Monday Notebook – Honoring Coach Hep, Insight Bowl Team
9/18/2017 5:24:00 PM | Football
By: Pete DiPrimio
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - After a decade, the power of Terry Hoeppner still rocks Indiana's football program.
You'd better believe that matters.
Hoeppner, the former Hoosiers head coach who passed before his time, will have a big presence on Saturday as part of the celebration for the 10th anniversary of the Hoosiers' 2007 Insight Bowl team.
While the main event will be IU's return from an unexpected bye week to host Georgia Southern (0-2) at Memorial Stadium, a key element will be honoring the program's last bowl team.
Hoeppner did not physically coach the 2007 squad -- he passed away from brain cancer six months earlier and was replaced by Bill Lynch -- but he did in spirit. He was the catalyst in ending the Hoosiers' 24-year postseason drought.
Hep's Rock -- the multi-ton limestone rock that players touch while running onto the Memorial Stadium field for the start of every home game -- reflects that spirit.
Current head coach Tom Allen, who had just begun his college coaching career in 2007, has warm memories of Hoeppner, and they go well beyond the Cream 'n Crimson connection. Allen's father, Tom Sr., played with Hoeppner at Franklin College under Coach Red Faught.
"He was a friend of our family," Allen says. "He and my dad go back with Coach Faught at Franklin. They both played for him, and that was really the connection that I had with him. When I first got to know him he was coaching at Franklin.
"So just a ton of respect for him. As he went to coach Miami and I went to coach at Ben Davis, we always went to Miami to their seven-on-sevens (camps) every summer, and met with their coaching staffs. He was their defensive coordinator when I first met him professionally. We ran a very similar scheme."
Hoeppner won nine games in his Indiana two seasons, but his recruiting, energy and inspiration were crucial as the Hoosiers went 7-6 in 2007 and played in the Insight Bowl in Arizona. They lost to Oklahoma State, 49-33.
"He came here and I spent a lot of time with their staff," Allen says. "Just a ton of respect for him as a person, as a leader, just always respected the energy he brought. The things I wanted to do as a coach, I modeled after him, both scheme and his approach.
"He just was a very special person and then as he proved on the field, he was a great coach, too. He understood things from a scheme perspective and motivationally did some things that were special.
"I loved what he was doing here. He was doing some great things and just really tragically cut short. I want to make sure our players understand who he is … and to never forget and to have a great understanding of his history and what he means to our program."
MAXIMIZING RECRUITING
Indiana's unplanned football bye created an unexpected recruiting opportunity.
Allen and his staff took advantage in a big way.
With last Saturday's home game against Florida International canceled because of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Hoosiers coaches used the extra time to hit the recruiting road.
"I got to go to some (high school) games that I wouldn't have been able to see," Allen says. "I thought that was very, very positive."
IU (1-1) was originally set to have its bye on Oct. 7. Now that date has been filled with a new opponent, Charleston Southern.
Was the early recruiting time an advantage?
"I don't think there was any more or less opportunity," Allen says, "but from a recruiting perspective, I felt we were able to maximize our team. We had coaches all across the country, and were very effective."
Overall, Allen says he prefers bye weeks to come in the middle of the season.
"I would say from a health perspective, later is better. But we can't control that. We had it after game five, the way it was set up, which I thought was ideal and then ended up being after game two.
"We did have a chance to get some guys healed up a little bit and got a chance for (injured offensive lineman) Brandon Knight to have another week to get healthy. To me, you adjust and make the best of every situation.
"So if I had to just pick, yeah, I would put it smack in the middle of your season, but I didn't get to choose when the hurricane hit."
THE QUARTERBACK IS …
Fifth-year senior Richard Lagow is listed as Indiana's starting quarterback for Saturday, but redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey will play.
That's always been the plan this season, but it got an added boost after Ramsey's break-through effort in a Sept. 9 34-17 win at Virginia.
Coming off the bench, Ramsey rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown. He completed 16-of-20 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns.
For the season Ramsey is 18-for-23 (78.3 percent) for 183 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Lagow is 43-for-75 (57.3 percent) for 434 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Ramsey has followed his strong Virginia play with solid practice performance.
"I think he's just kind of taking off where he left the game," Allen said, "but I've seen him do it a lot in practice.
"So once again, those two guys are competing. You know, iron sharpens iron; make each other better, every single day, and that's what we want from all positions, especially at a position like quarterback."
GEORGIA SOUTHERN'S TRIPLE THREAT
Georgia Southern is a program that upset Florida in 2013, lost to Georgia in overtime in 2015 and lost by 10 points to Mississippi while rushing for 267 yards last season.
IU coaches have mentioned that.
Teams such as Georgia Tech and Navy run triple option attacks, but Georgia Southern does it out of the shotgun formation.
Allen sees two major challenges for Saturday -- handle the Eagles' cut blocking, especially on the perimeter, and the speed with which they'll run their offense.
"Sometimes you feel good about your prep," he says, "and you get in the game and it's just so much more difficult to defend than it is in practice.
"It's just the speed of it. Having to have a scout team create the quarterback speed, and then the assignments and all that that you have to have. Just having them execute the offense at the level they are going to see it on game day is almost impossible if you don't run that style of offense, which we obviously don't.
"So it always is going to take a series or two to get used to that speed of it. That's why people run it. It creates challenges, and they will be difficult to stop."
The Hoosiers actually began their preparations in the spring, then got extra time when last weekend's game was canceled.
"You can't just (prepare) in a couple of days," Allen says. "We got a chance to get some extra reps against that style last week. It was good."
Barring a quarterback change, the offense will go through redshirt freshman quarterback Shai Werts. He was a high school beast with more than 6,000 total yards and 73 touchdowns, and might one day become a formidable college quarterback, but for now he's in the midst of a steep learning curve.
He's completed just 15-of-30 passes for 101 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He's the Eagles' leading rusher with 140 yards and a 2.6-yard-per-carry average.
Still, the potential is obvious.
Allen says Werts has "tremendous athleticism" and is "very, very fast."
"He has not had a lot of game experience, but the film quickly shows what kind of athlete he is. They want the ball in his hands. That's what their offense is made for.
"He'll definitely be somebody we have to do a tremendous job of accounting for and tackling well."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - After a decade, the power of Terry Hoeppner still rocks Indiana's football program.
You'd better believe that matters.
Hoeppner, the former Hoosiers head coach who passed before his time, will have a big presence on Saturday as part of the celebration for the 10th anniversary of the Hoosiers' 2007 Insight Bowl team.
While the main event will be IU's return from an unexpected bye week to host Georgia Southern (0-2) at Memorial Stadium, a key element will be honoring the program's last bowl team.
Hoeppner did not physically coach the 2007 squad -- he passed away from brain cancer six months earlier and was replaced by Bill Lynch -- but he did in spirit. He was the catalyst in ending the Hoosiers' 24-year postseason drought.
Hep's Rock -- the multi-ton limestone rock that players touch while running onto the Memorial Stadium field for the start of every home game -- reflects that spirit.
Current head coach Tom Allen, who had just begun his college coaching career in 2007, has warm memories of Hoeppner, and they go well beyond the Cream 'n Crimson connection. Allen's father, Tom Sr., played with Hoeppner at Franklin College under Coach Red Faught.
"He was a friend of our family," Allen says. "He and my dad go back with Coach Faught at Franklin. They both played for him, and that was really the connection that I had with him. When I first got to know him he was coaching at Franklin.
"So just a ton of respect for him. As he went to coach Miami and I went to coach at Ben Davis, we always went to Miami to their seven-on-sevens (camps) every summer, and met with their coaching staffs. He was their defensive coordinator when I first met him professionally. We ran a very similar scheme."
Hoeppner won nine games in his Indiana two seasons, but his recruiting, energy and inspiration were crucial as the Hoosiers went 7-6 in 2007 and played in the Insight Bowl in Arizona. They lost to Oklahoma State, 49-33.
"He came here and I spent a lot of time with their staff," Allen says. "Just a ton of respect for him as a person, as a leader, just always respected the energy he brought. The things I wanted to do as a coach, I modeled after him, both scheme and his approach.
"He just was a very special person and then as he proved on the field, he was a great coach, too. He understood things from a scheme perspective and motivationally did some things that were special.
"I loved what he was doing here. He was doing some great things and just really tragically cut short. I want to make sure our players understand who he is … and to never forget and to have a great understanding of his history and what he means to our program."
MAXIMIZING RECRUITING
Indiana's unplanned football bye created an unexpected recruiting opportunity.
Allen and his staff took advantage in a big way.
With last Saturday's home game against Florida International canceled because of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Hoosiers coaches used the extra time to hit the recruiting road.
"I got to go to some (high school) games that I wouldn't have been able to see," Allen says. "I thought that was very, very positive."
IU (1-1) was originally set to have its bye on Oct. 7. Now that date has been filled with a new opponent, Charleston Southern.
Was the early recruiting time an advantage?
"I don't think there was any more or less opportunity," Allen says, "but from a recruiting perspective, I felt we were able to maximize our team. We had coaches all across the country, and were very effective."
Overall, Allen says he prefers bye weeks to come in the middle of the season.
"I would say from a health perspective, later is better. But we can't control that. We had it after game five, the way it was set up, which I thought was ideal and then ended up being after game two.
"We did have a chance to get some guys healed up a little bit and got a chance for (injured offensive lineman) Brandon Knight to have another week to get healthy. To me, you adjust and make the best of every situation.
"So if I had to just pick, yeah, I would put it smack in the middle of your season, but I didn't get to choose when the hurricane hit."
THE QUARTERBACK IS …
Fifth-year senior Richard Lagow is listed as Indiana's starting quarterback for Saturday, but redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey will play.
That's always been the plan this season, but it got an added boost after Ramsey's break-through effort in a Sept. 9 34-17 win at Virginia.
Coming off the bench, Ramsey rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown. He completed 16-of-20 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns.
For the season Ramsey is 18-for-23 (78.3 percent) for 183 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Lagow is 43-for-75 (57.3 percent) for 434 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Ramsey has followed his strong Virginia play with solid practice performance.
"I think he's just kind of taking off where he left the game," Allen said, "but I've seen him do it a lot in practice.
"So once again, those two guys are competing. You know, iron sharpens iron; make each other better, every single day, and that's what we want from all positions, especially at a position like quarterback."
GEORGIA SOUTHERN'S TRIPLE THREAT
Georgia Southern is a program that upset Florida in 2013, lost to Georgia in overtime in 2015 and lost by 10 points to Mississippi while rushing for 267 yards last season.
IU coaches have mentioned that.
Teams such as Georgia Tech and Navy run triple option attacks, but Georgia Southern does it out of the shotgun formation.
Allen sees two major challenges for Saturday -- handle the Eagles' cut blocking, especially on the perimeter, and the speed with which they'll run their offense.
"Sometimes you feel good about your prep," he says, "and you get in the game and it's just so much more difficult to defend than it is in practice.
"It's just the speed of it. Having to have a scout team create the quarterback speed, and then the assignments and all that that you have to have. Just having them execute the offense at the level they are going to see it on game day is almost impossible if you don't run that style of offense, which we obviously don't.
"So it always is going to take a series or two to get used to that speed of it. That's why people run it. It creates challenges, and they will be difficult to stop."
The Hoosiers actually began their preparations in the spring, then got extra time when last weekend's game was canceled.
"You can't just (prepare) in a couple of days," Allen says. "We got a chance to get some extra reps against that style last week. It was good."
Barring a quarterback change, the offense will go through redshirt freshman quarterback Shai Werts. He was a high school beast with more than 6,000 total yards and 73 touchdowns, and might one day become a formidable college quarterback, but for now he's in the midst of a steep learning curve.
He's completed just 15-of-30 passes for 101 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He's the Eagles' leading rusher with 140 yards and a 2.6-yard-per-carry average.
Still, the potential is obvious.
Allen says Werts has "tremendous athleticism" and is "very, very fast."
"He has not had a lot of game experience, but the film quickly shows what kind of athlete he is. They want the ball in his hands. That's what their offense is made for.
"He'll definitely be somebody we have to do a tremendous job of accounting for and tackling well."
Players Mentioned
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