Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Rutgers

Indiana vs. Rutgers
Oct. 31, 2020
Postgame Quotes

Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement
"I am proud of our team for getting the second Big Ten win in a row to start the season 2-0 is huge for our program. Hats off to Rutgers for playing hard, like we expected them to. I am really proud of our football team. It is hard to win on the road. I am proud of our team, especially after a historic win like last week. I tried so hard all week to get our guys locked in because that can be so challenging to do. I thought we handled it pretty well. Still a little bit sloppy at times, we will get that cleaned up. So proud of our offense, we were so productive in the red zone. We were six-for-six, two touchdowns, which was awesome. That is how you win football games, being very efficient down there. Defense was creating takeaways, we got three of them again today, and protecting the football, that was huge for us. They created seven takeaways last week against Michigan State. We had zero on offense, I am really pleased with that as it was a big emphasis for us. We had a plus-three turnover ratio, when you do that and are that efficient in the red zone, you are going to win a lot of football games in this conference. which was great. Proud of our players, proud of our coaches for keeping the guys locked in. We still have played our best football yet, but we got our second win, which was critical. I am proud of our guys."

Q. On Michael Penix Jr.'s performance…
"We had some drops in the first half that were not on him. Overall, I thought he threw the ball pretty well. It takes time. We had zero 7-on-7 throws this summer. We were not allowed to per our [COVID-19] protocols. It hurts your rhythm. You can say what you want, but it does. It is a big deal and I knew it was going to take some time. What you saw at the end of last week and what you saw today is him just getting better. I thought we were able to protect him better, which was good. Better protection of the football. I am proud of Michael. He is a talented young man and he will only keep getting better."

Q. On the play of the secondary…
"I am really proud of them. I thought Coach Kane Wommack did a good job of mixing things up and creating pressures. Three takeaways, that was just massive. And they all came off pressures. That is a talented secondary, we have a lot of guys stepping up at the corner position and the safety position. I am really proud of them. We just have to keep getting better. There is still work to be done. If you can create those kinds of negative plays, the takeaways, that is huge. And it helped get our offense jump-started. I am proud of our guys for being able to be a defense that can create game-changing plays. We do not have a bend but do not break philosophy. I know that sometimes, schematically, we have to do that against certain opponents based on a skillset matchup. But we want to be aggressive. We want to create pressure on the quarterback. These guys are talented enough to play a combination of man and zone. It is a special group back there that Brandon Shelby does a great job with our corners, Jason Jones does with the safeties, and Kasey Teegardin does with the husky position."

Q. On the play with all the laterals…
"I have never seen anything like that in person. The year after I left Ole Miss, they had a play against Arkansas that was similar. Not quite as many laterals. I have never seen it in person. That is not a very good feeling when it is happening to you. Because, you think the game is over, you think you have got him and the guy is down, then all of a sudden you do not. One guy literally just heaved it over the back of his head! When the official told me that they thought one of the laterals was forward I just said 'thank you, Jesus'. Are you kidding me? At the point he said it was a penalty from the spot of the foul and a loss of down, which means we had the ball and the game would be over. It was crazy. How about two weeks in a row with as crazy of an ending as you can get? We are just trying to create some memories for our fans and everybody watching. We are pretty entertaining."

Q. On the offenses response when the score was 23-15…
"I thought that was an amazing response by our offensive staff and players. To me, that is what good football teams do. It was going to be a battle. We saw what happened today and the team that Rutgers beat last week turned around and beat Michigan. We told the guys it is going to be like this all year. So, to handle a spot like that was impressive. We saw some things that we thought we could take advantage of and hats off to Nick Sheridan to lead that crew. He is doing a great job of calling it. Michael Penix is doing a great job of executing and the receivers are catching the football. We were able to mix in a couple of runs and just march right down the field and really put the game away. I thought that was a great response from our offense at the right time."

Indiana Player Quotes
Michael Penix Jr., Quarterback
Q. On the offense finding a groove…
"I feel like we were on today. It was a complete execution from the offensive side of the ball. Guys were just making the simple plays. Going out on each play and doing what Coach Nick Sheridan called. Coach Sheridan called a great game. All we had to do was execute and that is what we did today."

Q. On getting production from Peyton Hendershot and Whop Philyor…
"It was just the play calling and it set them up for success today. I went through my reads to find the open receiver and those two guys found a way to get open. They made some spectacular catches and they were consistent. Just great execution in the play calling."

Q. On getting a spark from the defense…
"We see it every day in practice. Our defense works extremely hard and they have a large amount of maturity on that side of the ball. Guys are stepping up, taking on that leadership role and bringing the younger guys along with them. Coach Kane Wommack has called a great defense to get guys in the right position to make plays. We have known this all along in practice because they work extremely hard. Those guys deserve to have great games like this."

Micah McFadden, Linebacker
Q. On generating turnovers…
"I think we got a lot of good perimeter rushes and perimeter blitzes. We also did a lot on games up front with our d-line getting a lot of pressure on him, and getting him rolling out of the pocket and stuff like that, creating tough throws. So, just different stuff like that, mixing it up on him. Giving him different looks created a lot of havoc back there."

Q. On the defense creating momentum…
"I would say that our defense definitely feeds off those three-and-outs. And I think it is important for that field position. I think once we are down there and we have them pinned back, a lot of our guys just get that momentum and the mindset to go get after that quarterback and go make plays. So, I think we did a good job of that."

Q. On the confidence of the defense…
"We are just so confident. There is a lot of talk throughout the sideline. Once they score or something like that, everybody is just clutch it. We are on to the next play, we are going to make more plays, and there is just a whole lot of communication out there. We definitely play as one and we just feed off of each other making plays."

Peyton Hendershot, Tight End
Q: On bouncing back after a couple drops…
"It was crazy. It was the exact same play. I ran the same route in the same place and same thing I dropped it. I came over to the side lines and I was upset with myself because I only had one or two drops all last year and I already have two drops. I am just letting the team down. My coaches said you are going to make plays just don't think about it and move on. I just got lost in the game. I was not thinking about it anymore. When the ball was coming, I was thinking about it anymore. It was not instinct. I felt lost in the game and I just got going. The catches just started coming and making it easier."

Q: On the lack of summer work…
"I am sure that plays a role in it, but I got to catch the ball. We got to catch the ball. Mike has been throwing the ball good for us, so we have to make those plays. If we make those plays, we will have our offense rolling and doing good things."

Q: On the performance and improvements that can be made…
"I think it was big this week that we came back with a focus of just getting better every day. From last week to this week, we had way better offense and showed that. That is probably just taking it one play at a time. I think we were all just trying to force things. We have a bunch of starters coming back and are trying to just take too many plays and need to let the game come to us. I think we did a good job of that. When are time came, we did a good job of that.
Off the field, I have just been trying to help the freshman evolve. A.J. Barner, the freshman tight end is my roommate this year, so I am just trying to teach him how to be a good football player, as good as I know and show him how to develop and better himself every day."

Reese Taylor, Cornerback
Q: On the confidence of the defensive backs…
"Our confidence has sky rocketed because we all have come to play. We gel all together as one. We were ready to come out and be prepared for anything. Anybody we play, any formation, we are prepared. We have great cooperation with our coaches and I feel like when we play together as one, we are one of the top defenses in the nation. We can do anything right now."

Q: On picking up the offense…
"The saying is offense wins games but defense wins championships. This defense is always going to have the offense's back whether they come out fast or slow. We are always going to have their back. Like I said we have confidence in this defense so we can go out and prepare for anything. As a defense I feel like if any team steps up, we are going to step up right with them."

Q: On the defense creating momentum…
"Momentum is a strong thing in a football game. I do not know how, but it changes the mindset to where it makes the defense have more rage within them and makes them hungrier. The drives we had just put more confidence in our defense. With the play calls that we had we went out and played hungrier, faster, and comfortably all at the same time. I feel like that hungriness came out at the end to make sure we stopped them. Our coaches called the right plays and I feel like the defense stepped up today."

Jaylin Williams, Cornerback
Q: On the confidence of the defensive backs…
"We are going to do whatever we need to do help the team win, or whatever coach feels like is the best thing for us to put the defense in the best position. The coaches do a great job of putting us in the right position to make plays and we have just got to go out there and execute."

Q: On his interception…
"I saw who he was trying to get it to, Shaheem Jones. I was kind of keying on him. When I saw Sio Nofoagatoto'a hit him I saw the ball in the air, I said I have got to go get it. It was mine so I had to go get that."

Q: On the defense creating momentum…
"Yeah, like we said last week, we are just going to continue building on the week before man. We through those things in practice that we messed up last week and there are other things we have to work on but, we feed off each other. If each other is doing their job we are doing great. We had to bring our own juice today, and that is what we did as a defense."

Indiana University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Peyton Hendershot

Micah McFadden

Sio Nofoagatoto'a

Michael Penix Jr.

Whop Philyor

Reese Taylor

Jaylin Williams

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