Indiana University Athletics
Safeties Excited with Allen’s Energy
8/5/2016 1:53:00 PM | Football
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Fall Camp on Social Photo Gallery Quotes Videos: Joseph | Dutra | Crawford |
By: Charlie Duffy
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Defensive coordinator Tom Allen has high expectations for everyone on the defensive side of the ball, especially the safeties. The group is still young, but more experienced and battle tested this season than in years past. With both of last season's starting safeties returning, redshirt junior Chase Dutra is the unquestioned leader in the secondary.
"He has a lot of juice," Dutra said of Coach Allen. "He holds you very responsible, he expects you to know your stuff, he is not going to play anyone that does not know his stuff. He is really enthusiastic. He loves the game and he love us."
With the arrival of Coach Allen in the winter came a shift in the defensive approach. Allen coaches with a passion that is contagious. As practice goes on the players, and even the coaches, can feel it and they feed off of it. The defense has a new edge to them on the practice field.
"He definitely has a lot of juice," sophomore Jonathan Crawford said. "He is always excited."
The other aspect that Coach Allen brought to Bloomington is a new defensive playbook, something this secondary is still working through. The new scheme took time to adjust to, but the defense is building confidence in it each day, each practice.
"Having more confidence, being patient, knowing our playbook," Crawford said. "We were young last year and had a lot of trouble with the playbook, so this year we are just getting down to it. We are making a lot of improvements."
Safeties coach Noah Joseph is excited about the progress the young group has made. They battled through injuries in the spring, but they have rebounded and benefitted from a strong summer.
"In spring ball it was learning the defense, terminology, fits and the scheme," Joseph said. "In the summer, we are fine-tuning and concentrating more on our fundamental aspects of block protection, tackling and those sorts of things."
