GRAHAM NOTEBOOK: Team Trust
8/14/2018 9:00:00 AM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Having briefly won the Internet, the Indiana football specialists are now back focused on winning games this fall.
When BTN visited IU last week, the Hoosier kickers were challenged to come up with an entertaining gambit.
As BTN subsequently acknowledged, they did not disappoint.
The resultant "Double-Hold Gatorade Shot" video on BTN's Twitter feed featured kickers Logan Justus and Jared Smolar, holder Drew Conrad and long snapper Dan Godsil.
Think William Tell.
With footballs.
Godsil hiked a pair of footballs in rapid succession to a sitting Conrad, who caught balls in each hand and set them on the turf for the kickers.
Right-footer Smolar and lefty Justus duly swung their legs on either side of Conrad to simultaneously and successfully send the balls through the uprights.
The scene was then capped as Justus placed a Gatorade bottle atop Conrad's head, with an ensuing Godsil snap knocking off the bottle.
"It's called 'The Trust Team' – that's what the field goal unit is called here – and we thought, 'What's a greater example of trust than putting a bottle on my head and letting Dan knock it off,' " Conrad recalled
Monday.
Indeed.
Legend has it that Tell shot an arrow through an apple placed on his trusting son's head.
"Yeah, we thought about doing an apple," Conrad said, "but figured a Gatorade bottle would fit football a little better."
Faulty aim by Godsil, in contrast to Tell, would not have proved fatal. But a broken nose could well have resulted.
???????Haydon Whitehead, the Aussie who won IU's punter job last fall and is competing with Conrad this fall, said Conrad wasn't in much danger.
"You can almost guarantee Dan Godsil is going to put it on the money every time," Whitehead said. "That's what he's all about."
Being on the money pretty much every time was what graduated kicker Griffin Oakes was about last fall for IU.
The only miss of any kind last season for Oakes, a two-time Big Ten Kicker of the Year, was a blocked field goal attempt against Michigan (Oakes was 16-of-17 on field goals and converted all 39 of his PATs).
The Hoosiers hope to have a worthy successor. Coming out of Sunday's scrimmage, head coach Tom Allen tabbed walk-on junior Justus and true freshman Charles Campbell as the leading candidates for place-kicks, with Rutgers transfer Smolar a potential prospect to handle kickoffs.
Kickoffs will have a new wrinkle this fall. The NCAA now allows returners to fair catch any kickoff inside their own 25-yard line, with the result ruled a touchback and the ball placed at the 25. How teams approach kickoffs could change a bit as a result.
"I know the intent of the rule, what they were trying to do with the rule (to create more touchbacks), but it will be interesting to see what people choose to do," Allen said. "Because, obviously, if you use a certain style of kick, you almost pressure guys into fair catches.
"I'm always one of those guys who believes the best case scenario is to bang it as long and deep as you can. I like doing that. But, at the end of the day, if they fair catch it, it still starts at the same spot. So you have to figure out what is the best strategy to try to gain field position."
So called "squib" kicks won't permit fair catches, but Allen said the accuracy of those is undependable enough to prevent IU from utilizing such kicks regularly.
As to whose punts IU foes will fair catch, Whitehead is the presumed leader for the job – and announced today as a Ray Guy Award candidate – but Conrad is pushing him hard this fall by all accounts.
"Drew Conrad is definitely doing a great job of pushing Haydon Whitehead, IU special teams coordinator William Inge confirmed.
Inge coached Indiana's linebackers from his arrival in Bloomington for the 2013 season through last fall. His new assignment is evidence that Allen, who has always emphasized special teams play, is increasing that emphasis.
"The emphasis (on special teams), since Coach Allen took over, has been really high," Conrad said. "But in terms of day-to-day drill work and keeping everything schematic throughout the day, that's definitely has been ramped up since we got Coach Inge.
"I love Coach Inge, honestly. You can tell he cares so much about us. And his biggest thing is that he's about transformation, not transaction. He cares about who we become 10, 15 years from now. He's definitely a guy I could see being at my wedding down the road, keeping in contact. He coaches from the heart, and that's evident."
Whitehead welcomes the systematic approach Inge takes, too.
"One thing I've noticed about Coach Inge is just how disciplined he is, and how he focuses on discipline," Whitehead said. "I think sometimes it's easy for specialists in particular to get a little bit lost in their own world, and in the practice schedule.
"Coach Inge has been really good about teaching us the discipline we need to really keep on top of stuff, so that even when we're not in live segments in practice, we're still doing everything we can to work on our craft. Huge emphasis on form, when we're doing live reps, and operation time and all that sort of stuff. Really helping us take leaps and bounds on not just the stuff we've been working on, but on result as well.
"I think all the kickers are making their kicks regularly. Drew Conrad, the other punter and myself, we're having a really good battle through fall camp. We're putting the ball where we need to."
The kickers have gone entire practices without missing any boots at all. And Inge, who coached current Green Bay Packer standout kicker Mason Crosby at Colorado, schedules to keep their legs fresh.
Inge also favors creating symbolically stressful situations in practice, announcing that the game is on the line while a kick is set up, and with Allen using the siren on his bullhorn right in the kicker's ear to simulate crowd noise.
"Yeah, that's standard," Inge said with a laugh about the bullhorn. "We're charting every kick. We're trying to apply pressure. We created some pressure situations today. (We want) to provide the winning edge, to be at our best when it counts the most.
"That's why we have those situations in practice. We all can kick. We all can do our job when it's 70 (degrees) and sunny. But when the heat is turned up, when everything is on the line and you have 100,000 fans screaming against you, can you still have that same composure, that same calmness, to execute the muscle memory needed to be able to put that ball through the uprights."
Inge knows close games will often come down to how his unit performs.
"Coach Allen definitely knows that when you're a developmental program, you're going to be in so many close games, and special teams is your edge, often," Inge said. "A lot of times in those one-possession games, it's going to come down to special teams."
Inge's unit is already building trust.
And Conrad's nose is still in one piece.
AUTHENTIC AUSSIES
Haydon Whitehead grew up playing Australian Rules Football, making him especially adept at punting while on the run, a style that helped him earn honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in his first season.
When Whitehead's parents flew in from Melbourne for a Bloomington visit, the family opted for Australian-themed Outback Steakhouse for dinner one evening. And, yes, their accents fit right in.
"The waiters kept thinking we were playing some sort of joke on them," Whitehead said, "rather than us being actual Aussies."
Whitehead said his teammates aren't especially adept at mimicking the Australian accent, though his fellow specialists try their best.
"They're all pretty average to be honest," he said with a grin. "No one can really get it down. A couple sound more British than Australian. Some you can't even tell what they are.
"I'd say some of the specialists are probably best at it, because they spend enough time around me to get it down. Logan Justus, one of the kickers, can give it a fair crack, because we spend enough time together.
He's always trying to make fun of me by doing it. He and Dan Godsil, the long-snapper, probably do it the most."
Whitehead said he doesn't even attempt an American accent, in part because he'd prefer to hang onto his own.
"I'm pretty happy with my accent, at the moment," he said. "I'm doing my best not to lose it. Mum and Dad, I was talking to them on the phone the other day, and they said I'm starting to lose it. Might need to give my family and friends a call more often, just to hear it."
SCRIMMAGE SUMMARY
Tom Allen began his post-practice media session by providing some of his basic takeaways from Sunday's scrimmage, the first of fall camp.
"Really encouraged by yesterday's effort," Allen said. "Played a lot of guys, had almost 140 snaps and reps and a lot of guys got to play, compete. Being the first scrimmage, they're not going to have it perfect. But
I thought both sides of the ball's effort was really, really high and execution was good.
"I think, defensively, with a lot of things that we do on offense, it forces younger guys to really have to concentrate. They had some mistakes on that, but I was encouraged by the overall execution on both sides
and I thought the offense did a much better job in the red zone finishing drives.
"I thought the quarterback play overall was very solid. All three guys did a lot of good things. Backs ran hard. Receivers caught the ball well. "
Allen said that none of the three quarterbacks vying for the starting job – redshirt sophomore Peyton Ramsey, grad transfer Brandon Dawkins and true freshman Michael Penix Jr. – had yet to emerge as the clear
front-runner, but they all showed the same sort of strengths Sunday they had demonstrated during the first week of camp.
"As they played in the first week, I think their strengths were their strengths as well on Sunday," Allen said. "I think that you got three guys that all have ability, and all have things that they do well. I thought each one of them, their strengths showed out at the scrimmage.
"The next scrimmage, to me, we're going to have to make some decisions after that going into Week 3. I feel like we'll know some more by then. At the end of the day, it's a tight race. To me, you're going to have to make the decision and go. Move forward."
QB PLAYS D
Brandon Dawkins had a pass batted at the line of scrimmage Monday. The ball sailed straight up, but Dawkins made sure he out-leaped everybody when it came down. He smacked the ball to the turf, foiling the chances of would-be interceptors.
And among the teammates applauding Dawkins' alert play was quarterback competitor Penix.
SPEED ON SPEED
Dawkins earlier hit wideout Whop Philyor right in stride on a crossing pattern and it became a footrace to the pylon between the two fastest Hoosiers, Philyor and true freshman cornerback Jaylin Williams.
???????Philyor, who had a bit of a head start, barely got there first.
They are the two players IU speed specialist Dr. Matt Rhea currently has clocked at 23 miles-per-hour top speed, and Rhea stipulates that 22 is "elite speed at any level."
THEY'RE DOWN WITH IT
Mark Deal, current IU Assistant Athletic Director for Alumni Relations and Hoosier player from 1975 through 1978, said he felt like groovin' when Kool and the Gang's "Get Down on It" begin to blare during
Monday's practice.
He wasn't alone.
???????Redshirt freshman safety Juwan Burgess and fifth-year senior defensive lineman Ja'merez Bowen, having joined teammates on a hydration break, immediately broke into some serious and sustained boogieing that would have graced any disco's dance floor.
CAPED CRUSADER
Sam Slusher, a walk-on freshman redshirt linebacker from Greensburg, did an entirely different sort of walking on for Monday's practice.
???????Slusher wore a fluorescent lime green cape emblazoned by an "S" insignia as he emerged from the tunnel and strolled onto the practice field.
No immediate word on whether any villains were subsequently vanquished.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Having briefly won the Internet, the Indiana football specialists are now back focused on winning games this fall.
When BTN visited IU last week, the Hoosier kickers were challenged to come up with an entertaining gambit.
As BTN subsequently acknowledged, they did not disappoint.
The resultant "Double-Hold Gatorade Shot" video on BTN's Twitter feed featured kickers Logan Justus and Jared Smolar, holder Drew Conrad and long snapper Dan Godsil.
Think William Tell.
With footballs.
Godsil hiked a pair of footballs in rapid succession to a sitting Conrad, who caught balls in each hand and set them on the turf for the kickers.
Right-footer Smolar and lefty Justus duly swung their legs on either side of Conrad to simultaneously and successfully send the balls through the uprights.
The scene was then capped as Justus placed a Gatorade bottle atop Conrad's head, with an ensuing Godsil snap knocking off the bottle.
"It's called 'The Trust Team' – that's what the field goal unit is called here – and we thought, 'What's a greater example of trust than putting a bottle on my head and letting Dan knock it off,' " Conrad recalled
Monday.
Indeed.
Legend has it that Tell shot an arrow through an apple placed on his trusting son's head.
"Yeah, we thought about doing an apple," Conrad said, "but figured a Gatorade bottle would fit football a little better."
Faulty aim by Godsil, in contrast to Tell, would not have proved fatal. But a broken nose could well have resulted.
???????Haydon Whitehead, the Aussie who won IU's punter job last fall and is competing with Conrad this fall, said Conrad wasn't in much danger.
"You can almost guarantee Dan Godsil is going to put it on the money every time," Whitehead said. "That's what he's all about."
Being on the money pretty much every time was what graduated kicker Griffin Oakes was about last fall for IU.
The only miss of any kind last season for Oakes, a two-time Big Ten Kicker of the Year, was a blocked field goal attempt against Michigan (Oakes was 16-of-17 on field goals and converted all 39 of his PATs).
The Hoosiers hope to have a worthy successor. Coming out of Sunday's scrimmage, head coach Tom Allen tabbed walk-on junior Justus and true freshman Charles Campbell as the leading candidates for place-kicks, with Rutgers transfer Smolar a potential prospect to handle kickoffs.
Kickoffs will have a new wrinkle this fall. The NCAA now allows returners to fair catch any kickoff inside their own 25-yard line, with the result ruled a touchback and the ball placed at the 25. How teams approach kickoffs could change a bit as a result.
"I know the intent of the rule, what they were trying to do with the rule (to create more touchbacks), but it will be interesting to see what people choose to do," Allen said. "Because, obviously, if you use a certain style of kick, you almost pressure guys into fair catches.
"I'm always one of those guys who believes the best case scenario is to bang it as long and deep as you can. I like doing that. But, at the end of the day, if they fair catch it, it still starts at the same spot. So you have to figure out what is the best strategy to try to gain field position."
So called "squib" kicks won't permit fair catches, but Allen said the accuracy of those is undependable enough to prevent IU from utilizing such kicks regularly.
As to whose punts IU foes will fair catch, Whitehead is the presumed leader for the job – and announced today as a Ray Guy Award candidate – but Conrad is pushing him hard this fall by all accounts.
"Drew Conrad is definitely doing a great job of pushing Haydon Whitehead, IU special teams coordinator William Inge confirmed.
Inge coached Indiana's linebackers from his arrival in Bloomington for the 2013 season through last fall. His new assignment is evidence that Allen, who has always emphasized special teams play, is increasing that emphasis.
"The emphasis (on special teams), since Coach Allen took over, has been really high," Conrad said. "But in terms of day-to-day drill work and keeping everything schematic throughout the day, that's definitely has been ramped up since we got Coach Inge.
"I love Coach Inge, honestly. You can tell he cares so much about us. And his biggest thing is that he's about transformation, not transaction. He cares about who we become 10, 15 years from now. He's definitely a guy I could see being at my wedding down the road, keeping in contact. He coaches from the heart, and that's evident."
Whitehead welcomes the systematic approach Inge takes, too.
"One thing I've noticed about Coach Inge is just how disciplined he is, and how he focuses on discipline," Whitehead said. "I think sometimes it's easy for specialists in particular to get a little bit lost in their own world, and in the practice schedule.
"Coach Inge has been really good about teaching us the discipline we need to really keep on top of stuff, so that even when we're not in live segments in practice, we're still doing everything we can to work on our craft. Huge emphasis on form, when we're doing live reps, and operation time and all that sort of stuff. Really helping us take leaps and bounds on not just the stuff we've been working on, but on result as well.
"I think all the kickers are making their kicks regularly. Drew Conrad, the other punter and myself, we're having a really good battle through fall camp. We're putting the ball where we need to."
The kickers have gone entire practices without missing any boots at all. And Inge, who coached current Green Bay Packer standout kicker Mason Crosby at Colorado, schedules to keep their legs fresh.
Inge also favors creating symbolically stressful situations in practice, announcing that the game is on the line while a kick is set up, and with Allen using the siren on his bullhorn right in the kicker's ear to simulate crowd noise.
"Yeah, that's standard," Inge said with a laugh about the bullhorn. "We're charting every kick. We're trying to apply pressure. We created some pressure situations today. (We want) to provide the winning edge, to be at our best when it counts the most.
"That's why we have those situations in practice. We all can kick. We all can do our job when it's 70 (degrees) and sunny. But when the heat is turned up, when everything is on the line and you have 100,000 fans screaming against you, can you still have that same composure, that same calmness, to execute the muscle memory needed to be able to put that ball through the uprights."
Inge knows close games will often come down to how his unit performs.
"Coach Allen definitely knows that when you're a developmental program, you're going to be in so many close games, and special teams is your edge, often," Inge said. "A lot of times in those one-possession games, it's going to come down to special teams."
Inge's unit is already building trust.
And Conrad's nose is still in one piece.
AUTHENTIC AUSSIES
Haydon Whitehead grew up playing Australian Rules Football, making him especially adept at punting while on the run, a style that helped him earn honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in his first season.
When Whitehead's parents flew in from Melbourne for a Bloomington visit, the family opted for Australian-themed Outback Steakhouse for dinner one evening. And, yes, their accents fit right in.
"The waiters kept thinking we were playing some sort of joke on them," Whitehead said, "rather than us being actual Aussies."
Whitehead said his teammates aren't especially adept at mimicking the Australian accent, though his fellow specialists try their best.
"They're all pretty average to be honest," he said with a grin. "No one can really get it down. A couple sound more British than Australian. Some you can't even tell what they are.
"I'd say some of the specialists are probably best at it, because they spend enough time around me to get it down. Logan Justus, one of the kickers, can give it a fair crack, because we spend enough time together.
He's always trying to make fun of me by doing it. He and Dan Godsil, the long-snapper, probably do it the most."
Whitehead said he doesn't even attempt an American accent, in part because he'd prefer to hang onto his own.
"I'm pretty happy with my accent, at the moment," he said. "I'm doing my best not to lose it. Mum and Dad, I was talking to them on the phone the other day, and they said I'm starting to lose it. Might need to give my family and friends a call more often, just to hear it."
SCRIMMAGE SUMMARY
Tom Allen began his post-practice media session by providing some of his basic takeaways from Sunday's scrimmage, the first of fall camp.
"Really encouraged by yesterday's effort," Allen said. "Played a lot of guys, had almost 140 snaps and reps and a lot of guys got to play, compete. Being the first scrimmage, they're not going to have it perfect. But
I thought both sides of the ball's effort was really, really high and execution was good.
"I think, defensively, with a lot of things that we do on offense, it forces younger guys to really have to concentrate. They had some mistakes on that, but I was encouraged by the overall execution on both sides
and I thought the offense did a much better job in the red zone finishing drives.
"I thought the quarterback play overall was very solid. All three guys did a lot of good things. Backs ran hard. Receivers caught the ball well. "
Allen said that none of the three quarterbacks vying for the starting job – redshirt sophomore Peyton Ramsey, grad transfer Brandon Dawkins and true freshman Michael Penix Jr. – had yet to emerge as the clear
front-runner, but they all showed the same sort of strengths Sunday they had demonstrated during the first week of camp.
"As they played in the first week, I think their strengths were their strengths as well on Sunday," Allen said. "I think that you got three guys that all have ability, and all have things that they do well. I thought each one of them, their strengths showed out at the scrimmage.
"The next scrimmage, to me, we're going to have to make some decisions after that going into Week 3. I feel like we'll know some more by then. At the end of the day, it's a tight race. To me, you're going to have to make the decision and go. Move forward."
QB PLAYS D
Brandon Dawkins had a pass batted at the line of scrimmage Monday. The ball sailed straight up, but Dawkins made sure he out-leaped everybody when it came down. He smacked the ball to the turf, foiling the chances of would-be interceptors.
And among the teammates applauding Dawkins' alert play was quarterback competitor Penix.
SPEED ON SPEED
Dawkins earlier hit wideout Whop Philyor right in stride on a crossing pattern and it became a footrace to the pylon between the two fastest Hoosiers, Philyor and true freshman cornerback Jaylin Williams.
???????Philyor, who had a bit of a head start, barely got there first.
They are the two players IU speed specialist Dr. Matt Rhea currently has clocked at 23 miles-per-hour top speed, and Rhea stipulates that 22 is "elite speed at any level."
THEY'RE DOWN WITH IT
Mark Deal, current IU Assistant Athletic Director for Alumni Relations and Hoosier player from 1975 through 1978, said he felt like groovin' when Kool and the Gang's "Get Down on It" begin to blare during
Monday's practice.
He wasn't alone.
???????Redshirt freshman safety Juwan Burgess and fifth-year senior defensive lineman Ja'merez Bowen, having joined teammates on a hydration break, immediately broke into some serious and sustained boogieing that would have graced any disco's dance floor.
CAPED CRUSADER
Sam Slusher, a walk-on freshman redshirt linebacker from Greensburg, did an entirely different sort of walking on for Monday's practice.
???????Slusher wore a fluorescent lime green cape emblazoned by an "S" insignia as he emerged from the tunnel and strolled onto the practice field.
No immediate word on whether any villains were subsequently vanquished.
Players Mentioned
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