Coach Allen Meets with the Media Before IUFB Heads West

On the mock game...
"We had a mock game today, which I thought was very positive. It was two-fold in purposes. Number one, it was good for me in the mechanics of calling the defense as well as being with the offense and the special teams. When you do things in practice you have to structure things in a sense that you do not often do ones versus ones. It has to be offense against the scout team and the defense versus the scout team. Today, the scouts were on one field and we were on the other field. So it was really a game day feel with situations and moving the ball. I thought it was very good."

On live hitting...
"No. No, actually we just did helmets and spiders."

Lessons from the mock game...
"I got a lot from it. Even as things happened I jotted down some notes. The keys are the special teams transition plays: the punt team, field goals or going for it on fourth down. We have to have guys in the press box coordinating all of that with me. Kevin [Wilson] and I would talk about those things, whether or not to go for it on fourth down, during the season. That was my extent of the input. It is just a matter of making those decisions. Today we simulated me being on the sideline talking to the defense, going over adjustments from the previous drive and there is a three-and-out and we are back out there. I have to be over there with the offense on that third down to talk about the decision of what punt to use or if we are going to go for it. Those are different things that I thought we were able to iron out today."

On the plan for when IU is on offense...
"I will be able to talk to those guys. I am not going to tell them what to call, but I do want to be in tune with what we are doing and also in tune with the situation. I want to get a feel about going for things and and what we want to do with the clock and all that stuff. I really never watched a lot of the offense during our games. It was not that we were always making those adjustments the entire time but I just always found myself going to a kid or a coach, and so occasionally I would watch a little bit of the offense, but I will definitely be way more involved with the the flow of the game. I want to make sure I have my pulse on that.

On having high school coaches at practice...
"They appreciate the fact that they feel welcomed here. They can come and watch practice, sit in on our meetings and watch film with us. I always felt like that is how I learned the best by being able to sit in there and be a fly on the wall. I did not ask a million questions but I just listened, took notes and just tried to learn. It is always about why you do what you do. I just always loved sitting back and just listening to them talk to each other and as questions came up and then asking those questions myself one-on-one. So I always want to be able to give those guys a chance to do that when it is appropriate. This is a great time because they can very rarely come when we are getting ready for a game."

On the practice schedule in California...
"It is pretty set. We went through it a few weeks ago when we we met and went over the schedule. We know this is when the teams will practice, so we will go to our site and they will go to their site. We will have a practice window every day and you use it how you see fit. The first day we will be out there, we will get up in the morning and we will have a practice. We will have meetings to start with, so it will be a normal flow, but we have to get on the bus to go to practice rather than walking outside. We will come back and have our meals and then have some bowl activity. The interesting thing with this bowl is two of the practice days are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We will make sure there are opportunities for guys to just enjoy Christmas in San Francisco and be able to go to a Christmas service that if they choose. It also allows us to be with our families, but we have to schedule around it."

On having Dick Dullaghan around...
"It means a lot because he was one of the main guys that helped me get to where I am now. I have so much respect and appreciation for him because he made a huge impact on my life, and not just as a man but as a coach. He is so respected. He goes to many different programs, pro teams, college teams and high schools to spend time with them and evaluate what they are doing. He is one of those guys that has strong convictions about what he believes and he is not bashful about telling you. That is pretty cool, because you always know what he is thinking. He will tell you the good and the bad because he wants to help you get better. So he shared some stuff with the guys, and they all thought he had a ton of energy. He is 72 years old and you would never know it. He gave them a fiery talk. To hear what he was saying, I have heard him say those things for a long time, but he believes in them and I find them to be true. He was encouraged, he loved what he saw and we had a great time together."

On what Dullaghan brought...
"He focuses on and how your coaches teach. He watches practice and how the coaches explain things. He has done this for so long, he obviously gets that component. You have to be a great teacher. He has this one quote, he says the essence of coaching is the correction of errors. That is true but it is how you correct, the style that you use and the way you handle the player to get him to be motivated to want to correct those mistakes. We talked about making sure the drills we do have game preparation in mind, we do not do drills just to do drills. We talked about the things that he believes are true no matter what level you are coaching. He challenged the players to embrace the process of becoming special and becoming great. I took a lot of my things I believe now from him, like the quote he gave our guys about your conviction driven leadership is based on the vision of perfection. He really explained what that means. As a coach you see what you want, you have a clear picture of what you know it looks like, you have that standard that you set for that and you do not let anybody rest until you get what you want. To me, that defines him. He was relentless in the way that he approached everything and it made him a really special coach."

On Utah's film...
"I will have watched every single game by the time that we play them. I am in the process of working through that right now. There are obviously a core of them you focus on that you feel like fit their schemes, fit with what we do and then also you have to think about how some games are so long ago that you have to evaluate how they are similar to early weeks this season. You go back just to make sure you have not missed something in all three phases. By the end of this process, and some of this will be reserved for the long flight, I want to be able look at the little things that you see from those early games to see if they might be a little different now."

On why their defense is so tough...
"Their D-line. They are so disruptive. Any time you can force the quarterback to throw early under duress, pressure him, pressure effects everyone. That is their key."

On Coy Cronk's freshman All-America honor...
"I do not know that anybody would have projected that. We knew he was going to be a player for sure, but that is a tough position to be a true freshman. Normally you are not physically ready to play on the line of scrimmage in the Big Ten at that age. It is tremendous on his part to be able to accomplish this. I think that he has a tremendously bright future and I think he is a pretty special player. He does not get too caught up in himself and he just goes to work every day. You would not even know that he has done something so unprecedented. That is pretty special."

On the decision to redshirt or play a true freshman...
"The philosophy is usually this, if they are good enough to play and they are better than the guy in front of him no matter what grade, then they are going to play. I do think that kids today, by what most high school programs do in comparison to 10 years ago, are so much more ready to play collegiately. That is why we are seeing a lot more freshmen contribute early, especially with the year-round strength and conditioning. Our philosophy is, if they are ready to play we are going to play them. There is definitely an advantage redshirting a guy, but I think every kid is a little different."

On Marcelino Ball freshman All-America honor...
"Sometimes you do all that, you are targeting a guy and you think he is going to be certain things and then it does not pan out that way. We have been there before. Recruiting is a very inexact science. You really do not know how a kid is going to respond. We saw qualities in Marcelino that we knew he was going to be able to be a great player here. It proved to be true. It was very gratifying for the evaluation process but also for him, because he came in and did everything we expected him to do."

Coach Allen Meets with the Media Before IUFB Heads West

Players Mentioned

Coy Cronk

Marcelino McCrary-Ball

Indiana University Athletics