were here last year and contributed and did a great job, that was awesome but they never really factored to me. Whatever I had returning was what my mindset was on building this thing going forward. We have to develop depth at every level and cannot be a one deep organization," Warren said.
Warren said his focus has been on technique and fundamentals, as well as building depth at every position this spring.
"The whole defense has done a great job embracing what we are doing and playing at a high level. We will see a lot more after this week when we ramp some things up. All the guys at all levels have done a great job embracing it," Warren said.
In addition, he is learning about a new staff and all that goes into meshing different ideas and concepts for the good of the team.
"Very professional, and they want to learn as much as anybody. It has been a very collaborative effort, and the thing that is unique is I am learning the defense Coach Allen has had for years and they have been really good at listening to me and they have learned from me and we both have been learning. The effort has been very collaborative and we go out to practice and do what we do," Warren said.
Warren also touched on how he has gotten better as a coach since he last was a defensive coordinator over a decade ago.
"Everything you do as a coordinator, you have to try to inspire and instill a certain culture and discipline with your unit so you don't beat yourselves on a daily basis," Warren said. "Two, you have to know it doesn't matter how great the call is, it matters how great the execution is. If you can get that accomplished, you have a chance to be in games.
"You have to stop the run, limit explosives and take the ball away. If you can do those things consistently, you give yourselves a chance as a coordinator. You can't get enamored with having 92 calls that you can't execute and go out there and beat yourself. We can't be ourselves."
