Indiana University Athletics
April 2 Practice Report
4/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 2, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Hoosiers' eighth practice held in Memorial Stadium on April 2 marked the halfway point of the spring practice season. After scrimmaging on April 1 the Hoosiers returned to the field ready to work on improving their skills in individual position drills followed by seven-on-seven and 11-on-11.
During seven-on-seven, redshirt freshman defensive back Jerry Williams showed good coverage batting down a ball from its intended receiver. Meanwhile, freshman wide receiver Terrance Turner caught a 55-yard touchdown strike from junior quarterback Blake Powers.
After seven-on-seven the redshirt freshmen running backs tore up the field with an impressive 45-yard run by Justin Carrington and a 25-yard run by Demetrius McCray in 11-on-11 drills.
Following practice, IUHOOSIERS.com caught up with Indiana assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Bill Lynch as well as co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach Joe Palcic to discuss the first two weeks of the spring season.
Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Bill Lynch:
On the Hoosiers' April 1 scrimmage:
BL: I think we need to pick up our running game. I think our defense played really well, but we have to find a way to run the ball better. We have to do a better job with our pass protections, and we have to make some plays down the field in the passing game. So, it's everybody on the offense involved that we've got to get better in order to develop the consistency it takes to really be a good offensive football team.
Overall thoughts on the practice season thus far:
BL: I think we have a lot of young guys playing, I think we've made some good improvements. I think all in all as a football team we have a good feel for what we're doing and getting better. I think we're finding the answers to some of the things we're looking for from a personnel standpoint. So, we're halfway through it, and I think the second half has to be even more productive than the first.
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach Joe Palcic:
On what needs to be improved from the April 1 scrimmage:
JP: I think we can improve on our tackling, and especially our angles to the ball which was a problem last year and it seems to be a continuing thing. So, I think we need to emphasize our tackling a little bit and make sure we do a better job at that. I like what we're doing on defense. We've changed some scheme things and I think the guys that we have and what we're doing better fits them. We're sort of molding our defense to our personnel, and I think that's important. I think we need to just continue to improve on what we're doing.
On the redshirt freshmen:
JP: I think there are a lot of them that are playing really well right now. Two that stand out in my mind are Austin Thomas, I think you will definitely see him on the field somewhere. He's a good enough player where we need to get him somewhere, whether it's at safety or linebacker. Also, Jammie Kirlew, these are two guys that we've talked about as coaches as players that have to play for us.
