Indiana University Athletics
Head Coach Terry Hoeppner's Weekly Press Conference
9/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 6, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Terry Hoeppner met with the media today for his weekly press conference.
Opening Statement:
"Thank you for being here. We are on week two already. We are looking forward to practicing, and getting ready for our next opponent. In spite of rumors to the contrary, I am confident that Nicholls State is coming in. I just talked to their coach yesterday, and I just want to say this. It is hard for any of us to appreciate what they are going through. It is unfathomable to me. He said that they had players whose families have literally lost everything. They have the clothes on their back and that is all they had. I can't speak to all of the specifics, because I am not privy to them. However, I offered him whatever we could do in terms of facilities and practice times. They could have come up early. It is just difficult to try to find transportation right now.
Rick Greenspan, our athletics director, has spoken with them. We have recently brought Anthony Travel on board and they are involved in this also. I am confident that the game will be played. They want to play the game, and they need to play the game. Obviously, we want to play. We are looking forward to that. As far as I am concerned, we are getting ready to play. We have spent a lot of time in preparation as coaches, I know that. We are preparing as if it were any other opponent.
Looking back, it seems like a long time ago now. Our guys are such great guys that wanted to please us so much as coaches. I thought that was the over-riding attitude among the team. They wanted to do well. They wanted to go out and win this first game. It was important to them. I think it showed that we played uptight. We didn't play as well as I had anticipated and hoped we would play. Especially on offense early. Defensively, if you take away the one long run, it was a pretty solid performance. They had a few other plays. You can't give them that long run. Overall, I thought the defense played well. The errors we made are correctable. They weren't effort errors. They didn't succeed because we were lazy. We also may have been in a call that put our guys in a tough situation. That was the same way on that long pass. The 66-yard and 80-yard plays, we need to put the players in a better position than we did.
Offensively, though we sputtered, we looked great at times. I was great to have James Hardy out there. We had hoped to play him 12 snaps. He played 46. That is good for him. That was his first game. We had 12 guys playing their first game, with three real freshmen. James showed himself, us and his teammates that he can play. He wants to play. We'll get him back practicing more this week I and think he will only get better. There are some things we would have liked to have done with him that we were unable to do because he hadn't been practicing as much as we would have liked.
Blake Powers played very well at times. He made some big plays when he had to. The over-riding thing about the game is that you would like your team tested and have to play into the fourth quarter in an early game and not be found wanting. That is exactly what happened. I said it and I've had some e-mails reminding me that it was not a thing of beauty. It wasn't the perfect game by any stretch, but we did some things well. We did things when we had to do them. That is the bottom line. Regardless of the opponent. Regardless of the situation, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I thought we were mentally, and at times, physically tough when we needed to be. Anytime you go on the road, it is definitely a plus. We will build on it. We will learn from it. We will be much better this week. We have already corrected so many things that we had to experience.
There are various types of learners. I think football players are those that improve after physically making a mistake. You would hope that they wouldn't have to do that. It is almost inevitable when an opponent is involved. It is not a judged competition. The opponent has a lot to do with it.
They were fired up. They were enthusiastic. It was a huge game for them. I have been on the other end of that game a couple years ago. Iowa came to Miami and we lose by five, 29-24. Then Iowa went on and won the Orange Bowl that year. Boston College went into Muncie last year and barely escaped. 11-on-11, once you get in between the lines, it doesn't really matter. They didn't say that you guys are from the Big Ten so we can't do something. They said that you are from the Big Ten and we want to show you something.
We won. We have learned a lot. We are healthy and are looking forward to the game this week."
On offering Nicholls State transportation help:
"There are no busses to be had down there right now. Again, if I get involved in talking to you about the specifics, then I will be off base. Last word I had, a charter coming from Dallas would pick them up and could land in Bloomington. They wouldn't even have to bus from Indianapolis. It is that specific and that far along in discussion. That is why I am confident about playing the game. There are still some logistics to work out there still. I talked to Coach Thomas. They sent their jerseys out to get names put on down in Gulfport, Miss. They were working with Nike there now to try and find those jerseys. They have their pants. We may lend them our jerseys to wear. They really need to play the game, as you can imagine. Just for the mental health of their players and everyone else involved. They want to play a football game. Obviously, we want to play a football game."
On when he expects a definitive answer to whether the game is on:
"As far as I am concerned, it is a go unless we hear something different. We already know to the point that the plans are for them to be here Friday morning. I've heard that. The answer is the game is on. It is a 4 p.m., kickoff, unless something unforeseen happens in the next 24 to 48 hours. Something would have to happen to keep them from getting on that plane."
On some of the transportation difficulties Nicholls State has encountered:
"The flight crews are something that has caused problems. There was a plane available, but no crews to fly. I had to get a crew down there, but there are FAA rules against so many people flying. It is a nightmare for them. We are going to show them some genuine Hoosier hospitality."
On whether anything specific has been organized to help out those affected by Hurricane Katrina:
"I have a meeting scheduled later today. Student groups and various other groups in the community want to use this as an opportunity. Our efforts right now are concentrated on helping them get here to play the game. We are also trying to accommodate them as best as we can. We need to get something organized and I am confident that we will."
On whether there is a fine line between the players having empathy for Nicholls State and playing a competitive football game:
"I think we can do that. The closest thing I have been involved in was the first game we had after 9-11. We played the University of Cincinnati. Both teams were on the field together with both bands for pre-game ceremonies. There was truly this united effort. Then, they said the game is on and let's kick it off. We played a football game. We don't have to have this tremendous dislike for them to play a game. It is a genuine empathy. It is truly hard to imagine what they are going through. We are going to make them feel as welcome and as comfortable as possible. Yet, when the game is on, we are going to play a football game. They wouldn't want any less. They wouldn't want anything less than our best effort against them"
On whether there was anything surprising defensively for him against Central Michigan:
"Vic Adeyanju. That was my first game watching him. He didn't disappoint. We had some breakdowns on defense. 14 of their 68 plays accounted for 333 of their 383 yards. In 54 plays, they had 50 yards. That is something I have done to analyze and identify the game. Was it a call? Was it the personnel group we had on the field? Was it the structure of the defense? Was it an individual breakdown? From that perspective, we want to get ourselves to those 54 plays for 50 yards. That was good. We executed those. What happened on those other plays?
We are going to be an attacking defense. What we can't do is be a boom-or-bust defense. We don't want to be a bend-don't-break defense. We are going to attack and try to take the ball away. We didn't take the ball away. That was disappointing. I thought we would have some takeaways."
On the running game:
"I thought we would run the ball better. We go down there and put a touchdown in there when we start with the ball, it is a completely different ball game. Why didn't we do that? I spent a lot of time with both sides of the ball. Our coaches are doing a great job of getting these errors corrected."
On whether IU had the same success with most of its yards on few plays:
"There is no doubt. Neither offense performed consistently. Both defenses performed pretty well consistently. Both offenses had some big plays. We had one more big play than they had when we had to have it. The best thing we did all night was punt the ball. We punted it way too many times. The fact we were able to execute that. Tyson Beattie is a veteran player for us. Tim Bugg performed very well. Bugg had a penalty on him. Austin Starr had a penalty on him. We had two specialists get personal fouls. I have given that group a new name; I call them the Nasty Boys."
On James Hardy facing different defenses:
"You have to pay attention to him. I truly think that was just a brief glimpse of what we can expect from him. As I said earlier, there were some other things we would have like to run, but didn't have it available because he hadn't practiced. For example, that last play, I ran that exact play before I started to play organized football. This play, I am going to drop back and throw it to you. You better catch it. We are going to throw the ball to James Hardy on that last play. He is a big target, and in that situation it was James Hardy Go-Deep. We actually had a play called, but I told Blake not to go through his reads. Just drop back and throw the ball to James, because he is a big target. If you throw the ball in that situation, like I said in the press conference, you have a better chance of getting pass interference. They can't just let us catch the ball. The game is on the line. If we catch it, it is over. They have to try to make a play. Franklin College against Butler in 1982, we had the same situation going in the same direction. Coach Faught said, and I looked at him like he was crazy, that there is a good chance we will get a pass interference called here if we don't complete the pass. They had pass interference called. Bill Lynch remembered, because he was coaching on that side. He remembered the player who was called for interference. You tend to remember the people with great plays. We had first-and-goal after that play and went in to score. Déjà vu, all over again. It is true and it happened. There is a chance that if we didn't catch it, they would interfere."
On John Pannozzo winning the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week:
"Talk about a stamp of approval on that move to switch him to linebacker. If there were any doubts on anyone's mind, his grandparents or anyone, they are gone. He can play middle linebacker."
On debuting at Memorial Stadium on Saturday:
"I am really looking forward to it. We are talking about the timing, the pre-game and the Walk. Everything involved with leading up to the kickoff. Once the game starts, I will be relieved at that point. We are playing a game again. Everything else, whether it is recruiting, getting to the hotel on Friday night or getting here on Saturday for the police escort, it will be my first experience with it here. Again, an element of the unknown. Not to the degree that it was last week. Harold Mauro did a phenomenal job of organizing that trip. It went off very smoothly. It was very well planned. It went off well. The players helped execute it. I said last night, I was confident that we will be complimented by the hotel personnel and by the flight personnel. They volunteered the information. They said that our guys were well behaved and polite and would like to have them back at their hotel again. That is rewarding too. They know how to be gentlemen."
On whether he expects the marketing prior to the season will pay off:
"Yes. We are going to have 200 motorcycles leading us down 37. They are going to be leading us back into Bloomington. There is no doubt. Did we reach the goal? No. We are not where we want to be yet. The similarities between our team on the field and the program off the field are paralleling each other. I don't know what people expected. I am sure some people were disappointed in our performance. I was disappointed in some things, like everyone else. We as a coaching staff, our expectations were higher than anyone else's. We have the same expectations of our program and what it can bring. We want people who care enough to show up and support us. It is good for everybody. It is a win for everyone. I am still getting opportunities to speak to students. I don't know what I am going to do on game day. I may circle out on a motorcycle....no, I won't do that."
On who will start at running back:
"I have talked to both of them. They are 1 and 1A. It is like the batting order with someone at third or fourth. They are both going to play. Together, we are going to talk specifics about it. Yamar played very well. Maybe C.T. loosened them up and Yamar went in and reaped the benefits. My favorite play with Yamar was his block on Marcus Thigpen's catch, which turned out to be the winning points. They were sending a corner on a crash stunt. What he did to that young man, it was very clean and very legal, but he blocked him so hard that his helmet flew off. Then, he saw Marcus running and he ran off the length of the field. We as coaches said wow. We need to point that out. He was running by some of our other guys."
On how many true freshmen are on the bubble that might see playing time:
"I think we traveled five and three of them played. Joe Kleinsmith, it wasn't his greatest kicking night ever. I don't want to make excuses for him, but as soon as I walked on that field, it is Field Turf and is a great surface, but it was very soft and spongy. It was more so than I had ever been on in the past. It affects the kicking game. I shave off the shoes of the kickers with my grinder at home. I hadn't shaved off Joe's enough. You kind of bounce with all of that rubber and you tend to hit it low. It is like coming over the top. He wasn't kicking great in pre-game. It is a home-field advantage there. He will kick better. He kicked better on Sunday. He is a good kicker. Austin Starr kicked the first one out of bounds and then his next kick came in right where we wanted it. Then we tackled them inside the 10. That contributed to our next touchdown because they had bad field position. The kicking game is so important. When they kicked to us short, we ended up with good field position. We took advantage of it. Our punt team is close to some big punts."
On the offensive line:
"When you are so wound up and uptight, you don't play as fast as you should play. Up front with the offensive line, I don't think we came off the ball and hit them. I know that group is disappointed. They did not play as well as they could have played. Yamar didn't get 95 yards rushing all by himself. At some point, we started blocking better. We had the ball for 21 minutes in the second half. That is phenomenal. Some statistics are misleading and some are illuminating. That is an illuminating stat that we had the ball for 21 minutes in the second half. That is a credit to our guys picking it up."
On the wide receiving corps:
"You can't say enough about Marcus. The catch, Blake stood in there and made the throw at a critical time. Then, Marcus makes the catch-and-run. He makes the catch, breaks a tackle and gets a block. Hardy blocked two guys on it. Marcus was able to keep his balance. Rick Greenspan made a good observation that his strength work over the summer probably helped him to keep his balance and run out of that tackle. Then, he was gone. We had three guys playing in their first game. We had some drops, but I think the potential with those guys. That was a question mark in the spring game. There is tremendous potential there. We are going to take advantage of the talent we have there."
On Nicholls State:
"It is like an Air Force triple option. It looks like a run-and-shoot with two wide receivers. They also have two slotbacks and a fullback. The backs are going in motion to get into pitch-relationship. They also run counters. They have been running the toss out of it and they got in the gun some last year. They are mostly a triple option type of team. They have a veteran quarterback as one of their captains. They have had a number of transfers. The advantage of being 1-AA is that there are guys from LSU, Toledo and Cincinnati that are eligible to play on their team. That is an unknown. How much better are they going to be? Defensively, they are very athletic, fast and blitzing. They do some good things. Now we are going into a second game with the unknown. What are they going to do this year? I would rather have the advantages we have than the disadvantages they have. They probably have our tape and have seen us play. They are an athletic team with speed. They have had a number of guys in the NFL."
