Media Thursday: Rutgers Week

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana will host Rutgers this Saturday, Oct. 12, at noon EDT on IU's Bicentennial Homecoming. The game will be televised on BTN.

Head coach Tom Allen met with the media on Thursday. Below is a partial transcript:

Opening Statement…
"Good week. Good last practice just finished up. We'll have walk-through tomorrow but thought the guys came back from our bye week refreshed and got a lot of good work in this week, even some more things then we usually do to get our guys prepared, get our guys improved and to get our guys ready. Looking forward to Saturday, Homecoming, and a Big Ten opportunity bringing in Rutgers."

On Coach DeBoer challenging Michael Penix Jr. in practice…
"I would say first of all, it takes a confident young man to approach it that way, but I think that is the right way to do it because there is a fine line between challenging him in practice and building confidence, especially a young guy. It just shows that his core confidence is at a high level. He is able to have those challenging situations, maybe not always execute them the right way in practice, but it makes it easier in the games. That is where you want to get to. But with a young guy, you are wanting to balance that. I think coach is taking the right approach. I think it has caused him to play at a high level on game day. Sometimes he looks better in the games than he does in practice. That is part of the reason why. You definitely always want to make it hard on your guys. Even out there today, you want to put them in those tough positions and make them, either side of the football, communicate at the highest level on defense and execute at the highest level on offense. I think there is no question that has helped him grow faster, but I also think it shows the core confidence that he has and his ability to have poise, to compete, and to execute at a high level in a game, even more so than a tough situation in practice."

On if any player has surprised him like Stevie Scott III last season…
"Stevie is one of those guys, in all of my years, that might be one of the biggest surprises. I would say David Ellis. Coming in here, I felt like he had a really good skillset. He impressed me from the start of fall camp, probably the most in the area of his route running. We knew he was a running back and had those natural instincts with the ball in his hands. The ability to get in and out of his breaks, how natural he is, how smooth he is, and how he reacts to the ball, he has been the biggest surprise to me. I think he is a very gifted player."

On defensive adjustments during the bye week…
"We haven't finished the way we need to finish. To me it's about execution. That's really what it comes down to. Being able to make sure we can execute the things that we want to do, and if we can't, we have to figure out why and sometimes you have to throw some things out, you tweak some things, you make it to where you get some guys in certain positions you feel more comfortable with, and also, a lot of it's just increasing the reps on some of these young guys. There's no substitution for reps and experience, so you create that through multiple opportunities for them to do it live in practice. We try and do that during the bye week, and then, knowing what was ahead, who we'll be playing and what they'll be doing, matching those three things together. It's been a constant process of trying to have the right balance of multiplicity and high-level execution."

Indiana University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

David Ellis

Michael Penix Jr.

Stevie Scott III

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