Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack Transcript

On what he wants to see from the offense on Friday night:
"I think it's just a continuation of what we've been doing and what I want to see is just consistent improvement. We don't need to be perfect, yet. We're striving for that, but to me it's all about right now still being part of the going through the process and as long as we're consistently improving I'll feel good about the direction we're going, and hopefully it happens on Friday."

On what he saw from Jack Tuttle this spring:
"First of all, the guy is a go getter. He's going to be 30 minutes early for a meeting, literally. He's going to put a lot of work into knowing his place and knowing his reads. There's no way you can question any of the effort he ever puts in and I love those guys. You win a lot of football games with those type of guys. Secondly, I think he's got a big arm. I think he understands the game and I think there's some things that instinctually happen for him pretty naturally. Now, there's still a lot going through his mind as he's learning the offense, but there were times when he had a good feel for the concepts, a good feel for what he was seeing happen in front of him where he went out and just essentially made plays, made throws to get guys open. Things that sometimes you can't even really coach until after it's happened."

On the role of Michael Penix Jr. this Friday:
"He won't do anything where there's a team setting, but we'll certainly have him out there and we've been trying the last five practices to ramp up the reps he's getting. He's getting considerably more reps than any the other quarterbacks in the 7-on-7 sessions. It's at least 16-8 in favor of him as far as the reps he's getting. He's done a really nice job. You can tell that while we've gone through the spring that he's been paying attention to the details."

On how difficult it has been not having a consistent rotation of QBs this spring:
"Well, I think probably the toughest part is we've had a lot of rotation of other positions that they work with. You had Nick (Westbrook) out for a while, (Ty Fryfogle) out for a while, Donovan's (Hale) been really the most consistent guy that's been out there. You've got Whop (Philyor) in certain sessions and you've got other guys. So, it's a matter of still trusting that that guy noticed what he's supposed to do. That's probably the toughest part because I think all three of the quarterbacks really put everything into the mental part of it, knowing what their job is. I see them doing a really good job of tying the footwork to the concepts we're running. I thought we did a really good job of that on Saturday in our little mini-scrimmage. I feel good about them understanding what we're trying to get done in the offense."

On what he has seen from Stevie Scott this spring:
"It's good. You can still see times when he's younger and he's going through one of his first spring ball's. But I think overall you just see what the potential is for him when he gets the ball in his hands. He's going to go and make some plays. We're trying not to grind him too hard and make sure we don't wear him out, but we're also making sure that he feels comfortable with the offense."

On where the offense is as a whole as they near the end of spring practice:
"I think right now we're getting close to having the tools available for our offense to be able to run what we want to run. It doesn't mean that we're great at it yet, but I think the guys understand that if we need to have something where we can max protect, we can do it. We can get five guys out, we can go empty, we got play-action shots down the field, we got quick play-action. So, I think they understand what the capabilities are of our offensive system and now it's just continue to refine it and understand the coaching points, the details, be in sync and make it theirs. I think that's the big thing going into the summer for them when they're working on things on their own for them to do. Then we get a chance in the fall to reinstall it then and we will do it a couple times leading into. So, there will hopefully be a lot of recall to what we've done throughout the first 13 practices."

On if they can work on 7-on-7s this summer to recall it:
"I do. I think we've been continuing to push it on them. That's the great thing about the coaching staff that I have here. I think they have the same philosophy, throw it on the guys, make sure that our players have an understanding of what we can do, what the signals are, how the concepts match the defenses we're seeing, and now we narrow it back down and we kind of know who we can be and we rebuild the offense around our personnel. So, I feel like they got a pretty good grasp."

On the offensive line:
"I think we've improved in the run game especially and our defense does a great job with their blitzes, so they put a lot of pressure on you. I think overall we've done a better job every day of communication, both in the run game and in our protections. I know that they have a lot of ownership. You can tell there's a few upperclassmen that have put a lot of time into this program and it means a lot. I'll certainly be riding their emotions, riding the desires that they have to make sure we get this thing right."

On Caleb Jones and shifting him from left tackle to right tackle:
"Even like today, I tried to put him in some spots in the screen game to where I could see if he can get out and run and move. I thought he did a really nice job. It was our first day with a certain screen that we put in. I specifically put it in the way we did to see what he was capable of doing. To me, that's part of install in the offenses to find out what our guys can do. I think he's done a really nice job. Steady improvement from where we started early in the spring and he's fit in nicely."

On being able to use Caleb comfortably in situations:
"I think that's for everyone. I think that's for all our guys. I think Caleb's perfectly capable, but I think that's for everyone. It's a matter of all our guys understanding the why. Not just what we're doing but understanding the why. Why we are we doing this, why are we doing that so that way it makes sense when it comes to them having to make decisions when the bullets are flying. Why we're doing something. That helps them know how they should get it done. I think it's not just like you're talking with Caleb. I think it's the entire offense. I think that's a big part of what we'll do and continue to educate our guys on why so they know how."

On how many different looks they'll have this Friday:
"We will be pretty base in what we do. It's on TV and things like that, so we'll pretty base in what we do and what we show, and we'll narrow it down considerably from what we put in throughout the spring, but I'm sure there will be some differences. You will probably see a little under center. You'll see some things with different motions and so forth, but for the most part I think we keep it pretty base, let our guys play them, go up and make some plays, and not have to think too much and have fun."

On players who have stepped up this spring:
"You can tell who the guys are that have played a lot of snaps here. Those are the guys that continually, go out and make plays. Nick just got back out there today and boom - he's back to where he was in practice one through four. We hit a deep shot down the field. Fry (Ty Fryfogle) shows up and all of a sudden he's making plays. D-Hale (Donavan). You can tell the guys that have made plays. You can tell Coy Cronk has played a lot of snaps, and Simon's played a lot of snaps, and Peyton's played a lot. You can go right down the line. Those are the guys that are consistently comfortable no matter what the verbiage is, no matter what the concepts are that we're running. You can just tell who the veterans are, and the challenge is to try to bring up those guys that haven't played as many snaps, get them to jive and be in sync with our upperclassmen, and we still got time. I always tell the guys as long as we are making consistent strides forward, it's amazing what we can become at the end of August when we've gone through spring ball, summer and then fall camp. As long as we don't have this, I'm perfectly fine with where we're at as long as we're going this direction."

On a healthy spring defensively:
"It really has. We had, I guess, in the scrimmage about a week and a half ago, we had Micah (McFadden) and Reakwon (Jones) got banged up, so we're playing some younger guys in there. At linebacker, a lot is happening, and Kalen, he's installing and putting things in. So yeah, I think it was a lot on those guys, so to have those guys back, I think it was a calming presence for the rest of the players out there today, and if we keep playing fast like we're playing. We're a pretty good defense. We really can be."

On what he's been trying to do on the defensive side of the ball:
"It's good. We have executed just our base fits, base run fits, base coverage adjustments, all those things. Better tweaked a little bit of our blitz system. We're doing all the same things, just a way to keep things a little bit simpler, a little more efficient. I joke we, we implemented for you Netflix watchers, we implemented the Marie Kondo Method. We're keeping things, and if it doesn't spark joy, we don't call it. So now we're just keeping things efficient and simple, and our guys are playing really fast because of it."

On if he's seen a positive response from these changes:
"You see athletes go play fast, you know what I mean. And that's what we're seeing right now. We've done a good job of recruiting players, developing players, and now I think, it's myself and the rest of the defensive staff, that's our responsibility to build a system, right, to build on top of the system that we already have and just keep things clean so that they can play confident and fast."

On playing young guys and having these guys for the next few years:
"There's no doubt. When you see a group of guys and you say 'alright,' you look at your group and you've got a couple older guys that are doing a great job. I mean like Reakwon Jones, Andre Brown, Brandon Wilson are all doing a phenomenal job. But then the meat of our team is our redshirt sophomores, true sophomores and redshirt freshmen. Those are guys that when you walk out there, the ones go out, and they're a bunch of those guys out there. You're like, dang man, these kids can really do it. Then the twos go out and you're like, these kids can do it. So that's when we get excited, is (when) we're actually starting to build depth the way that you have to have in this league to weather the adversity, you know what I mean, and go the long haul."

On Cam Jones:
"I think it's my responsibility as a coach, right, to take the athletes that we have and utilize their full skillset. So, if I just make Cam Jones a one-dimensional linebacker, or he's a cover-two safety and that's all he does, I'm not utilizing that kid's full skillset, and we brought him here to showcase what he can do - help us and help him. So, it's my responsibility as the play-caller to be able to utilize his full skillset. He's just, he's special just in terms of his athleticism, but I think where I've been impressed is just his natural instincts, and he's just, he just loves to play a violent and fierce style game. You know what I mean? And that's where you're like golly man, you can just use this kid in a lot of different ways."

On building depth following the rule change of players being allowed to play four games and redshirt:
"For us that was huge because when you build a team and you say alright, some guys are redshirt freshmen. They got four games of experience, and I'll be honest. It doesn't matter whether it's special teams, whether it's defense. Just getting in a game and feeling the speed of it and that pressure, it just makes you different. It makes you more confident because you've at least seen it. You've at least been out there on the field."

On looking at the depth of his roster in the seasons to come:
"I keep focused on what we have to do and what we have to build right now with them, but it's my job, Tom's job, the defensive staff's job to look at. Tom didn't come here to build a one-and-done and go out and move to the next place. He's made it very clear we're building the system for the long haul. Now have we taken some lumps in the first couple of years because of that? Sure. But we're building this thing for the long haul. Now, we're hopeful to see the fruit of some of that labor and then again as these older guys get more and more experienced on the field you, you got to remember how Tegray and Chris Covington played when they were seniors. These players are very talented football players that we just got to keep bringing them along as we go."

Players Mentioned

Coy Cronk

Ty Fryfogle

Caleb Jones

Cam Jones

Reakwon Jones

Michael Penix Jr.

Stevie Scott III

Jack Tuttle

Indiana University Athletics