Indiana University Athletics
Huddle with Hep
8/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 15, 2005
Indiana football head coach Terry Hoeppner sat down with IUHOOSIERS.com to discuss Monday's morning practice and what he has liked so far during his first preseason camp with the Hoosiers.
On senior offensive lineman Adam Hines:
"We've always followed him and admired him from afar as a player and as a person. He is a captain, and he is a leader. He was one of the guys that really helped us have a great summer because he leads mostly by example. He is a guy that also made sure everyone else was doing what they needed to do. He really deserved to be a captain."
On why he chose to move Monday's practice inside Memorial Stadium:
"We've had a lot of rain, so we wanted to give our fields a chance to recover. I told the team that any chance we have, we are going to come in here. We practiced in our stadium all the time because we didn't have the practice fields there. I do think it is a home field advantage to practice on this surface. It is unique. It is a little different. They slip sometimes. We ought to learn from that. We ought to get comfortable and used to this surface. We are going to do it all the time. But, it can restrict the things you do when you have 105 guys out here at the same time. Especially when you go into scout teams. There are advantages and disadvantages. So, we want to choose wisely for when we come in here. I think today was a good opportunity for that, so that we could give our fields a chance to dry out a little bit."
On the grind of two-a-days:
"Grind sounds negative. They actually have a luxury during two-a-days because all they have to think about is football. Yesterday, we had a great teaching meeting day. We backed off on our quarterbacks' arms and kickers' legs and everybody's legs in general. Then we went to the movies last night as a team. The guys really had a good time. We've had the luxury of camp for almost a week now. It was a good time for a distraction."
As a coach, do you prefer the rainy weather or the hot weather from last week?
"Probably a little bit of both. We like to be able to turn up the heat and then turn it down. That is the beauty of our game. The elements are always a factor. We needed that heat early. We had some really good days in the heat. This was mentally, as much as physically, refreshing for the guys to feel a little bit of a breeze in the stadium. You like it to be hot, but you also can have too much of that."
Are you more pleased with the offense or defense?
"I told them that both had a really good mental day yesterday. We challenged them to do that stuff that we put in on both sides of the ball at full speed. There is some give and take. When you are playing against each other as we are still doing right now, you have some good and bad. A good play for one side is probably a bad one for the other. If there was a bad play, or if the offense got smoked, it was that the defense that got off a block and got to the football. If the offense made a big play, in most cases the defense was in good position and it was just a matter of execution. That is what you want. You want to see the execution as opposed to the mental errors. We didn't have much of that today. Sometimes it is two steps forward and one step back, but that is the nature of what we are doing now."
What was the word of the day at practice?
"Champions. We talked about that from the beginning. I challenged them to practice like that today. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good."
