Indiana University Athletics
Coach Allen Bowl Week Update - Christmas Eve
12/24/2016 10:08:00 PM | Football
SAN FRANCISCO - Following Saturday's practice at Laney College in Oakland, Indiana head coach Tom Allen gave an update on the team's first couple days out West. Below is the transcript.
On the team adjusting to California...
It's been pretty awesome. The weather's great. Not a cloud in the sky. The kids are loving it. It's Christmas Eve, as I told them at the beginning of practice. It's Christmas Eve, it's sunny and we're practicing football. They all got fired up when I said that. And we're blessed with the chance to be out here and do something special together. But you've got to get adjusted to the time change more than anything. I woke up this morning at six our time, which is three here, naturally. I realized that I had several more hours to go. But anyways, we're all kind of in the same boat. We're just trying to get ourselves ready for that, and we had a really good practice. It's off to a good start.
On today's practice...
I thought it was really, really high energy. We had a lot of good intensity. We had shoulder pads and helmets on, so I wanted a physical practice, and that's what we got. The kids are buying in. It's a normal Tuesday for us. That's kind of how we talk about it, so we have that approach. It's a normal game week mode right now. Nothing really changes for us. We're just trying to be as normal as possible.
On Utah...
A very good football team. Obviously they're ranked in the top 20 for a reason, and they've been even higher throughout the season. I think just big, physical line of scrimmage players on both sides of the ball. They're tremendously talented on special teams - punters, kickers, return guys. Any time you play a great defense and play really, really well on special teams, you're going to have a shot. And then you match that with a very, very talented tailback on offense that put up a lot of points against good people. They beat USC earlier in the year, and they really had a shot to really beat everybody else on their schedule, and they played some awfully good football teams. We have a ton of respect for them. They're as good as we've played all year, so we're going to have to be on top of our game.
On the team's schedule...
You can't forget the real important time of the year that it is for all of our players and their families. It is Christmas Eve. We've got a lot of coaches families that have gifts for their kids that are here. And then we'll have a Christmas dinner for our guys and have a chance to go to Christmas service tonight if they choose to do so. We'll be glad to be a part of that as well and just remember it's an important time of the year for everybody.
