Indiana University Athletics
Wilson Encouraged with Depth as Camp Closes
8/20/2016 9:23:00 PM | Football
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IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson believes that the most important thing his football team can have leaving fall camp is depth. Many practices over the past few weeks have seen the twos and threes get as many or more reps than the starters. Today's scrimmage was not much different.
"We are deeper, and we are going to need it," said Wilson. "Today, Ricky Jones and Mitchell Paige did not get a bunch of work. We need Isaac James, Ricky Brookins, Nick Westbrook and Luke Timian to mature. A lot of work today was with those young guys. It was good to see those guys, because I believe to be a good football team in the Big Ten, and to be a good team early, you need a lot of players."
A goal of the Hoosiers coaching staff was keeping the team as fresh as possible during camp. It is no secret that a football team has to be able to block and tackle to be successful, but over-hitting can cause lingering injuries that will affect the team in the back half of the season.
"For me, when you pop the pads as a football team you have to learn to re-establish how to tackle and block and the physical presence and body language of a good team," Wilson said. "You have to learn how to hit, but you also have to be smart. We have done a lot of hitting. We actually did a great job yesterday at our practice. We did a lot of hitting knowing that today the line of scrimmage would be a little modified. The last two days have been awesome. I think we are building the toughness we need and the depth we need."
As fall camp officially came to a close today, Wilson was excited at the progress his team has made. He knows that starting the season on the road against a tough opponent such as Florida International will provide a great challenge to his team. Getting them ready to play and play at a high level is the goal, and Wilson likes the direction the team has moved.
"We had a good camp and really good today," Wilson said. "Defense has been great. We have had a great week. We need these next four or five days, with classes getting started, to add a lot of polish heading into game week. We came out of camp healthy and with a team that is headed in the right direction. We just need to keep working, but I like the work."
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