Indiana University Athletics
Media Wednesday: Michigan State
11/11/2020 1:30:00 PM | Football
Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with Indiana defensive line coach Kevin Peoples, cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby and offensive line coach Darren Hiller on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
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Defensive Line Coach Kevin Peoples
Q. On what he has seen from the defensive line…
PEOPLES: There have been some big challenges and I am glad we have responded the right way. That is what we are trying to build on, every day we are trying to improve. We are always going to have good plays and bad plays. Any time you play the caliber of teams that we have so far and you perform well enough to win the game, that is going to build confidence. We are happy with where we are at, but we have to keep working.
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Q. On C.J. Person…
PEOPLES: C.J. is a good athlete and has some really good feet. He has some explosive ability and we try to match personnel. We play situational football and we want to put guys in the best position possible so that the team can be successful. We saw an opportunity to put C.J. in a situation to get a little more beef on the field and that has a been a good thing for us. That is what we are trying to do whether it is run or pass, we are trying to play situational football with our defensive line.
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Q. On getting pressure with a four-man rush…
PEOPLES: That is something that we need to work on. There is no question about the ability to get pressure with a four-man rush. We do get exotic a little bit with some of the things we do to create pressure. Obviously, if we could get a four-man pressure through the defensive line that would allow Coach Kane Wommack and the rest of the defensive players to be able to play a little more coverage. That is something that we are working on and something we have to get better at and we know that. We are going to take that as a challenge and we are working hard to improve.
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Cornerbacks Coach Brandon Shelby
Q. On Reese Taylor and his comments about playing QB…
SHELBY: Hopefully when you asked that question he thought about it only for a few seconds and then came back to reality to realize he is a corner. At the end of the day, he has a great knack to be a leader. He has great changes of direction and those abilities that hopefully will give him an opportunity one day to play at the next level, if he is blessed enough. I just want him to lock in at the corner position and know the playbook in and out. He has that toughness, you saw him fit the run last week in an amazing way. Now he has got to just make sure he does a great job and just keeps refining and keeps getting better.
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Q. On the defensive backs reading the QB's eyes…
SHELBY: A lot of times it starts in the film study. From there you have to go on the practice field and we do a drill once or twice a week called vision and drive. That is reading the eyes of the quarterback, seeing where he is looking and then drawing our routes in our area. It is a lot of pattern matching. Coach Jason Jones and I throughout the week have spent a lot of time going over the routes that they are going to see based on the down and distance and what part of the field they are in. We have done a better job than we have in the past of just going over certain things that they are going to have to prepare to see. Thus far, we have done a good job of anticipating where the quarterback is going to throw the ball and we have been in the right spots. A lot of it is just us doing our jobs. Everybody just wants to make a play. A lot of times you get in these big games and you start thinking about how you can help the team or make a play. Most times it is just doing your job and I think when you do that you have an opportunity to make more plays. You see a guys like Jaylin Williams, Reese Taylor or Tiawan Mullen just doing their jobs, are in the right spot, and then having the confidence that the things we did throughout the week are going to happen on gameday, and so far it has.
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Q. On Jaylin Williams…
SHELBY: It is crazy. We were getting on the plane the other day and I walked up to him to just tell him how proud I was of him of not just putting goals on paper but actually living them out. I am so excited about the young man he is becoming on the football field as well as off the field. You are starting to see that in his preparation. The main thing is, a lot of times when people get success most people kind of stop because they think they have arrived. There is a point where you got to go even harder, watch a bit more film because now people recognize his success. They are going to start scheming you up and do things to try to embarrass you out there on Saturdays. He has done a great job of getting his life outside of football, academically, spiritually, together, and I think that you are starting to see the results of that on the football field. He is watching more film, he is locked in and I do not have to beg him to come up here to do it because he is doing it on his own. He is coming to the meeting room asking me questions even before I can even get to it. Preparation builds confidence and when you prepare, do what you are supposed to do, you have the results that you get on Saturday. It started during the offseason. We had some tough conversations and some conversations that he probably did not want to hear. They know me well enough by now that I am going to keep it 100 percent. He took the heat, worked on it and now he is reaping some of the rewards. The main thing is that he has to keep going and keep pushing himself.
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Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Darren Hiller
Q. On the physical nature of practice…
HILLER: I think it is just a matter of continuing to be physical. We do not wear pads every single day of the week at practice. So when we do wear shoulder pads, whether we are wearing uppers or full pads, we have to get a lot from the scout team. Those are the guys that give us a look, and we have to make sure that those guys are playing hard. That forces the offensive line to play hard. If those guys are being a little bit lazy, it allows the offensive linemen to be lazy. As we know, that cannot happen on Saturdays in Big Ten football. I think the emphasis has been more so on getting the scout team to go hard, which forces the offensive line. What has transpired in my whole career coaching football is the scout team guys sometime go hard one play and then they take three or four plays off. That allows the offensive lineman to relax a little bit. The emphasis has been to get everybody to play and practice at a high level. It is awesome. I mean, that is what we have to do. We have to do that to prepare us for Saturdays.
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Q. On improvements of the offensive line…
HILLER: I think it's a combination of both. I said it after the Penn State game, that was a very poor performance by the offensive line. I thought that there was some things where there was maybe a little rust. Our aiming points and some of our technique things were not very good. It allowed some breakdowns in what we were doing, especially in the run game. Then I thought the Rutgers game, in the second week, I thought we got a little bit better. The Michigan game I thought we got better. We are not even close to where we need to be and every single day is the challenge to be better as a unit. Every guy has strengths and weaknesses, and so it is a matter of those guys identifying it or me identifying it for them through showing them video of the good, the bad and the ugly. Then working on the stuff that we are good at. Obviously that is awesome, but we just have to continue to get better, individually. Collectively, that will carry over to the unit playing better. I thought we have gotten better from game one and we are going into game four. Again today, it was a great opportunity for the work at practice. We just have to keep grinding and coaching until kickoff.
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Q. On the play of the interior offensive line…
HILLER: It has been a little bit of a work in progress in there. Harry Crider has been solid. He has played a lot of football for us. He has experience playing center, so it has not been a big transition for him. Mackenzie Nworah has played a lot of football for us over the years. From 2017 to now, he has played and started in several games. He has done an okay job. There are things that he has got to get better at. Mike Katic is a redshirt freshman that did not play last year, he did not play any at all. Dylan Powell is a transfer. He has college experience and there are some things that he does, naturally, just a little bit better than Mike at times. But Mike is a very strong guy and has played well. Unfortunately, he was dinged last week, but we will have him back this week. I am rotating those guys in and trying to keep them fresh. All three of those guys want to be starters. Harry is unquestionably the starter at the center position, but those three guards want to be starters. They are all working hard to try to do that. It is just a matter of us getting those game reps and seeing who, you know, I always tell them that the cream is going to rise to the top. The guys that are playing the best are going to be the guys that are getting the most snaps. Right now, it has been a good battle in there for those guys. We have to keep grinding and getting better.
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Defensive Line Coach Kevin Peoples
Q. On what he has seen from the defensive line…
PEOPLES: There have been some big challenges and I am glad we have responded the right way. That is what we are trying to build on, every day we are trying to improve. We are always going to have good plays and bad plays. Any time you play the caliber of teams that we have so far and you perform well enough to win the game, that is going to build confidence. We are happy with where we are at, but we have to keep working.
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Q. On C.J. Person…
PEOPLES: C.J. is a good athlete and has some really good feet. He has some explosive ability and we try to match personnel. We play situational football and we want to put guys in the best position possible so that the team can be successful. We saw an opportunity to put C.J. in a situation to get a little more beef on the field and that has a been a good thing for us. That is what we are trying to do whether it is run or pass, we are trying to play situational football with our defensive line.
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Q. On getting pressure with a four-man rush…
PEOPLES: That is something that we need to work on. There is no question about the ability to get pressure with a four-man rush. We do get exotic a little bit with some of the things we do to create pressure. Obviously, if we could get a four-man pressure through the defensive line that would allow Coach Kane Wommack and the rest of the defensive players to be able to play a little more coverage. That is something that we are working on and something we have to get better at and we know that. We are going to take that as a challenge and we are working hard to improve.
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Cornerbacks Coach Brandon Shelby
Q. On Reese Taylor and his comments about playing QB…
SHELBY: Hopefully when you asked that question he thought about it only for a few seconds and then came back to reality to realize he is a corner. At the end of the day, he has a great knack to be a leader. He has great changes of direction and those abilities that hopefully will give him an opportunity one day to play at the next level, if he is blessed enough. I just want him to lock in at the corner position and know the playbook in and out. He has that toughness, you saw him fit the run last week in an amazing way. Now he has got to just make sure he does a great job and just keeps refining and keeps getting better.
Â
Q. On the defensive backs reading the QB's eyes…
SHELBY: A lot of times it starts in the film study. From there you have to go on the practice field and we do a drill once or twice a week called vision and drive. That is reading the eyes of the quarterback, seeing where he is looking and then drawing our routes in our area. It is a lot of pattern matching. Coach Jason Jones and I throughout the week have spent a lot of time going over the routes that they are going to see based on the down and distance and what part of the field they are in. We have done a better job than we have in the past of just going over certain things that they are going to have to prepare to see. Thus far, we have done a good job of anticipating where the quarterback is going to throw the ball and we have been in the right spots. A lot of it is just us doing our jobs. Everybody just wants to make a play. A lot of times you get in these big games and you start thinking about how you can help the team or make a play. Most times it is just doing your job and I think when you do that you have an opportunity to make more plays. You see a guys like Jaylin Williams, Reese Taylor or Tiawan Mullen just doing their jobs, are in the right spot, and then having the confidence that the things we did throughout the week are going to happen on gameday, and so far it has.
Â
Q. On Jaylin Williams…
SHELBY: It is crazy. We were getting on the plane the other day and I walked up to him to just tell him how proud I was of him of not just putting goals on paper but actually living them out. I am so excited about the young man he is becoming on the football field as well as off the field. You are starting to see that in his preparation. The main thing is, a lot of times when people get success most people kind of stop because they think they have arrived. There is a point where you got to go even harder, watch a bit more film because now people recognize his success. They are going to start scheming you up and do things to try to embarrass you out there on Saturdays. He has done a great job of getting his life outside of football, academically, spiritually, together, and I think that you are starting to see the results of that on the football field. He is watching more film, he is locked in and I do not have to beg him to come up here to do it because he is doing it on his own. He is coming to the meeting room asking me questions even before I can even get to it. Preparation builds confidence and when you prepare, do what you are supposed to do, you have the results that you get on Saturday. It started during the offseason. We had some tough conversations and some conversations that he probably did not want to hear. They know me well enough by now that I am going to keep it 100 percent. He took the heat, worked on it and now he is reaping some of the rewards. The main thing is that he has to keep going and keep pushing himself.
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Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Darren Hiller
Q. On the physical nature of practice…
HILLER: I think it is just a matter of continuing to be physical. We do not wear pads every single day of the week at practice. So when we do wear shoulder pads, whether we are wearing uppers or full pads, we have to get a lot from the scout team. Those are the guys that give us a look, and we have to make sure that those guys are playing hard. That forces the offensive line to play hard. If those guys are being a little bit lazy, it allows the offensive linemen to be lazy. As we know, that cannot happen on Saturdays in Big Ten football. I think the emphasis has been more so on getting the scout team to go hard, which forces the offensive line. What has transpired in my whole career coaching football is the scout team guys sometime go hard one play and then they take three or four plays off. That allows the offensive lineman to relax a little bit. The emphasis has been to get everybody to play and practice at a high level. It is awesome. I mean, that is what we have to do. We have to do that to prepare us for Saturdays.
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Q. On improvements of the offensive line…
HILLER: I think it's a combination of both. I said it after the Penn State game, that was a very poor performance by the offensive line. I thought that there was some things where there was maybe a little rust. Our aiming points and some of our technique things were not very good. It allowed some breakdowns in what we were doing, especially in the run game. Then I thought the Rutgers game, in the second week, I thought we got a little bit better. The Michigan game I thought we got better. We are not even close to where we need to be and every single day is the challenge to be better as a unit. Every guy has strengths and weaknesses, and so it is a matter of those guys identifying it or me identifying it for them through showing them video of the good, the bad and the ugly. Then working on the stuff that we are good at. Obviously that is awesome, but we just have to continue to get better, individually. Collectively, that will carry over to the unit playing better. I thought we have gotten better from game one and we are going into game four. Again today, it was a great opportunity for the work at practice. We just have to keep grinding and coaching until kickoff.
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Q. On the play of the interior offensive line…
HILLER: It has been a little bit of a work in progress in there. Harry Crider has been solid. He has played a lot of football for us. He has experience playing center, so it has not been a big transition for him. Mackenzie Nworah has played a lot of football for us over the years. From 2017 to now, he has played and started in several games. He has done an okay job. There are things that he has got to get better at. Mike Katic is a redshirt freshman that did not play last year, he did not play any at all. Dylan Powell is a transfer. He has college experience and there are some things that he does, naturally, just a little bit better than Mike at times. But Mike is a very strong guy and has played well. Unfortunately, he was dinged last week, but we will have him back this week. I am rotating those guys in and trying to keep them fresh. All three of those guys want to be starters. Harry is unquestionably the starter at the center position, but those three guards want to be starters. They are all working hard to try to do that. It is just a matter of us getting those game reps and seeing who, you know, I always tell them that the cream is going to rise to the top. The guys that are playing the best are going to be the guys that are getting the most snaps. Right now, it has been a good battle in there for those guys. We have to keep grinding and getting better.
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Players Mentioned
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