Video: Hiller and Sheridan Introduced

Offensive Coordinator Mike DeBord: "Really excited. Coach Allen can't be here but we have great excitement in the football program with two additions to our coaching staff. The first I'll introduce is coach Nick Sheridan. Nick was a player at Michigan, his freshman and sophomore year were my last two years at Michigan. He was under our system as a player and a quarterback system there. These last two years, Nick was our graduate assistant at Tennessee. I had the title of coordinator and quarterbacks, but what I did those two years, I worked with the front, the offensive line, the tight ends up there. Nick took over the quarterbacks. He had them in meetings, he had them in game preparations, he had them in practice. He was there with me when I was calling the game on game day in a very critical role. He was actually the quarterbacks at Tennessee these last two years. When I talked to Tom about coming here, Nick was one of the first guys I talked to him about and all the things he would bring. I'm really excited to have him year and I'm excited we've worked together in the past and what he did for (quarterback) Josh Dobbs at Tennessee.

Darren Hiller will be our offensive line coach and our run game coordinator. I did not know Darren but I knew of his coaching background. I knew of his reputation and when Tom - when this opening came about - Tom came to me right away and said 'This is a guy that I want. I want you to do your research, but I want you to really look hard at him.' I went back and I actually studied film of South Florida. When you talk about South Florida last year you're talking about a team that was in the top five in scoring and in the top five and rushing. Now if that doesn't make a coordinator happy I don't know what will. I was excited to watch his guys play, watch the technique, watch the attitude, the leverage. They were an up-tempo team like we will be. I called him after watching film and we talked and I could just tell that this was the kind of guy that you know would fit great in our offensive staff room as well as our entire coaching staff. We've already been meeting, we've been putting our offense together, we've been working hard. I can tell you that I've been around a lot of great coaching staffs in my career and this is a great one. I'm not going to say the best or anything like that, but I'm going to tell you, it's one of the best I've ever been around because of the quality of people and also the quality of coaching that we're going to get. I'll let Nick start off and give his talk."

Quarterbacks Coach Nick Sheridan: "Certainly very excited and appreciative to have this opportunity. I have tremendous amount of respect for Tom and coach DeBord. When this opportunity presented itself, I sprinted to Bloomington. To get an opportunity to work with this staff of men from the top down is really really exciting and I couldn't be more excited about it, humbled, and honored to have this opportunity. My wife Sarah and I are super excited to be a part of this community here in Bloomington. To continue to mentor and develop the quarterback position here at this institution, is like I said, very exciting for me and my wife. Just excited, that's really the word. Just excited to be here."

Offensive Line Coach Darren Hiller: "I am Darren Hiller. To echo some of Nick's comments, I am very excited to be in Bloomington and to be around the staff, and have the opportunity to work for coach Allen. Coach Allen and I have been friends for a long time. When he called me up
to talk to me about coming to Bloomington, it didn't take a whole lot of convincing. I had the opportunity to speak with coach DeBord on the phone and we had a great talk. I called some people in the business that I trust and rely on and had some conversations. It was a no-brainer and I'm just excited to be here. I can't wait to get my family, my wife and three children moved
here right after spring break mid-March, hit the ground running and get this thing Rock N Rolling."

On what he looks for at the quarterback position…

Sheridan: "I think that's what the one great thing with coach Allen, is his vision for the position. His vision and mind really align. The first thing we're looking for is a winner. I think we're trying to just accumulate players that have a winning mentality and are accustomed to winning. The second part from the quarterback position is just accuracy. The ability to place the football where you want it to be. The last piece is escapability. I think when you go across the National Football League and across college football, the sizes and shapes of the quarterbacks and the skill sets are different, but when you really put those three things together, winning, accuracy and escapability, I think you can can put a really quality product on the field. When we're evaluating and when we're developing quarterbacks, those are the things that we try to focus on."

On if he recruited anybody on Indiana since he was nearby in Cincinnati…

Hiller: "It's actually funny. I've met several of the offensive lineman, not quite all of them yet. But as a lot of them have come up I see their face and they saw my face and we smiled and talked about. There's several guys on the roster right now that I have relationships with, some more than others are. I went through the list of the offensive linemen that are here and there's eight of them out of the 14 I think that are here right now that I have some sort of previous relationship with. Whether it be me recruiting them or them being committed to the school that I was going in and out of. It's kind of going to be fun."

On what he wants in his O-Line…

Hiller: "Number one, we've got to have a group of guys that will come together and play as a unit. I'm going to you know be under the deal with the offensive line that were the engine of a car. Nick talked about the quarterbacks and we could talk about the quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, and the tight ends. But you know that the car is not going to move without the engine and the offensive line has got to be the engine. Nastiness, physicality, and that groups has to be of utmost importance. Then athletic ability, some guys that can get out and do some things in space, and they can bend."

On who he has leaned on as a graduate assistant or player…

Sheridan: "When I was a young coach getting in, certainly my dad's a football coach and I've leaned on him in all walks of life. I've been very blessed and fortunate to have a great
relationship with my father. So, above anybody else certainly just from a coaching standpoint, I've leaned on him and his experiences, like I said, in all walks of life. When I was a young coach, one of my college coaches was a guy named Lloyd Carr. He told me 'The knowledge is out there you just have to go get it and go ask for it.' That's something that always stuck with me. I try on a yearly basis to reach out to people that I think are doing it well and I try to find out how they're doing it. I've been fortunate and blessed to work with a lot of great coaches and I'm appreciative of all the things that they have taught me, and have continued to teach me. I try to go out and seek the knowledge. I find out who's doing it the best and I try to ask them questions to try to help our players. Ultimately that's our job as coaches, to try to best prepare the players to play well. I don't know if that beats around the question, but there's been a lot of coaches that I'm very thankful for and I know they know who they are. I'm appreciative to them."

On if he has met with the players…

Sheridan: "I've met with all the quarterbacks. It's exciting. They're getting to know me and I'm getting to know them, and they all want to do well. I think that's certainly a foundation for improvement. That's the message I sent to them, we're just looking to get better each and every day and in whatever aspect that might be, fundamentally, from a leadership standpoint, from a knowledge of the game. Whatever it might be, we're just looking to improve and we want to be a group that continues to improve each and every day and the attitudes been great. I've been excited. I don't know them that well. I met with them, my wife was in town this weekend we drove around and said hello to each and every one of them. We're trying to catch up the best we can and develop a relationship with the kids. That's the most exciting part. I enjoy people, I enjoy getting to know people stories and that's been a lot of fun for me."

On limiting the turnovers at the quarterback position…

Sheridan: "It's the most important piece of playing football. As the quarterback position, we are the caretaker of the ball for the entire team, in the entire university, the entire state. It's something we emphasize each and every day. I think there's some things you can do schematically to try and help the kid out, to put him in some better situations where he has outlets to get rid of the football, so he doesn't feel like he's forcing the football down the field. That's the number one deciding factor in winning and losing and that has never changed and never will. Certainly from a staff standpoint that will be definitely enforced and emphasized in particular with our position as it will be for all positions here."

On walking into a place where leaders like Jason Spriggs and Dan Feeney were…

Hiller: That's always important. In every football program that I've ever coached in, the young offensive lineman always learns a lot from the older guys. Having those two guys from the last couple years here set the example and I don't know those guys, but I would imagine that they were setting the example starting probably in the weight room and then they took it to the field. I don't know what their vocal leadership skills were but it's always good when young guys can see guys do it at a high level. Those guys obviously have proven themselves and done it at a high level, so I think that's paramount to success."

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