Tom Allen Talks Pro Day, Spring Ball
4/1/2017 9:58:00 PM | Football
"It's a great day for this program, these young men. When you're a kid, you have a dream of playing in the NFL, that's what we all do. I think that's something we take a lot of pride in here. We've had a lot of recent success and allowed our men to develop in our program and have this opportunity. Our pro day is a chance to showcase all of their hard work, their physical piece, skill work. Just a fun day. Our whole coaching staff is out here cheering our guys on. We're proud of what they are doing."
On how many teams in attendance...
"About 30, so pretty much all the teams represented. Which is what you'd expect. Great day for us. We have a lot of high quality guys and there's a reflection of that with the number of scouts that showed up."
On if he has a sense of where Dan Feeney might be picked...
"It's a projection. Late-first round, early second is what I kind of hear right now. It's all about the teams that are available at that moment and who decides to go. We've gotten a tremendous amount of feedback from scouts regarding Dan because of his versatility as a player, being able to play all the positions up front, and the character piece. Even during the combine, he showed qualities that were rare. It didn't surprise us because he's the type of young man that we see every day. He's a special young man that's projected to play a long time."
On Marcus Oliver...
"Marcus did a great job today. I think he has had great numbers. He worked extremely hard to get back from surgery and really got his body right. We have some early projections but he's going to have to - I think today helped. He just needs to get in someone's camp and prove he can do it. I think that's what he's going to do. He's an awesome young man, high character guy who is going to do a great job for whoever decides to take him."
On his team during spring practice...
"We have a big scrimmage tomorrow (Saturday) and that will be a lot of, as we say, just put the ball down and play football. We really want this to be a major focus for us. When we finish that scrimmage, we'll be able to have a chance to go back and evaluate our personnel, where we're at on both sides of the ball, and special teams. We really have two full practices of pads and then a scrimmage again next Saturday, cloth practice Tuesday and the spring game on Thursday. We are getting to the point where we are evaluating the last two or three things we want to work on schematically. Really love the intensity of practice. The competition has been great. I love the focus of our guys. Yesterday was such a great back and forth battle all day long. Great spring ball for us so far."
On the correlation between players in NFL and selling the program...
"You want to be able to allow your young men to believe when they came, they are going to achieve the goals they have in their heart. What they want to become as a man, a student-athlete, and professionally. I get it, a lot of these young men want to play in the NFL. We want to give them that opportunity. If they are good enough and they can stay healthy, we believe you can come to Indiana and fulfill that dream. To me, it's a critical part of what we do. We also make sure they understand that the academic piece is number one. You get your degree and you always have the opportunity to come back if you do leave early, like some do. It's a big part of the whole big picture, because we understand it's a big part of their future and we want to help them achieve their dreams."
On Clyde Newton...
"For him physically, he's had a good day as well. He can run, jump well, put up big numbers, and that's what we expected from him. I think he does have that flexibility. The style of running back he is, sometimes people don't use the fullback as much, so a team that does it more specific to scheme, the NFL will have more of that than you get at our level. A lot of teams are going away from that style collegiality. I think that would give him a broader opportunity. Defensively, he was a linebacker. When you're big and physical and you can run like that, it creates opportunities for yourself."
On special teams experience helping Ricky Jones...
"It's big. We use Ricky as an example for our current group as we started spring ball. He was able to be excellent on special teams. I think that as a receiver, that positon for sure, players in college just want to focus on being a great receiver. They don't understand with a 53-man roster what that really looks like. We broke it down and used him as an example for his effort and his execution as a specialist for us and how that's going to help him. When scouts come in, they want to see that film. You can't show them practice film, it has to be game film. We had a lot of that for Ricky, so he really helped himself for sure."
