Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Maryland

Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Maryland
Oct. 19, 2019

Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement
"I'll tell you what, I'm just proud of our football team. It was really a team effort, all three phases. They got speed all over the place and I was just concerned about that. Giving up those big plays in the first half, I thought our defense adjusted well after halftime other than that one drive. Obviously, provided the final takeaway. We got two key takeaways here in the fourth quarter. I thought takeaways were going to be the key for us to win this game. We kind of waited until the last minute to get them, but we finally got a couple. Our kids fought hard. And, you know, we played with some backups in certain spots today, so that's what happens this time of year; you have to be able to adjust and get guys ready to play and get ready to roll. I'm just so proud of Peyton Ramsey. What an absolutely awesome young man who was ready to play when called upon. I know this has been tough on him, but he's the ultimate team player. He proved his value to his teammates today by preparing that way. He prepared to play the way he needed to play and executed at a high level.

"Don't have an update completely on Michael Penix Jr. At this juncture, don't know what next week holds, but I don't think it's a long-term thing. We decided for him to be able to hold out the second half and not come back out. So, we'll know more tomorrow, with all that–but the bottom line is it was a really well-rounded group effort, and that's what it takes to win on the road the Big Ten."

On QB Peyton Ramsey…
"I think it's really hard when you're the returning starter and you lose your starting job. I mean, I see how he works so hard. I think it's, you know, you're an athlete, you take a lot of pride in being the guy. He's worked his whole life to come here and be that guy. And so to be able to accept that, a lot of guys can't. Then they decide to sometimes go somewhere else when that decision is made, but he chose to stay for this football team. And that's why I respect him so much because he lived it out. He made a choice, and not just to stay but to be prepared every week. I mean he prepared this week to be the starter, even though he may not even play a snap. That's hard to do. That's really hard to do. It takes a lot of discipline, takes a lot of maturity. It takes a special person, I think. I get it the NFL it happens all the time, but that's a different deal. You look around the country, and it's hard to find teams that have two guys that can come in on a moment's notice and lead your team to victory. We have two, and they both proved their worth tonight, so I just respect him so much and probably will give him the game ball because of it. Because without his focus and effort, attention to detail, being prepared each day leading up to this game, he wouldn't have been ready to play. So, that's what it takes to get a Big Ten road win."

On the points right before halftime…
"It is huge. I talked to Nick (Westbrook), and Nick, to me, he's one of our captains. I said, 'Man, this, you may just have won us the game.' Because I've been in enough of these games, and I went back and watched the one that we had two years ago when I came here, and the opposite happened. They got the momentum going into halftime, and I knew it was gonna come down to the wire. I told our guys, 'this is just one of those crazy games. One of those rivalries where we we just tend to –every time since I've been here– every games come down to the final possession.' I didn't expect anything different tonight. I knew that every point was going to matter. That play right before half, that was the difference, you know. Like you said, it was momentum as well. It was a heck of a catch, too. So, all those things add up. I thought our receivers caught the ball extremely well, tight ends. Stevie [Scott, running back] ran hard, the defense made great adjustments at halftime and Coach Wommack did a great job. It's an explosive offense. I know they've been inconsistent, but I promise you this: they're hard to deal with. There's a reason why they scored as many points as they did on Syracuse, who's a good football team. It just really took a lot of our guys to be able to get that to learn how to win too. That to me is a big part of this. I would have loved for us to have been able to score, you know when we got that first fumble and go ahead by 10, and the pressure is kind of off in some ways, you just kind of put them on your heels and you have a two score game, three minutes to go– but you know what, you don't grow as much that way. You grow when your defense has to be on the field and we had them on fourth and two or three, and we really had it for a sack and he got out of our grasp. It was a heck of a play on his part. Then you have to go in and reset we made the final pick, so the defense grows in confidence because of tonight. You don't grow and you don't learn that when you're on the sideline and things are easy. You learn it when you're on the field, and you have to step up and make a play. We've been to all these [games] over the years, and the tough losses that we've been through, but the team has to learn how to win. I think we took a step in that direction tonight."

On Peyton Ramsey's ability to prepare to play…
"Character. The way he was raised. I think the kind of person that he is, not everybody can do that. And I'm just telling you. All you have to do is just look around the country. Guys want things to go their way and when they don't, they react a certain way. And as much as it hurt him on the inside, he's been, you know– let me just give an example. Even last night, I gave our guys a chat and that guy was so locked into every word I said, and he may not even play the snap today, you know. He was so locked into everything I said. I can tell when guys are [locked in], he's that way every day, never changes. He's that way in the weight room, he's that way everyday at practice. It's called character. That's called having something to you that's special, and he's gonna be successful in life. He is. He has been taught by his family and his dad: that's how you handle tough things. And so that's a tribute to him because he's a man, you know, and he's not a young man he's turned into a man, and sometimes in life it's when it's hard is when we grow the most. I just really think that he is – to answer part of your question– it's the upbringing. It's the kind of man that he's become and was trained to be, and he's living it out which is just awesome to see."

On the 15-yard run on 3rd and 11 by Peyton Ramsey...
"It's savvy, it's toughness, it's grit, it's fight. I mean he got hit hard. No matter what, we told Jack [Tuttle] to warm up. I wasn't sure, you know. I mean that's the truth, I did. He's just so gritty and tough. That that run just exemplifies who he is as a player. And though his ability to make those kind of plays and keep the chains moving and keep on the field and keep us from having to give them the ball back–eat some more clock. That's a pretty good picture of who he is."

On what coach Kane Wommack did differently…
"Well, first of all, they were doing some different things. I give them a lot of credit. They look different schematically than they been on film. They did some things that we weren't ready for, and so, adjusting to some of those things, we actually we eliminated some calls that we didn't like to base on the things they were doing different. And also, I just told him, I said 'hey just narrow down to three things that you really like. And let's just let's just execute them.' We had a couple of situations where we didn't communicate and we still got some young guys out there and like on the one big long pass, we had three guys in an area, two playing one coverage and one played a different one. Usually that doesn't end well. I'm like, eliminate all those situations. Let's just execute what we do well. And so we still fight a little bit, add a couple things that we hadn't planned to use because they had shown certain things and then to adjust to, so that's why when you got a system, and you believe in your system, you can pull from things and then even on that last drive, we did, we ran some coverages we haven't run, you know, to try and confuse them a little bit and, and it worked. That last pick would not have been a pick had we had been recovering from the first half. So, it's just little things like that. Coach Wommack did a great job, so proud of him and our defensive staff for making those adjustments and that's how you win games. So that's great on our part."

Peyton Ramsey, Quarterback
On how he felt coming into the game the way he did…
"?Yeah, I started off a little shakier then I would have liked to, but I think it's just a credit to coach (Kalen) ?DeBoer,? and all the offensive coaches every week of practice getting me ready getting you prepared. I was really locked in on the game plan, I know we were doing, I knew where the ball was supposed to go. So it was just getting that first drive out of my system and I felt good after that."

On how he feels being the backup quarterback…
"?Sure it's hard, and that's why this is so emotional because you know you prepare every single week like you're going to be the guy and then you never know, you never know when your number is going to be called. Sure it's been hard but there's a lot of really good guys in that locker room who I'll fight for every single day so they make my job a lot easier. They make my life easy just coming to practice every single day and being around those guys."

On what is the difference between preparing for games this season than last season…
"?I think the obvious, the fact that I know I'm not gonna start. Sometimes mentally it's hard to get yourself to go into film room when you know you're not going to be the guy but it's just as mental, this discipline that you got to do it because you never know when your team's gonna need you. I know if I wasn't ready out there, if I wasn't prepared to let those guys down it would have been miserable. Somehow that is something I had to live with."

On how important points before halftime were…
"Yeah, they were the difference. Just going down and getting a big touchdown ?Nick? (Westbrook) made a great catch, I truly don't know how he caught that ball. It was huge getting those points kind of having some momentum going into halftime."

On how big it is for the program for things to go their way during a game…
"Yeah, in the past we haven't got those breaks, the ball hasn't always bounced our way. This is just a different group of guys. A group of guys that cares and work so hard and is locked in all the time. That's just a credit to everybody in the locker room. those guys work so hard, they're just they're so fun to come in and be around every single day."

On his thoughts on being 5-2, one win away from a bowl…
"Yeah, it's awesome being 5-2. We always just talked about one of the next games and, and we got a big one here. You know we haven't necessarily looked at this is this is what we want our record to be after this week but you know we go out every weekend and get a win and being five and two is really exciting for us"

Reese Taylor, Defensive Back
On if they wanted the game to be on the defense…
"Of course, we always want it to be. If anything happens we know defense wins championships. We all wanted it, we all had to step up."

On how satisfying tonight's win is for him and how he plays…
"I'm getting my feet in the door, I'm getting good at the position. I still have to work harder than usual, I still have to do more than usual. I like to work, I am still getting good at the position. I still have to do what I can.

Players Mentioned

Michael Penix Jr.

Peyton Ramsey

Reese Taylor

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