Indiana University Athletics
Gooch a Full Grown Leader for IUFB
10/6/2017 2:38:00 PM | Football
By: Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - For Greg Gooch, mother knows best.
She's the fuel behind the Indiana senior defensive end's drive to thrive, the motivation as he continues his transformation into difference-making leader.
"She's been through a lot," Gooch says. "When I don't feel like getting up at 6 in the morning to come to practice, I think about her and what she used to do. That drives me."
Dwan Tolbert was a single mom in Longwood, Fla., raising three boys and a girl while juggling a job as a surgical technician in a hospital emergency room. It was a challenge in the best of times, and when the boys got rowdy, as boys sometimes do, a soft word wasn't always enough.
Let's just say you didn't mess with mom.
"She was really demanding," Gooch says. "We had a lot of fun, but with three boys, it can get a little rough. She had to settle us down. As we got older, we calmed down."
Dawn had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to work, first making sure the kids had breakfast, had packed their lunches and weren't late for school. The challenge intensified when she developed sickle cell anemia.
She never wavered.
Neither does her son.
Why?
In a word, passion.
"Football is basically my purpose, my why," he says. "I have so much passion for this game. I wouldn't do anything else."
It makes a Crean 'n Crimson difference, fifth-year senior safety Chase Dutra says.
"He brings great intensity. He always has got juice with him. He hypes me up. I hype him up. He always has great enthusiasm. He makes everyone around him better. That's how he is."
Gooch's high-energy approach never stops. Coach Tom Allen, also known for his full-throttle ways, notices and appreciates. Gooch is a force of nature even when teammates hit a practice wall.
Quarterback Richard Lagow knows all about Gooch's force -- in the locker room, and beyond.
"He's priceless to this team," Lagow says.
A pause.
"We're really close. A lot of time in spring ball and camp he and I were going at it because he's so close on the D-line."
In these practice moments, Gooch would say and do things to distract Lagow. At 6-2 and 250 pounds, lining up just a yard or so away, Gooch was hard to miss, harder to ignore. Adding to the challenge, linebacker Tegray Scales was nearly as close doing the same thing.
Pay no attention, quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan would tell Lagow in so many words. Focus on the next play.
Lagow tried. He wasn't always successful
"Coach Sheridan would get on me," Lagow says. "He'd say, put on the ear muffs and blinders. He'd say, don't go over there and talk to Gooch. Don't talk to Tegray. Move on to the next play. That was something I needed to work on.
"Gooch is a huge leader on this team. He's someone I looked up to when Coach Allen took over the whole team to mold the offense around. He and Tegray got the defense to buy into everything Coach Allen was saying, so they helped on that."
Gooch wasn't a leader when he arrived, which is typical of freshmen.
He is now.
"He's a great leader," redshirt sophomore safety Andre Brown Jr. says. "Over the summer, he was encouraging guys, motivating guys. Maybe guys would be a little tired and he'd come in energetic, waking everybody up and making sure everybody was ready to go and give 100 percent."
Growing into this role, Gooch adds, didn't come easy for him.
"It takes a process. You learn from the older guys. I know one thing I struggled with as a leader was not being vocal, more so getting on guys.
"I'm the type of leader that I show by example. I'll get on you if you do the wrong thing and lead you in the right direction, but I'm more the guy who shows by example. I think I became more effective just by showing an example."
Along the way, Gooch learned his life-isn't-always-fair lesson. It cost him the second half against Virginia and the first half against Georgia Southern, and if the targeting call for helmet-to-helmet contact with Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert seemed harsh, well, sometimes life is.
Expect him to be a better player because of it.
Expect Indiana's defense to be better because of it.
"You win some, you lose some," Gooch says. "You've got to take some to get some. I'll learn from my mistakes."
As far as the football lesson, he says, "The one thing I would change is to not lead with my head and stay lower."
Gooch passed on that lesson, and more, to backup defensive end Allen Stallings IV, thus ensuring Stallings was ready to start against Georgia Southern. It was the first start of Stallings' college career and he totaled three tackles and a sack.
Gooch, who entered the game in the second half, added two tackles, including a tackle for loss.
It was Gooch's ability to put team over self in that moment that most impressed Allen.
"I'm going to give Greg Gooch a lot of credit (for Stallings' strong play)," Allen says, "because he's not only been a great leader for us, but he really has been a great mentor to Allen and helping him practice different. I think because Greg knew he wasn't going to be in there the first half, he really took it personal to make sure Allen was ready."
Gooch's game readiness -- fueled by a music list that includes the rappers Gucci Mane and Future – is a balancing act between passion and control.
"It all comes down to having your composure," Gooch says. "As Coach Allen says, it's poise-confidence. You are game ready, but controlled. You control everything that goes on, but still have that energy and excitement."
That Gooch does this as a defensive end shows his improvement from his linebacker days.
In his first two seasons at IU, both as a reserve linebacker, he totaled 23 tackles and forced a fumble. Then Allen took over as defensive coordinator with a two-linebacker scheme, one less than previous coaches used. That meant less playing opportunity unless Gooch was willing to move to defensive end.
He was very willing. Last season, his first at the position, he had 28 tackles, 5.5 for loss and forced a fumble.
This season, despite missing time because of that targeting penalty, he has six tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack and two quarterback hurries.
Gooch was a multi-sport athlete at Lymon High School in Longwood, Fla. Besides thriving at linebacker, he played basketball and, for a year, participated in track as a shot putter.
"Playing other sports helped a lot," Gooch says. "Basketball kept me in shape with the non-stop running. It gave me some of the hand-eye coordination I have on the field, and the ability to move side to side and not be a stiff player. To be someone who can move around a little bit. That came in handy."
When it came to picking a college, Gooch passed on offers from Mississippi State, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Arizona, Connecticut, Rutgers and more to become a Hoosier.
"I felt the atmosphere here, it was more of a family, a unity," he says. "The program was on a come up. We were building. I didn't want to go a school that was already built and had a name. I wanted to go to a school to help create something and be a part of something special."
That quest continues. Gooch expects big things from the Hoosiers and himself the rest of the way.
"To be the great player I want to be means staying on the film, being a coachable player, playing with passion."
Then he quotes motivational speaker and author Gabrielle Bernstein
"Passion is the key to everything. If you allow your passion to be your purpose, then one day it becomes your profession."
Mom couldn't have said it better.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - For Greg Gooch, mother knows best.
She's the fuel behind the Indiana senior defensive end's drive to thrive, the motivation as he continues his transformation into difference-making leader.
"She's been through a lot," Gooch says. "When I don't feel like getting up at 6 in the morning to come to practice, I think about her and what she used to do. That drives me."
Dwan Tolbert was a single mom in Longwood, Fla., raising three boys and a girl while juggling a job as a surgical technician in a hospital emergency room. It was a challenge in the best of times, and when the boys got rowdy, as boys sometimes do, a soft word wasn't always enough.
Let's just say you didn't mess with mom.
"She was really demanding," Gooch says. "We had a lot of fun, but with three boys, it can get a little rough. She had to settle us down. As we got older, we calmed down."
Dawn had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to work, first making sure the kids had breakfast, had packed their lunches and weren't late for school. The challenge intensified when she developed sickle cell anemia.
She never wavered.
Neither does her son.
Why?
In a word, passion.
"Football is basically my purpose, my why," he says. "I have so much passion for this game. I wouldn't do anything else."
It makes a Crean 'n Crimson difference, fifth-year senior safety Chase Dutra says.
"He brings great intensity. He always has got juice with him. He hypes me up. I hype him up. He always has great enthusiasm. He makes everyone around him better. That's how he is."
Gooch's high-energy approach never stops. Coach Tom Allen, also known for his full-throttle ways, notices and appreciates. Gooch is a force of nature even when teammates hit a practice wall.
Quarterback Richard Lagow knows all about Gooch's force -- in the locker room, and beyond.
"He's priceless to this team," Lagow says.
A pause.
"We're really close. A lot of time in spring ball and camp he and I were going at it because he's so close on the D-line."
In these practice moments, Gooch would say and do things to distract Lagow. At 6-2 and 250 pounds, lining up just a yard or so away, Gooch was hard to miss, harder to ignore. Adding to the challenge, linebacker Tegray Scales was nearly as close doing the same thing.
Pay no attention, quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan would tell Lagow in so many words. Focus on the next play.
Lagow tried. He wasn't always successful
"Coach Sheridan would get on me," Lagow says. "He'd say, put on the ear muffs and blinders. He'd say, don't go over there and talk to Gooch. Don't talk to Tegray. Move on to the next play. That was something I needed to work on.
"Gooch is a huge leader on this team. He's someone I looked up to when Coach Allen took over the whole team to mold the offense around. He and Tegray got the defense to buy into everything Coach Allen was saying, so they helped on that."
Gooch wasn't a leader when he arrived, which is typical of freshmen.
He is now.
"He's a great leader," redshirt sophomore safety Andre Brown Jr. says. "Over the summer, he was encouraging guys, motivating guys. Maybe guys would be a little tired and he'd come in energetic, waking everybody up and making sure everybody was ready to go and give 100 percent."
Growing into this role, Gooch adds, didn't come easy for him.
"It takes a process. You learn from the older guys. I know one thing I struggled with as a leader was not being vocal, more so getting on guys.
"I'm the type of leader that I show by example. I'll get on you if you do the wrong thing and lead you in the right direction, but I'm more the guy who shows by example. I think I became more effective just by showing an example."
Along the way, Gooch learned his life-isn't-always-fair lesson. It cost him the second half against Virginia and the first half against Georgia Southern, and if the targeting call for helmet-to-helmet contact with Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert seemed harsh, well, sometimes life is.
Expect him to be a better player because of it.
Expect Indiana's defense to be better because of it.
"You win some, you lose some," Gooch says. "You've got to take some to get some. I'll learn from my mistakes."
As far as the football lesson, he says, "The one thing I would change is to not lead with my head and stay lower."
Gooch passed on that lesson, and more, to backup defensive end Allen Stallings IV, thus ensuring Stallings was ready to start against Georgia Southern. It was the first start of Stallings' college career and he totaled three tackles and a sack.
Gooch, who entered the game in the second half, added two tackles, including a tackle for loss.
It was Gooch's ability to put team over self in that moment that most impressed Allen.
"I'm going to give Greg Gooch a lot of credit (for Stallings' strong play)," Allen says, "because he's not only been a great leader for us, but he really has been a great mentor to Allen and helping him practice different. I think because Greg knew he wasn't going to be in there the first half, he really took it personal to make sure Allen was ready."
Gooch's game readiness -- fueled by a music list that includes the rappers Gucci Mane and Future – is a balancing act between passion and control.
"It all comes down to having your composure," Gooch says. "As Coach Allen says, it's poise-confidence. You are game ready, but controlled. You control everything that goes on, but still have that energy and excitement."
That Gooch does this as a defensive end shows his improvement from his linebacker days.
In his first two seasons at IU, both as a reserve linebacker, he totaled 23 tackles and forced a fumble. Then Allen took over as defensive coordinator with a two-linebacker scheme, one less than previous coaches used. That meant less playing opportunity unless Gooch was willing to move to defensive end.
He was very willing. Last season, his first at the position, he had 28 tackles, 5.5 for loss and forced a fumble.
This season, despite missing time because of that targeting penalty, he has six tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack and two quarterback hurries.
Gooch was a multi-sport athlete at Lymon High School in Longwood, Fla. Besides thriving at linebacker, he played basketball and, for a year, participated in track as a shot putter.
"Playing other sports helped a lot," Gooch says. "Basketball kept me in shape with the non-stop running. It gave me some of the hand-eye coordination I have on the field, and the ability to move side to side and not be a stiff player. To be someone who can move around a little bit. That came in handy."
When it came to picking a college, Gooch passed on offers from Mississippi State, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Arizona, Connecticut, Rutgers and more to become a Hoosier.
"I felt the atmosphere here, it was more of a family, a unity," he says. "The program was on a come up. We were building. I didn't want to go a school that was already built and had a name. I wanted to go to a school to help create something and be a part of something special."
That quest continues. Gooch expects big things from the Hoosiers and himself the rest of the way.
"To be the great player I want to be means staying on the film, being a coachable player, playing with passion."
Then he quotes motivational speaker and author Gabrielle Bernstein
"Passion is the key to everything. If you allow your passion to be your purpose, then one day it becomes your profession."
Mom couldn't have said it better.
Players Mentioned
DB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
QB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
DL
/ FootballFB: Big Ten Championship Game (vs. Ohio State) - Curt Cignetti Press Conference
Monday, December 01
FB: Under the Hood with Indiana Football - Week 14 (at Purdue)
Wednesday, November 26
FB: Riley Nowakowski Media Availability (11/25/25)
Tuesday, November 25
FB: D'Angelo Ponds Media Availability (11/25/25)
Tuesday, November 25