Indiana University Athletics
Head Coach Terry Hoeppner's Weekly Press Conference
10/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 11, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Terry Hoeppner met with the media Tuesday, Oct. 11, for his weekly press conference.
On Troy Grosfield's conversion from kicker to safety:
"I have seen him kick one time. I wanted to see if he could really kick. I had him kick and extra point one day. I have only seen him as a defensive back. He was making plays during the spring. We had some idea and a frame of reference of what he could do, but not much of one. We did a pretty good job keeping an open mind about players. We let them prove to us what they could do. He is just a football player. He is an excellent open-field tackler. I am really surprised that he hasn't had a few interceptions. He really has a nose for the ball and catches well. He could play receiver. He has good enough hands to do that. He has established himself as one of the strengths of our defense."
On Iowa:
"I probably have more familiarity with them than any Big Ten team, in that we played them three straight years. The best we did was 2002 when we played them in Oxford. It was a close game there. They truly line up and play football. I am not saying they aren't versatile or have imaginative schemes, but what you see is what you get with the Hawkeyes. They do it so well. I think it is the same coaching staff almost completely that we coached against. We didn't beat them. I know that. That is a tough place to play. It was one of the toughest places we ever played. In 2001, they really got after us. I really admire Coach Ferentz. We talked about using Red Ink to Roses as tangible evidence of hope that a program like Wisconsin could get to where they got to. I look at Iowa, and I would like to copy them in how they have done it. With the players they recruited, I did that at Miami. That is what we wanted to do. They had the type of linemen that you can develop. They also were a program that had success in the past, and then had some lean years, and now they are back to one of the top teams in the Big Ten. Anytime you win on the road that is a big win. We are going to have to step it up to compete with these guys."
On whether preparing for Iowa was any easier than Illinois due to the amount of things they use offensively:
"Maybe, in terms of preparation. Illinois was a challenge. I think we worked around 90 hours on them total. That was the most of any week so far. Simply because of the variety of things they do. They had all those formations. That is not what Iowa does. The fact that they have a consistency in the coaching staff and the success they have had, they remarked that they played Iowa football last week. After watching that game, they really played well against Purdue."
On the typical week for a coach:
"I had a question last night on the radio about what I do when I am not coaching. I told them I can't remember. I had another question. A student called and said that he and his buddies wanted to take me out to dinner. I haven't had a chance to respond. My wife said that she would respond. She only has me one night a week for dinner and those guys can't have me. I appreciated the offer, though. It is just what we do. We play games on Saturday. Sunday is a long day because you are putting a game to rest. Good, bad or indifferent. You go over it with your players, and go over personnel. The players come in and have injury check and then get a lift in. Then, in the afternoon, we meet with the players until about 7 p.m. Then, you start focusing on the next opponent. Monday is the day off for the players. That is really for us to prepare. That is a good plan, because you spend a lot of time. You get to prepare for Tuesday's practice. You have two days there. We'll come back after practice and watch tape with the defense tonight. I'll watch tape with the offense tomorrow morning. Wednesday night is with the defense, and Thursday morning is with the offense again. Friday mornings, we don't do anything. Thursday evening and Friday mornings are our times when there is not as much structure. Last Friday, I talked on the telephone from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. That is a lot of fun to do. I liked that."
On Drew Tate:
"He is obviously the man who runs that machine. He is the engine of that offense. I haven't played against him. He is dangerous. He is similar to last week in that we have to defense his running and passing ability. He had a big game last week. He appears to be on a roll. As he goes, so go the Hawkeyes on offense. You can't just say it is going to be a challenge for the secondary. That is a challenge for the entire defense. We need to try and contain Drew Tate. We can't let him have those big plays. He really had a super year last year. He had a tough game against Iowa State and Ohio State, but if he is playing well, they are tough to handle."
On Blake Powers' improvement from the spring:
"I said it to someone during the spring that I wasn't sure if we would be able to throw a pass in the fall. We better run the ball every play. It wasn't Blake. Don't misunderstand me. It was learning the terminology and the system. We didn't have James Bailey or James Hardy that much. Marcus Thigpen was there, and Jahkeen Gilmore was learning the system. We had new receivers, and not very many of them. Combine that with a talented quarterback. From day one, I was impressed with the intangibles of Blake. He exudes confidence and leadership. You feel good. When Blake is out there, something good is going to happen. He has developed that confidence in us. He was the most improved. He had a great summer. In the fall, we saw that we could throw it and someone could catch it. That was a big improvement from the spring. He has a lot of upside. He is running the team very well. He is completing a higher percentage of passes. We want to complete over 60 percent, we also want to control the ball and throw touchdown passes. You can tell if our offense is working if those things are happening. We also want to throw to a number of guys. James Hardy has been his favorite target, but we are still throwing it to a lot of different guys. He has 18 touchdowns. If you had said that Blake Powers was going to have 18 touchdowns after five games, I would have taken it. I wouldn't even negotiate it."
On how Powers handles adversity:
"He is the epitome of a guy who is humble and is probably too hard on himself. There are not too many times that I have said critical things to Blake Powers. He beats me to it."
On how Powers runs the offense:
"In all honestly, the system works much better when you have a guy that is talented like Blake. He has the intangibles and the physical skills to do well in the offense. When you watch how he throws the ball, he does it the right way. That is what I liked about him. When you see pictures of him in various positions, the ball where it needs to be. He has a compact delivery and gets rid of the ball pretty quickly. Some guys have that. We don't have to work on that with him. He keeps his feet under him better than he did in the spring. He gets rid of the ball quicker. Some of that is coaching. Coach Canada does a great job with our quarterbacks."
On the confidence the team has after winning four games:
"It is not anything you can check out of the equipment room and give the guys. You can wish for it. They have to gain that confidence themselves. It is like putting on the pads and equipment. It is something they have to do. It happens through the preparation in the summer. We challenged them in the spring. We want to play 12. What you guys do between now and then will determine how realistic that goal becomes. Then, in game one, we had a lot of up-tight people. They wanted to do so well that it took us awhile to settle in. Game two, we escaped with the win. Game three that felt like what we needed to do. I told them after the Kentucky game that now they know it works. Now, we can't put it on cruise. We got to the starting line. We need to start building on that. We need to do it more and do it better. We are still climbing the ladder. It is obvious that the guys know that we can run the ball. We need to run the ball more consistently, though. For sure, we can throw it. We can make plays in the passing game. We just don't want to become one-dimensional. We are still not throwing it as well as I think we can throw it."
On the parity in the Big Ten:
"When you look at the schedule we have, it might be the toughest six games in the country back-to-back, but when you look at it, as Coach Ferentz said, on any given week it can happen. Maybe it is getting closer now to doing that. I haven't been around long enough to comment on that. Hopefully that is true, because we continue to be successful and win some games. This is a big one this week. Every game now becomes hypercritical, because there is only one undefeated team. The door is wide open. Who is going to take advantage of it? Everyone is knocking, who is going to break through?"
On whether he has installed any more of his playbook:
"What you do is you plan the offense, then you constantly adjust and tinker it. This pattern is very similar the last three weeks, but we are going to adjust it this week. It is not like we haven't gotten to all the chapters. It is not like that. There are thing that we have identified that our players do well. We are going to do those things. One of the biggest areas is the wide receivers. They are young, and some of them are playing in their first year of college football. As a group, our receivers have impressed me. Brandon Walker-Roby is out there playing as a real freshman. I can't remember the last time I had a real freshman playing in games and making plays at wide receiver. That is a testament to our coaching staff. They have identified what our guys do well. They are organizing the offense to take advantage of what they do well in the passing and running game."
On whether teams have started to use the option after the success that Nicholls State had with the option:
"This past week, Illinois used that double slot. It wasn't like they put it in just for us because they watched the Nicholls State game. That was part of it. The good thing was, we didn't have to start over from scratch. We played it pretty well. There were some other options that we didn't play as well. Coach George said he was glad we played those guys. It got us ready for the elements of the option we have seen from other people. We didn't have to talk about it. We just had to tell the guys to play it better than we did before. We did."
On whether teams will put plays in specifically because they see it work against an opponent:
"It is funny. We see something that worked really well that is part of our offense that is something that we really want to do. You see teams that are using what is popular right now with the spread offense. There are elements of the option involved. I think people are just trying to see if teams have learned anything and gotten better at it. I think our defense will be fine for it."
On the tangible evidence of confidence of the team:
"We have had productive weeks at practice. We didn't play great, but did good enough against Illinois. I think we might have worn them down in the fourth quarter. We always want to win the fourth quarter. We made some big plays when we needed to. Going into the game, I felt good because of the spirit of the team. They had that attitude from Thursday to Saturday. They were ready to roll. They couldn't wait to play. You never know. I quit guessing a long time ago on pre-game warm-up. I've had times where we were flat, and we came out and played really well. I really sense that right up until warm up, our guys are eager and focused to play. That shows they have confidence if they are excited to play."
On whether he has seen a difference in the team heading into this game as opposed to heading into the Wisconsin game:
"I haven't seen the players much. We had a light workout Sunday. You always feel good on a Sunday after a win. I think it is human nature that we will be upbeat. It was not as jovial last week. I think they will still have the effort. The seniors set that tone. Pannozzo may have reminded them we needed to be serious. It was more of a serious tone than I had seen. It paid off. Maybe I'll have John tell them that this week. We still practiced well. That is the most impressive. It is Tuesday and is a workday. They come to practice ready."
