Quoted: Preseason Camp – Oct. 12
10/12/2020 1:25:00 PM | Football
Below is a partial transcription of a Zoom press conference with Indiana head coach Tom Allen on Monday, Oct. 12.
Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement…
ALLEN: Good afternoon everyone, appreciate you guys joining us. To wrap up Saturday, to start with, it was our biggest scrimmage of the fall camp. It was extremely productive. I had a goal going in and being able to have about 50 snaps for our ones and twos, to be able to give them some live gos. It is extremely important in this process of our development, and a lot of good things, very competitive back and forth, both sides making plays. It did feel like we had a few more penalties than we did the first time that need to get cleaned up. Both sides had some mistakes, but we were still in the installation mode of things. That has ceased now as everything is of the mindset of fine-tuning what we have and then start working into Penn State here later in the week.
Some guys that stuck out to me, Javon Swinton continues to make plays. I am really encouraged by his consistency at this point. Luke Shayotovich catches the ball extremely well and consistently, he gets open, so he is really catching my eye. Jacolby Hewitt had a really good day. I am really excited for him because he has worked extremely hard. David Baker, so I have listed several receivers there, but David Baker made some plays in the team session in practice I just left. Those young guys are coming along, developing, learning the offense and making plays. I thought that Harry Crider continues to be so consistent at center and the anchor. We are really encouraged by him. We have really good competition going on at guard. Dylan Powell, Mackenzie Nworah and Mike Katic, all three of those guys are really battling every day. They are all going to play, but I really like the way they are competing right now. It gives us a chance to get the best guys on the field. Defensively, Devon Matthews, I was really encouraged by his continued growth. I thought he made some key plays we needed to have made by him. His development and playing in the secondary. Jovan Swann continues to improve. He has come here as a guy that is a very mature player, but it is a new system. Seeing him this last week increase his production, increase his execution, understanding what we are trying to do with him. Aaron Casey stuck out to me a linebacker. That is a group that is very solid, but he is the one that stuck out to me that did a great job of getting his run fits, making his reads, being very decisive, making tackles and doing some really good things.
We did have an injury, but not during the scrimmage, but actually prior that week in an earlier practice last week. Kahlil Benson has a confirmed torn ACL, so he will be out. He is a true freshman, but unfortunately, he will be out for the season. He will be having surgery here soon. I hate that for him, but he is an awesome young man and we have big plans for him. He is going to be a very good player for us and that has not changed and will not change. We have to get him through all that, help him grow and develop, to overcome this adversity. Those are my thoughts from Saturday and where we are at right now. I am ready for some questions.
Q. On Javon Swinton…
ALLEN: He came here with an extremely mature mindset of doing what he was asked to do, always being where he supposed to be and has never had any issues. He was not a mid-year guy, so he came in the summer and it was a very unique summer. Everything he did academically is all remotely done and on Zoom with very little in person. That is hard for the new guys. He showed so much maturity through all that process, always doing everything he is supposed to do, learning the playbook, which is big. That is a hard thing for guys, especially offensively at that position. There is a lot going on, you are trying to find the signal, you are trying to find this, get the call, learn where you are supposed to line up, every call has adjustments to it based on splits and the route you are running. There are a lot of things you have to process quickly, so he has been able to do that. Obviously, at the end of the day he is making plays. He is very talented in the ball skill area. He is able to make difficult catches at times and consistent catches. Sometimes guys can make those tough catches and they drop the ones that are right there, but he has been very consistent in all those areas. His mindset and preparation, as he has tried to do everything right off the field, has led to him knowing what to do on the field. When he has had those opportunities, he continues to come up against guys we are trying to get ready to play, ones and twos, defensively, and he is making plays on the ball. To me, what I always tell my receivers is your job in the pass game is pretty simple: get open and catch football. I do not care how fast you are, it does not matter how high you can jump, but he obviously has natural talent. But, as a receiver, you have to catch football. He has been doing that well. Obviously, getting open is a big part of this, too. As his role, right now he has been running with the twos a lot. To me, he is in that next wave of guys that are going to get in there. He is going to play. I think it is a matter of as he learns more and more, he will play the more he learns and is able to physically handle the physicality of this game and the perimeter blocking it is required of our guys of that position. Those are things he is going to have to continue to work on. I do feel like in this day and age of this 2020 season and what we know we are going to need depth and a number of guys who can help us on both special teams and he is a dual guy in high school that played both sides of football so those kind of guys give you valuable special teams, too, because they can usually tackle and be on the cover units as well as return units. I think he gives us a lot of value there and on special teams. We are trying to get him on the field. I am excited for Javon.
Q. On tackling in the scrimmage and early in the season…
ALLEN: I got a text message during one of the games on Saturday night questioning the defenses in the country right now and the struggles that they are having across the board. It is definitely real. It is real on Sundays, real on Saturdays and you can see it unfolding in front of us. I did not think we tackled as well Saturday, not as well as we did that first scrimmage. We went double the amount of plays, so we are going to have more opportunities. It was not bad, but it was definitely something we worked on today. We are going to work on it every day, like we have been. That is always a concern. We are talking about two, three, four hours, however long the game is going to last of live tackling that you can never really simulate. Like I said, we had a certain number of snaps we tried to get to on Saturday, but that still does not equal the number of snaps that you are going to get on a game day. That is a concern and I think the overall stamina and conditioning. You can tell that the defenses in some of the games I watched are fatigued. It becomes so difficult to be able to concentrate, make checks, communicate with the guys and get in good position when your body is worn down. Making critical stops and tackles in space and all those kinds of things. I think the nature of offenses continues to get harder and harder. The way they read everything with the triple option mindset of everything from RPOs to where everything is read and react offensively to what you are doing, defensively. From an offensive perspective, they always feel like they have the extra answer to the equation, oftentimes they do with the way the game is being played. I think it makes it hard for defenses. All those things combined together… we have talked about in the past about the challenges of getting teams ready during COVID-19. Defensively, it is the physicality part of it, it is hitting both sides of the ball. We have lifted more during this preparation period than we have in the past, trying to get our bodies ready. They just have to go do it. There are no ramp-up games. I have said that many times as well. All these things are repeated, but it is all true for us and it is true for everybody else in the country. The one advantage we have is we have been able to have a chance to watch some of these games being played and try to use those mistakes others have made and help prevent our guys from making the same mistakes. Also, us coaches are trying to prevent some of those same issues.
Q. On positional battles…
ALLEN: I think that [the guard spot] for sure is one I mentioned. I think the linebacker spot, as well. We have several guys and they are all going to have to play, without question, but who plays in what situations and what role they have. We have three middle linebackers with Micah McFadden, James Miller and Thomas Allen. Those three guys have all played a lot football for us and give us some position flexibility. We feel we have five guys that can all play the Mike position. I mentioned, Aaron Casey, who I thought did a great job this past Saturday, and Cam Jones is also at that weak-side linebacker position. Those five guys give us the most amount of experience. That is going to be competitive and continue to be. Their attention to detail, how well they run the defense, how well they hit the run fits… they are all going to have to play. All the things we are talking about with special teams, the tackling piece, keeping guys fresh. Those are probably the biggest, most competitive ones. In the secondary we have guys competing for spots there. At running back we have three, four guys there that we feel can all make plays. Those are highly competitive positions. Those guys are all going to get their snaps. When they get those opportunities, whoever is the hot guy, or whatever the guy that is playing the best will be getting the most reps on game day.
Q. On the increased physicality of the defensive line…
ALLEN: There are multiple variables. Number one, we have a lot of guys back from a year ago at that position. When I go through and watch previous games, it shows up in how many guys that we have that have played a lot of football out there. I think getting another year of maturity helps. I think some things we are doing technically with Kevin Peoples and some of the things that we have adapted to what he has brought to us has helped us in that regard. It needs to show up on game day, without question. I think the guys just being a year stronger in the weight room. I know it was an interrupted preparation, but we had eight full weeks of a winter workout that we got completed before spring ball started, and then tried to do everything we could to not get a drop off during the pandemic. Now we have had this chance, we have actually lifted three days a week, this entire time. This is the first week that we're going to go back to two lifts and more of a game week schedule. It has been an emphasis. We felt like we had to get more physical at those positions, the point of attack. We knew what we had coming in. Nine-straight Big Ten games without a bye and all the opponents are going to be within conference. I am hoping that what we are seeing is legit and it shows up on game day.
Q. On what concerns are lingering heading into Penn State…
ALLEN: The defense overall probably had some advantages where they would have won some of those situations. When I say that, there was definitely back and forth. For instance, one group went through and drove down the field and the defense held them to a field goal, that is a win for the defense. In today's game, if you force a field goal, that is a win. The twos went down and scored touchdown, so that is 50/50. They were both long drives. Both sides had penalties that kind of assisted or resisted in the drive itself. We had some red zone work, and once again, you hold them to a field goal. I felt like it was pretty balanced and you go back and forth. From an objective perspective, I did not like that we missed some tackles on defense. I thought we jumped offsides too many times on defense, but we did not have any illegal procedures on offense, so I would give the edge to the offense for the overall scrimmage, but it was definitely back and forth. We had the officials there, which was very good to be able to get that, we simulated the crowd noise, which is very good. We are expecting to be able to have to our loudspeaker system in our stadium and every setting that we will be in this season. We are one of the few sports that does not have a preseason game. I have coached in smaller divisions of college where we did have preseason games. It is always the same game one nerves that you have because we have not played a game since the bowl game. The whole execution piece, the tackling piece makes you nervous going against somebody else, especially to someone of Penn State's caliber. They are going to have some of the best running backs in the country, some of the best receivers, tight ends and skill guys and then defensively, some of the best pass rushers in the country, great athletes in the secondary and a very active linebacker corps. They have elite specialists, they get great specialists that have great legs. Covering kicks, you don't really do those live. That is always a big one for me. They always have had great returners. Those are the kind of things that make me not sleep at night and be pretty restless. That has been growing as kickoff gets closer, but that is not that unusual because of what we are dealing with is first game, normal concerns, but then I think they are heightened because of the amount of time that we have been apart and not being able to do game-like things full bore as much as you would like before you play a team like Penn State.
Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement…
ALLEN: Good afternoon everyone, appreciate you guys joining us. To wrap up Saturday, to start with, it was our biggest scrimmage of the fall camp. It was extremely productive. I had a goal going in and being able to have about 50 snaps for our ones and twos, to be able to give them some live gos. It is extremely important in this process of our development, and a lot of good things, very competitive back and forth, both sides making plays. It did feel like we had a few more penalties than we did the first time that need to get cleaned up. Both sides had some mistakes, but we were still in the installation mode of things. That has ceased now as everything is of the mindset of fine-tuning what we have and then start working into Penn State here later in the week.
Some guys that stuck out to me, Javon Swinton continues to make plays. I am really encouraged by his consistency at this point. Luke Shayotovich catches the ball extremely well and consistently, he gets open, so he is really catching my eye. Jacolby Hewitt had a really good day. I am really excited for him because he has worked extremely hard. David Baker, so I have listed several receivers there, but David Baker made some plays in the team session in practice I just left. Those young guys are coming along, developing, learning the offense and making plays. I thought that Harry Crider continues to be so consistent at center and the anchor. We are really encouraged by him. We have really good competition going on at guard. Dylan Powell, Mackenzie Nworah and Mike Katic, all three of those guys are really battling every day. They are all going to play, but I really like the way they are competing right now. It gives us a chance to get the best guys on the field. Defensively, Devon Matthews, I was really encouraged by his continued growth. I thought he made some key plays we needed to have made by him. His development and playing in the secondary. Jovan Swann continues to improve. He has come here as a guy that is a very mature player, but it is a new system. Seeing him this last week increase his production, increase his execution, understanding what we are trying to do with him. Aaron Casey stuck out to me a linebacker. That is a group that is very solid, but he is the one that stuck out to me that did a great job of getting his run fits, making his reads, being very decisive, making tackles and doing some really good things.
We did have an injury, but not during the scrimmage, but actually prior that week in an earlier practice last week. Kahlil Benson has a confirmed torn ACL, so he will be out. He is a true freshman, but unfortunately, he will be out for the season. He will be having surgery here soon. I hate that for him, but he is an awesome young man and we have big plans for him. He is going to be a very good player for us and that has not changed and will not change. We have to get him through all that, help him grow and develop, to overcome this adversity. Those are my thoughts from Saturday and where we are at right now. I am ready for some questions.
Q. On Javon Swinton…
ALLEN: He came here with an extremely mature mindset of doing what he was asked to do, always being where he supposed to be and has never had any issues. He was not a mid-year guy, so he came in the summer and it was a very unique summer. Everything he did academically is all remotely done and on Zoom with very little in person. That is hard for the new guys. He showed so much maturity through all that process, always doing everything he is supposed to do, learning the playbook, which is big. That is a hard thing for guys, especially offensively at that position. There is a lot going on, you are trying to find the signal, you are trying to find this, get the call, learn where you are supposed to line up, every call has adjustments to it based on splits and the route you are running. There are a lot of things you have to process quickly, so he has been able to do that. Obviously, at the end of the day he is making plays. He is very talented in the ball skill area. He is able to make difficult catches at times and consistent catches. Sometimes guys can make those tough catches and they drop the ones that are right there, but he has been very consistent in all those areas. His mindset and preparation, as he has tried to do everything right off the field, has led to him knowing what to do on the field. When he has had those opportunities, he continues to come up against guys we are trying to get ready to play, ones and twos, defensively, and he is making plays on the ball. To me, what I always tell my receivers is your job in the pass game is pretty simple: get open and catch football. I do not care how fast you are, it does not matter how high you can jump, but he obviously has natural talent. But, as a receiver, you have to catch football. He has been doing that well. Obviously, getting open is a big part of this, too. As his role, right now he has been running with the twos a lot. To me, he is in that next wave of guys that are going to get in there. He is going to play. I think it is a matter of as he learns more and more, he will play the more he learns and is able to physically handle the physicality of this game and the perimeter blocking it is required of our guys of that position. Those are things he is going to have to continue to work on. I do feel like in this day and age of this 2020 season and what we know we are going to need depth and a number of guys who can help us on both special teams and he is a dual guy in high school that played both sides of football so those kind of guys give you valuable special teams, too, because they can usually tackle and be on the cover units as well as return units. I think he gives us a lot of value there and on special teams. We are trying to get him on the field. I am excited for Javon.
Q. On tackling in the scrimmage and early in the season…
ALLEN: I got a text message during one of the games on Saturday night questioning the defenses in the country right now and the struggles that they are having across the board. It is definitely real. It is real on Sundays, real on Saturdays and you can see it unfolding in front of us. I did not think we tackled as well Saturday, not as well as we did that first scrimmage. We went double the amount of plays, so we are going to have more opportunities. It was not bad, but it was definitely something we worked on today. We are going to work on it every day, like we have been. That is always a concern. We are talking about two, three, four hours, however long the game is going to last of live tackling that you can never really simulate. Like I said, we had a certain number of snaps we tried to get to on Saturday, but that still does not equal the number of snaps that you are going to get on a game day. That is a concern and I think the overall stamina and conditioning. You can tell that the defenses in some of the games I watched are fatigued. It becomes so difficult to be able to concentrate, make checks, communicate with the guys and get in good position when your body is worn down. Making critical stops and tackles in space and all those kinds of things. I think the nature of offenses continues to get harder and harder. The way they read everything with the triple option mindset of everything from RPOs to where everything is read and react offensively to what you are doing, defensively. From an offensive perspective, they always feel like they have the extra answer to the equation, oftentimes they do with the way the game is being played. I think it makes it hard for defenses. All those things combined together… we have talked about in the past about the challenges of getting teams ready during COVID-19. Defensively, it is the physicality part of it, it is hitting both sides of the ball. We have lifted more during this preparation period than we have in the past, trying to get our bodies ready. They just have to go do it. There are no ramp-up games. I have said that many times as well. All these things are repeated, but it is all true for us and it is true for everybody else in the country. The one advantage we have is we have been able to have a chance to watch some of these games being played and try to use those mistakes others have made and help prevent our guys from making the same mistakes. Also, us coaches are trying to prevent some of those same issues.
Q. On positional battles…
ALLEN: I think that [the guard spot] for sure is one I mentioned. I think the linebacker spot, as well. We have several guys and they are all going to have to play, without question, but who plays in what situations and what role they have. We have three middle linebackers with Micah McFadden, James Miller and Thomas Allen. Those three guys have all played a lot football for us and give us some position flexibility. We feel we have five guys that can all play the Mike position. I mentioned, Aaron Casey, who I thought did a great job this past Saturday, and Cam Jones is also at that weak-side linebacker position. Those five guys give us the most amount of experience. That is going to be competitive and continue to be. Their attention to detail, how well they run the defense, how well they hit the run fits… they are all going to have to play. All the things we are talking about with special teams, the tackling piece, keeping guys fresh. Those are probably the biggest, most competitive ones. In the secondary we have guys competing for spots there. At running back we have three, four guys there that we feel can all make plays. Those are highly competitive positions. Those guys are all going to get their snaps. When they get those opportunities, whoever is the hot guy, or whatever the guy that is playing the best will be getting the most reps on game day.
Q. On the increased physicality of the defensive line…
ALLEN: There are multiple variables. Number one, we have a lot of guys back from a year ago at that position. When I go through and watch previous games, it shows up in how many guys that we have that have played a lot of football out there. I think getting another year of maturity helps. I think some things we are doing technically with Kevin Peoples and some of the things that we have adapted to what he has brought to us has helped us in that regard. It needs to show up on game day, without question. I think the guys just being a year stronger in the weight room. I know it was an interrupted preparation, but we had eight full weeks of a winter workout that we got completed before spring ball started, and then tried to do everything we could to not get a drop off during the pandemic. Now we have had this chance, we have actually lifted three days a week, this entire time. This is the first week that we're going to go back to two lifts and more of a game week schedule. It has been an emphasis. We felt like we had to get more physical at those positions, the point of attack. We knew what we had coming in. Nine-straight Big Ten games without a bye and all the opponents are going to be within conference. I am hoping that what we are seeing is legit and it shows up on game day.
Q. On what concerns are lingering heading into Penn State…
ALLEN: The defense overall probably had some advantages where they would have won some of those situations. When I say that, there was definitely back and forth. For instance, one group went through and drove down the field and the defense held them to a field goal, that is a win for the defense. In today's game, if you force a field goal, that is a win. The twos went down and scored touchdown, so that is 50/50. They were both long drives. Both sides had penalties that kind of assisted or resisted in the drive itself. We had some red zone work, and once again, you hold them to a field goal. I felt like it was pretty balanced and you go back and forth. From an objective perspective, I did not like that we missed some tackles on defense. I thought we jumped offsides too many times on defense, but we did not have any illegal procedures on offense, so I would give the edge to the offense for the overall scrimmage, but it was definitely back and forth. We had the officials there, which was very good to be able to get that, we simulated the crowd noise, which is very good. We are expecting to be able to have to our loudspeaker system in our stadium and every setting that we will be in this season. We are one of the few sports that does not have a preseason game. I have coached in smaller divisions of college where we did have preseason games. It is always the same game one nerves that you have because we have not played a game since the bowl game. The whole execution piece, the tackling piece makes you nervous going against somebody else, especially to someone of Penn State's caliber. They are going to have some of the best running backs in the country, some of the best receivers, tight ends and skill guys and then defensively, some of the best pass rushers in the country, great athletes in the secondary and a very active linebacker corps. They have elite specialists, they get great specialists that have great legs. Covering kicks, you don't really do those live. That is always a big one for me. They always have had great returners. Those are the kind of things that make me not sleep at night and be pretty restless. That has been growing as kickoff gets closer, but that is not that unusual because of what we are dealing with is first game, normal concerns, but then I think they are heightened because of the amount of time that we have been apart and not being able to do game-like things full bore as much as you would like before you play a team like Penn State.
Players Mentioned
LB
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WR
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OL
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LB
/ Football
OL
/ Football
WR
/ Football
OL
/ Football
DB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
OL
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OL
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WR
/ Football
DL
/ Football
WR
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