Indiana University Athletics
Hagen Excited For Homecoming
2/19/2016 10:57:00 AM | Football
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Mark Hagen is used to being introduced at Indiana. He's done it twice before.
The first time was as a player. He graduated in 1991 as a four-year letterwinner, two-time All-Big Ten selection and three-time Academic All-Big Ten winner as a linebacker under Bill Mallory before starting a coaching career at IU as a graduate assistant.
The second time was as a coach. Hagen spent the first two years of head coach Kevin Wilson's tenure working with the Hoosiers' defensive tackles and special teams groups. That lasted until he accepted a job at Texas A&M, where he spent the last three seasons.
Now on his third stint at Indiana, Hagen said this return to Bloomington felt like a homecoming. As the Hoosiers' new defensive line coach, he's being asked to renovate a line while implementing new defensive coordinator Tom Allen's 2-5 scheme.
"I was able to take another job a few years back and maybe get out of my comfort zone a little bit and go to a different place in the country, recruit a different area and see some different things," Hagen said. "I know that I've grown. I've learned a lot, and those are things that I think I can build on and add back to this program."
Much like himself, the Indiana team Hagen returns to doesn't resemble the one he left. That much was evident from the first day on the job.
Hagen walked into Indiana's weight room Monday morning at 6 a.m. to watch new strength coach Keith Caton direct a team workout. He said the players' buy-in was unlike what he remembered, a sign of the program's growth during the time he was gone.
"It's a different looking team," he said. "(Coaches) are not out there screaming and yelling to get these kids to buy in and give them the energy, the effort on a day-to-day basis. You can tell the leadership is a lot different today than maybe it was a few years ago. It's a well-oiled machine."
Like any new coach, Hagen is conducting individual meetings to catch up to speed with his new players. He already knows a few of the upperclassmen from the recruiting process and previous ties to the state, but he still needs to develop trust as the new guy in the position room.
Seniors like Ralph Green III are particularly important because they'll be the ones dictating the direction of the program, Hagen said. The Hoosiers don't hide the fact that the offense has shouldered the majority of the load in recent seasons, but they have made wholesale changes in recent years to close the gap.
"It's important to Ralph," Hagen said. "I know it's important to the rest of these guys to get this going in the right direction."
But what's that going to take?
"That's the million dollar question," Hagen said. "If there was an easy answer out there, it would have been fixed a long time ago."
Working alongside a longtime friend in Allen—who Hagen repeatedly praised during his introductory press conference—Hagen said the coaches' plan is to simplify Indiana's defense as best they can. Once the Hoosiers have proven themselves working out of more basic sets, they'll keep adding increasingly complex schemes into the mix.
It's a strategy aligned with what Hagen did at Texas A&M. Over the course of three seasons, the Aggies' defense improved from allowing 32.6 points per game to just 22.4, ranking No. 28 nationally in 2015.
Hagen will have a similar starting point at Indiana. The Hoosiers are coming off of a season where they allowed 36.8 points per game.
"We want to give these kids what they can handle," Hagen said. "We want to go into the game with enough ammunition to be able to counteract these high-powered offenses, but at the end of the day we've got to go out and execute."
A native of Carmel, Ind., Hagen has already gotten to work recruiting and formulating his long-term plan for the program. He said he'll want to add speed, length and athleticism across the defensive line over the next few recruiting classes, much like programs in the SEC are increasingly doing.
The roster he inherited doesn't quite have that yet, but Hagen said he likes the potential. The changes won't always be easy, Hagen said, but he doesn't see why the Hoosiers can't make strides as soon as next season.
"I think the pieces are in place. I really do," Hagen said. "It's been done before and it will happen again. The time is now. That's kind of our approach."
