DeBoer Has That Winning Feel
1/30/2019 11:29:00 AM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sometimes a newcomer's perspective proves helpful.
Kalen DeBoer arrived in Bloomington last week as Indiana football's new offensive coordinator and his initial take was this:
"Getting on campus and just seeing the facilities, I was really, honestly, blown away with them. It's exciting to see the investment that's been made here with the facilities.
"And as I met the staff – a few of them I hadn't known – I just became more and more impressed. Just with the all-in mindset that they have, the excitement that they have towards the future, and how close we are.
"So those are probably the two things that really stuck out. The guys have a great environment … it's a feel of winning that we're surrounded by."
IU football historically hasn't done enough winning, and each of the first two seasons of Hoosier head coach Tom Allen's tenure came up one win shy of coveted bowl eligibility.
DeBoer, a South Dakota native starting his IU tenure by way of Fresno State and other stops far afield, doesn't have to heed any of that. Why would he? He didn't grow up with it. He just got here.
He just sees what he sees now.
A program with people and pieces in place to progress. And succeed.
And DeBoer knows exactly what that looks, sounds and feels like.
DeBoer has not only won every place his football life has taken him, he's done so in program-building contexts at every level.
Fate flung DeBoer toward football. Had not his small rural boyhood school closed, he might never have participated in the sport, since that school had featured no football program.
And when he matriculated at the University of Sioux Falls, the NAIA-level Cougars were not winning, but DeBoer helped make sure that changed.
"The college I chose to go to was 2-8 the first year I was there," DeBoer recalled when meeting the media Friday. "I think it was somewhere around there (the year) before that, too.
"But when we left we were national champions."
And by then DeBoer was an All-American wide receiver, setting school records for receptions (234), receiving yardage (3,400) and touchdown catches (33) from 1993-96.
TURNABOUT IS MORE THAN FAIR PLAY
DeBoer wasn't done winning NAIA national titles with Sioux Falls. He returned as offensive coordinator in 2000, then was elevated to head coach in 2005 – and proceeded to go 67-3 with three national championships.
So in 70 games as a head coach, the numbers of losses and national titles were equivalent.
Then it was off to Southern Illinois, where the DeBoer-coordinated 2013 offense led the Missouri Valley with 231.8 passing yards per game, fourth-highest total in school history. And the Salukis beat 10 FCS Top-25 ranked foes during DeBoer's four years there.
When DeBoer got to FBS-level Eastern Michigan in 2014, he helped head coach Chris Creighton (who had coached with Tom Allen at Wabash College) perform something of a minor football miracle.
Eastern Michigan hadn't seen a winning record since 1995. But a year after a 1-11 season in 2015, the Eagles finished 7-5 (the largest win increase in the nation) and made their second-ever bowl appearance.
Under DeBoer's coordination, EMU's offense went from 111th to 35th nationally. And set a school single-season yardage record by over 900 yards.
More such stuff ensured at Fresno State.
The Bulldogs, upon DeBoer's arrival in 2-17 as offensive coordinator for Jeff Tedford, became just the second team in FBS history to record double-digit wins (10-4) on the heels of a double-digit losses season (1-11 in 2016).
In DeBoer's two years there as coordinator, Fresno State's offense went from 120th nationally to 47th, and the win-loss record went to 22-6 compared to the previous two years' 4-20.
After beating No. 19-ranked Boise State for the Mountain West title and then whipping Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl, Fresno State finished last season ranked No. 18 in the AP and Coaches polls, and were 26th nationally in scoring offense (34.6).
"He's been able to do a tremendous job of going multiple places and having success and being able to be a part of some impressive turnarounds," Allen said Friday of DeBoer. "And it takes a special person to be able to create that kind of change.
"What I was looking for was a guy with that mindset, that talent level, to be able to do that, and then the offensive production that we were looking for. We wanted to be able to be more explosive on offense, and it's about scoring points, and he's done an impressive job."
KINDRED SPIRITS
What the defensive-oriented Allen was really looking for, in totality, was an offensive-oriented version of himself.
Indiana, in Allen's first two seasons as defensive coordinator, was the nation's most improved team in total defense (169.4 fewer yards per game) and pass defense (134.1 fewer yards).
The Hoosiers, over that same span, were also the nation's sixth-most improved in third-down conversions allowed (minus 12.2 percent) and ninth-most improved in scoring defense (minus 12.3 points per game).
"I wanted to go through and – not necessarily in personality – but I wanted to be able to find myself on offense," Allen affirmed. "(That) is what I was looking for, from a leadership perspective, from an ability to go to programs and create change, from the path that he's been on (being) similar to mine.
"When you coach at the smaller college level, and for me it was the high school level as well as small college, you have to adapt to your personnel … not just force players into a certain system. You have to be able to take the guys you've got and win with those guys."
DeBoer has indeed achieved consistent results utilizing differing, flexible approaches as appropriate to personnel and circumstances.
On a layman's cursory glance, it seems DeBoer creatively can and will use a lot of shotgun, two-tight end sets (quite a bit of 12 personnel, with two TEs and one back), two-back sets, spread formations with multiple wideouts, the pistol formation, read-pass options …
(To say nothing of the double-four-wide shotgun set he utilized for a two-point conversion during last year's 38-14 rout of host UCLA).
There is a West Coast Offense-style approach to much of the pass routes, but with more deep shots, and DeBoer loves a balanced attack between the run and the pass. And, as with most offensive coordinators worth their salt, he is adept at taking whatever the defense will give.
"It's going to be all revolved around what it takes to win," DeBoer said, "first of all."
And DeBoer comes in convinced Indiana is already acquiring what it takes to win.
"Not that I've been shy from going into rebuilding programs – I've been at two places that were 1-11 before we got there – but the thing (Allen) really shared with me is how close he really feels, in his heart, that we are here to taking that next big jump," DeBoer said. "(With) bowl games, and being a team in the Big Ten that everyone has got to be worried about every single week."
IUFB IS BUILDING. LITERALLY.
DeBoer will only know Indiana's Memorial Stadium fully enclosed, with superb new facilities now built into each horseshoe end.
Before DeBoer coaches his first game at IU, the Hoosiers will also showcase a spectacular new locker room facility (and other niceties) underneath the stadium's west stands.
DeBoer, who also bears the title of associate head coach, will command an $800,000 annual salary – a significant upgrade, and enough to pry him away from Fresno State.
That also exemplifies the investment Indiana continues to make in football.
IU's strength and conditioning gurus Dave Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea are hot properties after successfully increasing numbers with the Hoosiers last fall, and at Notre Dame the previous year. They're staying in
Bloomington, and not just because Ballou is a former IU player.
"Nobody (here) has told me 'No,' yet," Rhea said last fall, "so I'm going to keep asking till somebody says, 'No.' If that never happens, fantastic. But, so far, the technology and tools we've needed have been given us, and I'm appreciative of that."
Allen noted that IU director of athletics Fred Glass has provided the resources to do what needs doing, including the recruitment of Allen's first choice for offensive coordinator.
"Fred absolutely was 100 percent supportive of that," Allen said, "and trusted me to be able to say, this is the guy we believe in, this is the guy we've selected, and this is what we're going to need to do to get him.
"And it's facility investment, it's staff investment, and that's part of raising the bar for what I view is the importance of this football program at Indiana University. (It) drew me here when I saw Fred Glass's vision, when he actually talked to me on the phone about coming here as the DC. I had Fred talk to Kalen on the phone, as well, in this process, to be able to show him that we're committed and invested here to getting this program to where I believe it is going to be."
BIG TEN BIG-BOY FOOTBALL
Where IU is, and figures to remain, is the rugged Big Ten East, playing perennial powers Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State annually.
Allen considered that part of Indiana's appeal, and DeBoer does, too.
"(We) play a challenging schedule every year, and that's not going to change," Allen said. "You're going to go against those kind of opponents and (have) opportunities, and I want a guy that's going to embrace that, has that in him, and wants that, and wants to be here. The opportunity in this conference is what drew me here.
"Yeah, it's my home (state), but it's the Big Ten. That was a big deal to me, and the opportunity to be a coordinator here was a big factor, and me returning to my home state. So getting a guy like Kalen to come here and to do the same thing and know that he's just like myself – my first Big Ten coordinator job was here, just like him."
DeBoer put it this way:
" … Why I'm coming here, I think that the Big Ten challenge – just like a player wants to compete at the highest level, you want to get to that highest level and show what you can do, prove it, prove it to yourself, prove it to others, whatever it might be. But you want those challenges.
"So the challenge is exciting to me, and then the other part of it is I just know I'm surrounded by great people. I know that's the type of people Coach Allen is looking for in a staff … when you're around good people and you enjoy going to work every day, that's a big deal.
"Because we put too many hours into this job where, if it was the other way, it would be miserable. That's what I've been fortunate to do every stop along the way is be around good people and enjoy my job."
INDIANA GOES 3-0 THIS OFFSEASON
Beyond the usual progress programs plan to make any offseason, Indiana entered the 2018-2019 off-season looking to accomplish three big goals in terms of personnel: DC; OC; QB.
Allen had previously acknowledged the need to divest himself of his beloved defensive coordinator role, so as to focus more fully on his head-coaching responsibilities. He did so by elevating linebackers coach Kane Wommack to the DC job.
And with Mike DeBord's retirement, announced at the turn of the year, Allen had to find himself a new offensive coordinator.
Allen knew how crucial that hire was for the future of his program and got the man he wanted in DeBoer.
"I just knew how important it was," Allen said. "I just felt like that where we're at as a program, and starting year three, I knew that we had to get this right.
"I really appreciate everything that Mike DeBord has done for us and the foundation that was laid and just knew that going into year three that getting the right guy was going to be critical.
"Obviously, every hire is important, and getting the right chemistry on your staff … every big decision I make follows a similar process that I go through, and I try to be extremely thorough in everything that we do here.
But … yeah, very important hire for us and really, really excited to be able to bring an individual the caliber of Kalen to our program and just feel like that he's going to be a great fit for us."
The Hoosiers also wished to recruit a quarterback for the 2019 class and found him in Utah transfer Jack Tuttle, who enrolled this month.
The formal appeal for Tuttle's immediate eligibility is already filed with the NCAA, with no set timetable for a ruling, though Allen has said he'd like to know one way or another by the time spring practice starts.
Whether it is Tuttle or returning starter Peyton Ramsey or redshirt-freshman returnee Michael Penix Jr. calling signals next fall, they'll do so for an offensive coordinator under whose auspices QBs have prospered.
The most recent example is Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion, who went 21-4 as a starter under DeBoer. McMaryion completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 3,923 yards and 25 TDs (with just five interceptions) this past fall. He also scored eight rushing TDs.
MIDWESTERNER AT HEART
DeBoer has the sort of quiet confidence, a sense of self-reliance and willingness to pitch into teamwork, characteristic of folks from the Great Plains. And Midwesterners. And he considers himself the latter.
"I'm probably just a small town guy," DeBoer said. "In the end, I'm happy with if I know I've given everything I've got, I can live with the results. And so that's what the players are going to get from me. That's what the staff is going to get from me. They're going to get everything I have.
"I've always just felt like you live with the results, and you believe that you have enough to get it done, that you have what it takes. That's just kind of how I've lived throughout my entire life.
"As far as geography goes, I'm from the Midwest. I'm from South Dakota. Lived in southern Illinois. Lived up in Michigan. This is kind of like right in between those two stops. And so coming out here, it's exciting. It's another place for my family to see. It's a place that I've heard nothing but great things about, here in Bloomington."
Kalen DeBoer, the newcomer, is a Hoosier now.
And to him that already feels like w
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sometimes a newcomer's perspective proves helpful.
Kalen DeBoer arrived in Bloomington last week as Indiana football's new offensive coordinator and his initial take was this:
"Getting on campus and just seeing the facilities, I was really, honestly, blown away with them. It's exciting to see the investment that's been made here with the facilities.
"And as I met the staff – a few of them I hadn't known – I just became more and more impressed. Just with the all-in mindset that they have, the excitement that they have towards the future, and how close we are.
"So those are probably the two things that really stuck out. The guys have a great environment … it's a feel of winning that we're surrounded by."
IU football historically hasn't done enough winning, and each of the first two seasons of Hoosier head coach Tom Allen's tenure came up one win shy of coveted bowl eligibility.
DeBoer, a South Dakota native starting his IU tenure by way of Fresno State and other stops far afield, doesn't have to heed any of that. Why would he? He didn't grow up with it. He just got here.
He just sees what he sees now.
A program with people and pieces in place to progress. And succeed.
And DeBoer knows exactly what that looks, sounds and feels like.
DeBoer has not only won every place his football life has taken him, he's done so in program-building contexts at every level.
Fate flung DeBoer toward football. Had not his small rural boyhood school closed, he might never have participated in the sport, since that school had featured no football program.
And when he matriculated at the University of Sioux Falls, the NAIA-level Cougars were not winning, but DeBoer helped make sure that changed.
"The college I chose to go to was 2-8 the first year I was there," DeBoer recalled when meeting the media Friday. "I think it was somewhere around there (the year) before that, too.
"But when we left we were national champions."
And by then DeBoer was an All-American wide receiver, setting school records for receptions (234), receiving yardage (3,400) and touchdown catches (33) from 1993-96.
TURNABOUT IS MORE THAN FAIR PLAY
DeBoer wasn't done winning NAIA national titles with Sioux Falls. He returned as offensive coordinator in 2000, then was elevated to head coach in 2005 – and proceeded to go 67-3 with three national championships.
So in 70 games as a head coach, the numbers of losses and national titles were equivalent.
Then it was off to Southern Illinois, where the DeBoer-coordinated 2013 offense led the Missouri Valley with 231.8 passing yards per game, fourth-highest total in school history. And the Salukis beat 10 FCS Top-25 ranked foes during DeBoer's four years there.
When DeBoer got to FBS-level Eastern Michigan in 2014, he helped head coach Chris Creighton (who had coached with Tom Allen at Wabash College) perform something of a minor football miracle.
Eastern Michigan hadn't seen a winning record since 1995. But a year after a 1-11 season in 2015, the Eagles finished 7-5 (the largest win increase in the nation) and made their second-ever bowl appearance.
Under DeBoer's coordination, EMU's offense went from 111th to 35th nationally. And set a school single-season yardage record by over 900 yards.
More such stuff ensured at Fresno State.
The Bulldogs, upon DeBoer's arrival in 2-17 as offensive coordinator for Jeff Tedford, became just the second team in FBS history to record double-digit wins (10-4) on the heels of a double-digit losses season (1-11 in 2016).
In DeBoer's two years there as coordinator, Fresno State's offense went from 120th nationally to 47th, and the win-loss record went to 22-6 compared to the previous two years' 4-20.
After beating No. 19-ranked Boise State for the Mountain West title and then whipping Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl, Fresno State finished last season ranked No. 18 in the AP and Coaches polls, and were 26th nationally in scoring offense (34.6).
"He's been able to do a tremendous job of going multiple places and having success and being able to be a part of some impressive turnarounds," Allen said Friday of DeBoer. "And it takes a special person to be able to create that kind of change.
"What I was looking for was a guy with that mindset, that talent level, to be able to do that, and then the offensive production that we were looking for. We wanted to be able to be more explosive on offense, and it's about scoring points, and he's done an impressive job."
KINDRED SPIRITS
What the defensive-oriented Allen was really looking for, in totality, was an offensive-oriented version of himself.
Indiana, in Allen's first two seasons as defensive coordinator, was the nation's most improved team in total defense (169.4 fewer yards per game) and pass defense (134.1 fewer yards).
The Hoosiers, over that same span, were also the nation's sixth-most improved in third-down conversions allowed (minus 12.2 percent) and ninth-most improved in scoring defense (minus 12.3 points per game).
"I wanted to go through and – not necessarily in personality – but I wanted to be able to find myself on offense," Allen affirmed. "(That) is what I was looking for, from a leadership perspective, from an ability to go to programs and create change, from the path that he's been on (being) similar to mine.
"When you coach at the smaller college level, and for me it was the high school level as well as small college, you have to adapt to your personnel … not just force players into a certain system. You have to be able to take the guys you've got and win with those guys."
DeBoer has indeed achieved consistent results utilizing differing, flexible approaches as appropriate to personnel and circumstances.
On a layman's cursory glance, it seems DeBoer creatively can and will use a lot of shotgun, two-tight end sets (quite a bit of 12 personnel, with two TEs and one back), two-back sets, spread formations with multiple wideouts, the pistol formation, read-pass options …
(To say nothing of the double-four-wide shotgun set he utilized for a two-point conversion during last year's 38-14 rout of host UCLA).
There is a West Coast Offense-style approach to much of the pass routes, but with more deep shots, and DeBoer loves a balanced attack between the run and the pass. And, as with most offensive coordinators worth their salt, he is adept at taking whatever the defense will give.
"It's going to be all revolved around what it takes to win," DeBoer said, "first of all."
And DeBoer comes in convinced Indiana is already acquiring what it takes to win.
"Not that I've been shy from going into rebuilding programs – I've been at two places that were 1-11 before we got there – but the thing (Allen) really shared with me is how close he really feels, in his heart, that we are here to taking that next big jump," DeBoer said. "(With) bowl games, and being a team in the Big Ten that everyone has got to be worried about every single week."
IUFB IS BUILDING. LITERALLY.
DeBoer will only know Indiana's Memorial Stadium fully enclosed, with superb new facilities now built into each horseshoe end.
Before DeBoer coaches his first game at IU, the Hoosiers will also showcase a spectacular new locker room facility (and other niceties) underneath the stadium's west stands.
DeBoer, who also bears the title of associate head coach, will command an $800,000 annual salary – a significant upgrade, and enough to pry him away from Fresno State.
That also exemplifies the investment Indiana continues to make in football.
IU's strength and conditioning gurus Dave Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea are hot properties after successfully increasing numbers with the Hoosiers last fall, and at Notre Dame the previous year. They're staying in
Bloomington, and not just because Ballou is a former IU player.
"Nobody (here) has told me 'No,' yet," Rhea said last fall, "so I'm going to keep asking till somebody says, 'No.' If that never happens, fantastic. But, so far, the technology and tools we've needed have been given us, and I'm appreciative of that."
Allen noted that IU director of athletics Fred Glass has provided the resources to do what needs doing, including the recruitment of Allen's first choice for offensive coordinator.
"Fred absolutely was 100 percent supportive of that," Allen said, "and trusted me to be able to say, this is the guy we believe in, this is the guy we've selected, and this is what we're going to need to do to get him.
"And it's facility investment, it's staff investment, and that's part of raising the bar for what I view is the importance of this football program at Indiana University. (It) drew me here when I saw Fred Glass's vision, when he actually talked to me on the phone about coming here as the DC. I had Fred talk to Kalen on the phone, as well, in this process, to be able to show him that we're committed and invested here to getting this program to where I believe it is going to be."
BIG TEN BIG-BOY FOOTBALL
Where IU is, and figures to remain, is the rugged Big Ten East, playing perennial powers Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State annually.
Allen considered that part of Indiana's appeal, and DeBoer does, too.
"(We) play a challenging schedule every year, and that's not going to change," Allen said. "You're going to go against those kind of opponents and (have) opportunities, and I want a guy that's going to embrace that, has that in him, and wants that, and wants to be here. The opportunity in this conference is what drew me here.
"Yeah, it's my home (state), but it's the Big Ten. That was a big deal to me, and the opportunity to be a coordinator here was a big factor, and me returning to my home state. So getting a guy like Kalen to come here and to do the same thing and know that he's just like myself – my first Big Ten coordinator job was here, just like him."
DeBoer put it this way:
" … Why I'm coming here, I think that the Big Ten challenge – just like a player wants to compete at the highest level, you want to get to that highest level and show what you can do, prove it, prove it to yourself, prove it to others, whatever it might be. But you want those challenges.
"So the challenge is exciting to me, and then the other part of it is I just know I'm surrounded by great people. I know that's the type of people Coach Allen is looking for in a staff … when you're around good people and you enjoy going to work every day, that's a big deal.
"Because we put too many hours into this job where, if it was the other way, it would be miserable. That's what I've been fortunate to do every stop along the way is be around good people and enjoy my job."
INDIANA GOES 3-0 THIS OFFSEASON
Beyond the usual progress programs plan to make any offseason, Indiana entered the 2018-2019 off-season looking to accomplish three big goals in terms of personnel: DC; OC; QB.
Allen had previously acknowledged the need to divest himself of his beloved defensive coordinator role, so as to focus more fully on his head-coaching responsibilities. He did so by elevating linebackers coach Kane Wommack to the DC job.
And with Mike DeBord's retirement, announced at the turn of the year, Allen had to find himself a new offensive coordinator.
Allen knew how crucial that hire was for the future of his program and got the man he wanted in DeBoer.
"I just knew how important it was," Allen said. "I just felt like that where we're at as a program, and starting year three, I knew that we had to get this right.
"I really appreciate everything that Mike DeBord has done for us and the foundation that was laid and just knew that going into year three that getting the right guy was going to be critical.
"Obviously, every hire is important, and getting the right chemistry on your staff … every big decision I make follows a similar process that I go through, and I try to be extremely thorough in everything that we do here.
But … yeah, very important hire for us and really, really excited to be able to bring an individual the caliber of Kalen to our program and just feel like that he's going to be a great fit for us."
The Hoosiers also wished to recruit a quarterback for the 2019 class and found him in Utah transfer Jack Tuttle, who enrolled this month.
The formal appeal for Tuttle's immediate eligibility is already filed with the NCAA, with no set timetable for a ruling, though Allen has said he'd like to know one way or another by the time spring practice starts.
Whether it is Tuttle or returning starter Peyton Ramsey or redshirt-freshman returnee Michael Penix Jr. calling signals next fall, they'll do so for an offensive coordinator under whose auspices QBs have prospered.
The most recent example is Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion, who went 21-4 as a starter under DeBoer. McMaryion completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 3,923 yards and 25 TDs (with just five interceptions) this past fall. He also scored eight rushing TDs.
MIDWESTERNER AT HEART
DeBoer has the sort of quiet confidence, a sense of self-reliance and willingness to pitch into teamwork, characteristic of folks from the Great Plains. And Midwesterners. And he considers himself the latter.
"I'm probably just a small town guy," DeBoer said. "In the end, I'm happy with if I know I've given everything I've got, I can live with the results. And so that's what the players are going to get from me. That's what the staff is going to get from me. They're going to get everything I have.
"I've always just felt like you live with the results, and you believe that you have enough to get it done, that you have what it takes. That's just kind of how I've lived throughout my entire life.
"As far as geography goes, I'm from the Midwest. I'm from South Dakota. Lived in southern Illinois. Lived up in Michigan. This is kind of like right in between those two stops. And so coming out here, it's exciting. It's another place for my family to see. It's a place that I've heard nothing but great things about, here in Bloomington."
Kalen DeBoer, the newcomer, is a Hoosier now.
And to him that already feels like w
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