Indiana University Athletics
Indiana Head Coach Gerry DiNardo's Weekly Press Conference Transcript
10/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
October 29, 2002
Opening Statement
GD - Back to work today and we're going to practice inside. After last week's game we have a lot of work today. We have to get back on track, and by that I mean just playing better. We have to get back to work and get better. That's the only thing I know how to do. Hopefully we'll have a good week of practice. I think we will.
Having you made a decision on the starting quarterback situation?
GD - Yeah, Gibran (Hamdan) will start. We're going to keep going the way we have been. I'm glad Tommy (Jones) got some reps and played a half. Gibran is our starter though.
What went into that thinking, as far as Gibran keeping his job?
GD - When I made the change at halftime, it was because we were struggling offensively, and Tommy's attitude since the change has been fabulous. He deserved in my opinion, the opportunity to play the second half, along with a lot of other guys. I don't know if you notice that Brandon Hatcher played at center in the second half, because he deserved the chance. Does that mean Chris Jahnke is not our starting center? No. So I see it much the same with Tommy. If the game would have changed my mind, if Brandon Hatcher would have played center better than Jahnke, than Hatcher would be our starting center. It was an opportunity to provide other players a chance to play and like I said, the reasoning behind playing Tommy was mainly because how good his attitude has been.
What does Gibran have to do to turn around his performance?
GD - Gibran just needs to play the way he did before his slump. Obviously he can throw the ball a lot better than he did at Illinois. It's nothing more than the obvious.
After looking at the films, was there any reason for the play, or would you just consider this game an aberration?
GD - Kickoff returns when you can't get back to your own 20. You're in a part of the field where according to the national statistics, you have 50 percent of scoring. Then you run three plays and punt it into Illinois' hands in a part of the field where the national average is 40 percent where the offense will score, and they score. Then you repeat the same exact thing and it's 14-0. We've done that before or something similar to that, but our offense finally came back and started to spark us, and our defense thought our offense was going to play better. That never happened last Saturday. I think that's what it's all about. It's getting behind 14-0 to a team that's better than its record. I think my feelings will bear what they're about ready to do. They'll win games.
Do you see anything with Gibran that affected him mentally in the Illinois game?
GD - No, I think you would see any quarterback press in that situation, down 14-0. He feels like he has to make too many plays. One thing we should be able to do offensively is still win the game even if your quarterback struggles. You should be able to run the football and complete the underneath West-coast style passes. One thing I like is that if you're struggling in the run game, you can still throw for 350 yards and win the game. It has diversity to it. There's a learning curve there, where if one of those two parts isn't hitting on all cylinders, you don't have to press it. If we're struggling on the ground, it's senseless to continue to run and face 2nd & 9. In this offense, for a quarterback to think that his arm is going to win or lose the ballgame is a mistake. I go back to the Miami/Boston College game last year when Ken Dorsey threw four interceptions and Miami still won the game. They didn't rely solely on his arm.
Talk a little bit more in depth about the goods and bads of the special teams.
GD - I thought our punt game was good enough to win against Illinois. We faked a punt, and we covered and protected well. I think Ryan (Hamre) is punting the ball well enough for us to win. Punt return...of course you have to make the other team punt to analyze...but our punt return is improving. Bryan (Robertson) is a 100 percent in league play, but of course he hasn't kicked a lot. When we are in the red zone, we're definitely looking for six (points) instead of three. Our field goal rush team is good enough to win. Our two teams that bother me the most is our kickoff team-our coverage isn't good enough-and our return game. We'll continue to make personnel changes and practice it. We have practiced this a little bit more than in the past and we'll continue to do that.
When we lost to Iowa, Kirk (Ferentz) made an interesting comment saying that we outplayed them after the first quarter. I don't know if that was true, but it was certainly kind of him to say that. It was clear that Iowa's special teams outplayed us the entire game, so we're a little bit of a work in progress, but I don't want the progress that we have made in special teams to go unnoticed.
The punt team is the most difficultly to coach, the most difficult to execute, and is by far the most important. We have made a lot of progress in our punt team, but we have fell short in our kickoff coverage and return teams.
Coach, what about injuries? What is the status on Damien Jones?
GD - He's out today, but as far as Saturday goes, I don't know what he is. He's not probable, but he's questionable.
A.C. Myler?
GD - He will be in practice today and he is probable. I knew he would come back as soon as I said it would take him more than two weeks. He fell right into that.
You're facing a team that has struggled against the run in the last three games. What are your impressions on how you stack up with them?
My take is that we are evenly matched with Northwestern. If you take a look at everything involved-kick game, defense, and offense-we are evenly matched. Their run-defense stats aren't good, but our run-offense stats aren't good either. You can look through the whole Big Ten stat book. They're a young team. I think they only have one senior on their defense. We don't have a lot of seniors on defense, so there are a lot of matchups. I think we would be splitting hairs if we just picked one phase where we are ahead of them. If you look A-to-Z though, you'll find two similar teams.
As far as their offense is concerned, their offense is something that we really haven't seen this year. Can you comment on that?
GD - It's actually very similar to Central Michigan. It's the Central Michigan/Tulane/West Virginia/Clemson spread-offense package in the true sense of the word. They run the zone play out of the shotgun, the tackle trap, a little bit of option, and then they throw the ball underneath. People say spread-offense when they get four wide, but we get four-wide but we are nowhere close to running the spread-offense. People confuse the spread-formation with the spread-offense. They're a packaged offense, they stick with it, and it's difficult to stop. They run it very good and it suits their personnel very well. It's a chicken-and-an-egg thing and that's probably why they went to it.
At this point in the year, are they (NU) as good as what Central Michigan was?
GD - I think they schematically are, but I mean the players are different. I don't like to compare players, but Central Michigan knows what they are doing with this offense and so does Northwestern.
You are last in the conference in rushing and second in the league passing. Are those statistics a bit of an aberration or more of a product of being in the situation of catch-up, where you have had to throw the football more?
GD - I think some of both. I think the last game, maybe the last two, stats reflect the fact that we were trying to catch somebody. In the perfect world we would like to be balanced, whether that is 200 passing and 200 rushing, 100/100, or whatever the number is. Over the course of the year, some people will defend you to where you can't run the football, so your numbers are going to be slanted towards the pass. But sometimes those numbers will be slanted the other ways toward the run. You do want a sense of balance at the end of the year, but not necessarily in each game. I think what you say is true though. In the last two games we have thrown a lot more, because you can catch up quicker by throwing the ball instead of running it.
Coach, if Damien Jones doesn't start, do you know who will get a look there?
GD - Duane Stone and Leonard Bryant will compete for it this week if D.J. can't play.
Can you talk a little about Bobby Brandt and the job he has done considering his back injury?
GD - We have a total number of snaps the centers take, and I can't remember how many he has, but he has taken a significant amount of snaps for his injury. He was really diligent in working to come back, and it was really important to him. His family and him researched a couple of surgeons because it was very difficult, due to the fact that very few surgeons had done this surgery before. I give him a lot of credit for playing the way he has played, playing as much as he has played, and practicing nearly every day. He really hasn't missed many days practicing. He didn't lift at all in the summer, so his strength isn't what it should be, but he has been a real trooper going through this. From a playing standpoint, he can certainly play better and we're on him quite a bit about it. When you look at it in perspective though, you're hats have to go off to him. To have a disc right in the middle, where one surgeon wanted to open it up and completely take everything out and then fix it, that's scary enough.
The Big Ten Commissioner (Jim Delany) talk about how he has received strong support from coaches concerning instant replay. Is that something that you would support?
GD - I would, but I really don't have strong feelings about it. When I am in the meetings, I usually yield to Ron Turner and Kirk Ferentz who have had NFL experience. Why not yield to their opinions. I always preface saying, what good will it do, it will never get through? Nobody really cares what the coaches think and who has the money to do that. I think it was Joe Tiller a couple of weeks ago who said he used to feel the same way but if the Big Ten has the money to do, why don't we do it? I think you're allowed to do it by conference. No NCAA rule has to be passed. There are so few things that you can do this with, that maybe the Big Ten should do it and be on the cutting edge. Then you're going to get into the voting of the athletics directors, because it is a $100,000 item. Out of the 11 schools in the Big Ten...I love saying that...out of the 11 schools in the Big Ten, how many are going to vote for and against will become a financial issue, unless the league incurs all the expenses.
Talk about position switches, much like the one with Kris Dielman. Is it typically done out of a need for the team or to help the player become better?
I would say it is more motivated by the team. It's hard to separate though. If "Johnny Jones" as no chance of playing tailback but you think he has a legitimate shot of playing cornerback or strong safety, it's almost one in the same. In Dielman's case, it was totally motivated by the team, because he certainly could have played tight end. In fact, he played tight end at Illinois. He could have stayed at tight end from a personal standpoint, but from a team's standpoint, I thought we should have moved him to defense.
