Media Monday: Michigan

Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with Indiana head coach Tom Allen, offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. on Monday, Nov. 2.

Head Coach Tom Allen
ALLEN: Alright just want to welcome everybody. Appreciate you being here. Just proud of our football team for going on the road and taking care of business. A little sloppier than I would have liked for it to have been. Too many penalties but did have a lot of positives. Thought our kids competed hard. Played really hard for each other and defensively, playing through takeaways is a big, big deal. So, talk about after the game and go back and watch everything, led to 17 points, which is huge. Did not start as fast offensively neither half like we need to so we have to address that, but we continue to play well in the red zone. And that's a key element of our success as well. Just being able to get off the field, defensively, and get our offense in position to make plays. Our special teams was solid, but the kickoff return, we did not cover effectively. But they have an excellent punter. And does a great job of spreading that ball around. It was an issue for us a year ago to address that and keep that ball secured, it was important for field position. Charles Campbell, kicking three field goals, he got the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week, which congratulations to him. He's done a great job for so far. But, just really hats off to Coach Greg Schiano. Excellent football coach and really see a big difference in the team since he has been there in a short time. He will do a great job. A lot of respect for him and knew it was going to be a tough challenge to go there and find a way to keep winning football games. I think as we talked to our team a lot of things to clean up. Have not played our best football, yet. Need to start getting some of these mistakes corrected, but I thought we made progress. We have addressed and continue to tackle well. Can you play really hard ,physical point of attack? Inside the football I think defensively it's improving and offensively we showed signs as well. Staying on our blocks, seeing more of that, but things that we addressed and worked on this week, I thought our guys responded well. Once we dropped a few balls there in the beginning, caught the ball much better. Probably the second half of the first quarter Michael Penix Jr. got in rhythm and gave him some time and he did a great job. So, encouraged by the way our guys responded after a big win week one, making sure we stayed locked in and focused and I thought the guys did a good job of that. So, just go here and list some guys from the game. Just so you guys know we go through and pick players of the game. And so, offensive player of the game was Peyton Hendershot. A couple touchdowns and just really blocked well and had a complete game. Really challenged him to step up after week one. He sure did that so we are proud of Peyton. Jaylin Williams was our defensive player of the game and several guys were candidates for that. Got another interception, tackled extremely well. I thought Reese Taylor played, I told him I thought he played his best game as Hoosier, overall, and just really coming into his own as a corner in our program. Jaylin was our player of the game, defensively. Then special teams was Charles Campbell with what he did with all the PATs. Every point matters every single game. It is a very, very important part of what we are doing here with special teams. So, proud of those guys and also for our scouts, the effort that they give us each and every week. The scout team player of the week was Damarjhe Lewis, very talented freshmen that I see just continues to get better every single week. Cameron Williams did a great job as well. Ryan Barnes was our offensive scout team player of the week and just love his effort. Love his unselfish mindset as somebody who is helping his team get better every single day, but he has bought into that and special team scout, was Joseph Daniels Jr. Just another guy that continues to work hard. High character young man, excellent student. Those things drag on and off the field. Those guys just give great effort. Several guys, we are mentioning some guys that just overall play hard in practice. Connor Hole, McCall Ray, DeKaleb Thomas and Jeremy Boyd. Guys just busting their tails for this team. Unselfish, living out L-E-O. Helping us get better every day. So, that is what it is going to take. Excited to welcome the Michigan Wolverines to campus on Saturday for a noon kickoff. Ton of respect for Jim Harbaugh and the kind of coach that he is, kind of talent that they have on that football team. One of the top programs in this country. Top-25 program and have to keep getting better every single time we take the field. So, big challenge for us this week as we have a chance to go for opportunity number three. So, appreciate you guys and ready for questions.

Q. On the trust in the defensive secondary…
ALLEN: That is really important for us. You want to be multiple schematically and I think that is one thing we have really tried to become more of as a defense and take some pressure off certain calls and techniques. I think that with their ability to play man and zone with both our safeties and our corners. That is a super positive thing for us and I just love the way they are tackling. I thought Monster, Devon Matthews, we call him Monster, but man, I thought he played really, really well. Tackled so well. He can cover. Big physical guy. He has got great range. Jamar Johnson, I know he has got a lot of notoriety for his interceptions, but I thought he played his best game yet since he has been here on Saturday and just doing everything that he is asked to do like the discipline. Just eyes. They (Rutgers) did a lot of stuff now. I mean there were trick plays and motion in the empty and back and forth at quarterback runs, two quarterbacks in there at one time and just doing all sorts. They do a lot of things and a lot of movements and misdirection and you can get your eyes in the wrong place really fast if you are not careful, not locked in. That is where I thought our guys, even though I was disappointed that our defense did not finish and put them away in the fourth quarter like I thought we should, something we have addressed and really work hard on, but I did think that they did a really good job in the back end of being discipline and being able to play multiple things to be able to protect us on some calls and be more aggressive on others. You see how much we brought those DBs and continued. That is just what we do. We are an aggressive defense and those guys give us that confidence to make those calls that you are alluding to and just really proud of them. Kane Wommack has done a great job orchestrating all that and just kind of making it into what it is becoming and I think that Jason Jones and Brandon Shelby and Kasey Teegardin, all three of those guys coach different positions within our secondary. So, big part of our defense. It is a talented group and there are many of them there. Already mentioned a few, but Tiawan Mullen made a couple mistakes that he usually does not make but he also made some great, great plays. So, just proud of that group and their play is allowing us to keep becoming a better defense every time we take the field.

Q. On what you have seen out of Nick Sheridan…
ALLEN: I think he has done a really good job. There is always growing pains through learning and doing something for the first time and I feel like that he has adapted. Things go a little differently from week one to week two, even from the first half to the second half. I thought they did a good job of adjusting. I still want to make sure we can find a way to start faster in each of those halves. Just some subtle adjustments. It is a lot of times not major things that you are able to tweak or dial a certain direction at halftime or week to week. That is the difference, oftentimes those small, subtle things and this is right. Play calling to me is an art, it is not a science that you can do all the study, you can do all the prep you give all the data but just calling, knowing what to call, when to call it at the right time is a big part of this. I have as a defensive play caller, with time, you get better and you learn. He is an extremely intelligent, super, super sharp, bright young man that he will learn and adapt and grow each and every week I believe in him and that is part of it. That is why you hire guys like that you know have the talent, they just need the opportunity and then also just give them that freedom and leeway to be able to grow and learn, and we meet and we talk and we talked again last night about certain things. And so just feel like it is about continuing to find ways to stay on the field and get your playmakers the football. That is really what it comes down to, offensively. Most efficiency in the red zone is huge. We have gotten better on third downs, has not been an area that we have been good enough and right now, I want to see us continue to work on running the football better. We had some good runs and did some good things in the run game at key times, but there are a lot of variables that go into that and I just thought we were a little sloppy, the penalties and snap over quarterback's head. We had not had one of those since I have been here that I can remember. And those things do not happen very often. And so, we killed that drive and some penalties really set us back and did not allow us to finish with touchdowns. We still got points on those red zone trip, but we still need to continue to get more touchdowns. So, that is really the key. I just think as he continues to grow and you develop trust in certain players as they prove that they are dependable, they know where to line up, they execute when called upon, that is a big deal. He develops that trust in them as a play caller and the quarterback builds that trust in them as receivers, tight ends, running backs and you are going to catch the football and eliminate those drops, and so that is just part of his growth and his leadership. I think he does a tremendous job. I see it in all those meetings. Especially, we have a unit meeting, which is the whole offense, the day after the game or it was day after yesterday because of the different schedule this week with the voting tomorrow and usually it is a day after we have an off day on Sunday and so, whenever we meet that first time, just does a great job of teaching from the game and using video, just really doing a great job of articulating the things that we need to address in the right way, the right tone. Accountability, toughness and love, which is just, you talk about your core values, those core values do not just stick out there for recruiting purposes or when I talk to the public. It is how you function on a daily basis and so to me our meetings should reflect that. How he leads the offense should reflect that, how Coach Wommack leads the defense should reflect that and how Kasey leads the special teams should reflect those core values and how we talk to our players and hold them accountable in a very hard, tough way. It is just wrapped up into an understanding that it is out of love and what we want is all of us to be at our best. I think he does a great job of that. I have been encouraged by that. And I expect him to lead that way.

Q. On Miles Marshall and David Ellis and the onside kick situation…
The first two guys hoping to, do not know for sure, usually by Wednesday we should know of their status. Sometimes it goes even into Friday but hopefully these guys we will know after a couple days of practice. We will be practicing this evening and then we will practice on Wednesday morning. So, that to me is still to be determined. Hope to get them back. Then, the onside kick, I will tell you what, I thought they did a really good job. We called a timeout to try and show or to get chance to see them show their hand or what they were going to do. They ended up in a very similar call that we expected, but they shifted four different times to get into that. I felt like we did not get everybody in the perfect position. Still thought we should have had it. I think it is one of those where there is that ability for … Bryant Fitzgerald was right there, to where do you let that go to the second level guy or do you go ahead and try and recover yourself and for that tempo of the ball, I would have liked to see him just go get it and not let it get to the next level. Because it was not coming in, it did not take that second, it took that first big hop but it did not to me it should have been, I thought, covered at that point. We would have been able to get out of that whole scenario after that. I did think that the shifting and the motioning and all the different things that was creating some challenges for sure and to get guys in the right spot and get them in position. It was a mad scramble for the ball and we had it. We look to see on film and we had it. We thought two different times and it squirted out and obviously, they ended up getting it. But those are things got to keep working on. We work on that every single week. We will continue to work on those. Once again, that is how you finish games, that you do not give them a chance, offensively, to put your defense in a bad spot and now need to answer the call when it happens, but they executed it at a high level, and came up it.

Q: On fixing special teams mistakes…
ALLEN: When we are in week three of the season, going against a Top-25 football team, and in the last three game it has all been variables there on special teams and we have to continue to make it a tremendous focus for us. Whether it is a missed kick or not recovering an onside kick, those are things that we should work on a consistent basis. That will not change, it will only intensify. I think the thing is to keep working on the different things that you could possibly see. The more that happens in games the more chances we have to teach off, learn from and keep getting better from. Part of competing at a high level is being able to function in special team plays. We have been doing a lot of good things on special teams. To me, that unsportsmanlike penalty on the onside kick was inexcusable. Those types of things have to be stopped immediately and those guys involved with that mistake will be held accountable this week. You just have to be able to keep your composure no matter what they say or do. You just have to walk away and go celebrate with your teammates. This is one situation where talking to them and not us is what we do not do. That is what we do not do and, in that situation, it was just responding to what they did to us. We call those selfish penalties and when that happens, we have a high price to pay for our guys. We have to move forward in that area, eliminate those mistakes so we can win these big games that we have coming up.

Q: On how being a Big Ten QB has helped Nick Sheridan…
ALLEN: Him having played the position in this conference is a major benefit. He understands what a quarterback goes through. He started in this league and prepared each and every week. I think those things are very valuable to have especially when you have a young quarterback. To me, that gives our own quarterbacks a sense of confidence knowing that he has walked a mile in their shoes, been in their position, and he understands it. I think when you play that position it is kind of like being a linebacker calling the defense. That is my background, playing that position at linebacker, so it is a different understanding of the position that drives the whole side of that ball. Being a quarterback, working with that position, coaching that position, and working with that position, you know how they think and are able to help them. That is one thing that he does very well. He does a great job getting on headset with our quarterbacks when it is necessary and communicates really well. One thing I really appreciate about Nick is that he is always steady. I am not that way so he is a good compliment for me. No matter what it is he always stays steady. He does not get flustered, even if I am getting on him about something, he just stays locked in and does a great job of keeping calmness with the staff, which is good and you need that. Another strength is how he coaches the quarterbacks and how he manages those guys. He gets after them when he needs to, but I think that helps the communication piece. The staff has been together a lot. Ever since I have been the head coach here at Indiana that group has stayed together. Coach Darren Hiller, Coach Mike Hart, Coach Grant Heard all have been here since the beginning and they seem to have continuity with Nick. I think that helps because those guys know each other well and how each other think. It is part of why I made some of the decisions that I made, one of them being promoting within and giving Nick this opportunity. I think it adds to the chemistry, the coordination of working together, solving problems and helping us score points.

Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan
Q. On the offensive approach…
SHERIDAN: On offense you are trying to eliminate errors, mistakes and specifically unforced errors. When you play in our conference and against high-level competition there are going to be errors that are forced by the quality of your opponent and the players you are going against. The things that as an offense that you are trying to eliminate are the unforced errors. We watch the same game you guys watched. We were on the 8-yard line where we did not handle the snap and it goes over the quarterback's head. We get the ball to the 2-yard line, we get a face mask penalty, then we were bumped back and had to settle for a field goal. There are unforced errors that occur that you are trying to eliminate to allow your unit to score more points and be in better positions for longer stretches of time so they can score points. I think when you look at the middle of the third quarter and pretty much up until we started to go in to a four-minute mode, we eliminated errors and executed at a higher level. We went right down the field and scored 17 points in three possessions. One of those possessions we settled for a field goal when we should have had a touchdown. We had a 67-yard pass and were down at the 2-yard line and got a face mask penalty on offense, which Whop Philyor obviously was not doing that intentionally, but you cannot grab a defender's facemask. We did not convert a third-and-1, which was an error on our part. We did not execute the play as well as we could have and that starts with the coaches and then works through to the players. The biggest message is to continue to emphasize the things that we feel like we did better in the second game, compared to the first game, eliminate the errors. If we are able to do that then we feel confident that we are able to score points regularly and more consistently. The focus for us is on our preparation in practice and that is where it starts. The execution and the elimination of errors in practice. That was tied into the message with the guys.

Q. On getting the run game going…
SHERIDAN: It is always an emphasis and it is always something that is important to us. It is easy when you evaluate the run game to say that the offensive line issue, but that is not always the case. It is a collective effort. Coaches making sure that the plays that are being ran are putting our players in the best chance to be successful relative to the box count, the front or the pressure that you are going against, so it starts with us. Obviously, the offensive line has a large part to do with it on how they are blocking and executing. The running backs making sure they are making the right cuts and right reads. The tight ends making sure they are blocking their guys. The quarterback making sure that he is making the right checks or the right read, so it is a full unit task and job. We feel like we made some improvements in the second game compared to the first game, but still feel like we have more to do and more work to be had. That will always be an important part of what we are trying to do here. Then the other thing is you have got to give credit to the teams who have gone against you. I think Rutgers held Michigan State to 60 yards rushing in the first game. As a team, we had a 20-yard minus play when we snapped the ball over the quarterback's head. That is not helpful. It is a collective effort that starts with us as a staff and me specifically making sure that we are running the ball into good looks. We will continue to chop and continue to try to get better at it because it will be important. In this league, especially this year, you are going to have to be able to run the football because the weather is starting to turn. It will be important and we will continue to emphasize it. We saw improvement and we saw the guys get better in the second game than they were in the first game, so that is really what we are focused on right now.

Q. On being the son of a coach…
SHERIDAN: With being a coach's kid, my dad is my hero like many people on this call. I looked up to him my entire life. I thought what he did was so cool and so that put me on the path to get into coaching. It was great being a coach's kid and I had a blast. I was thankful for that partly because my dad was very lucky and fortunate to coach a lot of great players, a lot of great people, and he worked with some great staffs, so that was a wonderful experience for me. As far as playing quarterback in the conference, hopefully it helps me just relate to the players. I have been in most of the stadiums, but I have not performed nearly as well as some of our guys have. I can let them know what not to do sometimes or how to handle some adversity. The one thing about my playing career is that I sat in a lot of different seats. I was a freshman walk-on and at the time there were 105 guys that went to fall camp and I probably was number 105. I got a phone call from the coaches a couple of days before camp and they said hey, come on. I was seventh on the depth chart at quarterback. I was on scout special teams. I think I was the R4 on scout kickoff. I was the personal protector on scout punt and not just playing quarterback. I will tell you a quick funny story. I remember after the first padded practice my good friend Mark Moundros ended up being a captain. He and I both walked on together. He was the walk-on running back/fullback and he broke his foot in the first practice doing like an agility drill, so I became the scout team fullback. I remember calling my dad and he asked me how it was going. I said it is going great. I said, but if I am going have to play fullback, I am going to have to get a cowboy collar and change my face mask. LaMarr Woodley, Prescott Burgess, David Harris, guys that played in the NFL, they were shortening my neck on one back or two back power. The point is that I have sat in a lot of different seats. I have been in a competition and won it, I have been in a competition and lost it, I have been benched, I have been put in off the sidelines. It was tough at times, but I think it prepared me so that I could relate to the players. Hopefully that served me well and hopefully the players feel that. I know what they are going through, I know how to push through it and continue to work and improve. I have been lucky because football is a wonderful sport. Coaching is a great profession, so I am very fortunate and lucky. I love coaching here at Indiana and for the people I work with, so I feel very blessed.

Defensive Coordinator Kane Wommack
Q. On Tiawan Mullen's ability as a blitzer and tackler…
WOMMACK: To me he is a guy that is crafty and explosive. He blitzes about two inches off the ground so he is hard to pick up. That can always be a difficult thing as well when you play low and fast. You find creative ways to get in the backfield. Obviously, from that husky position, he calls it the nickelback position, he will not call it the husky, so the nickelback for him. With that position for him we can get him more involved in our rush game, so that just allows us to be a little bit more creative with him.

Q. On the play of the corners…
WOMMACK: I honestly think a lot of people overlooked that side of our defensive production, on third downs in particular, last week. It allows you to just be able to do more things than just play zone coverage. When we pressured, we were able to mix some of the man-to-man and zone concepts, but when we played man, we were on and we stayed on him. To me, a lot of credit to the takeaways that we got, certainly the sacks and just simple pressure that we got on the quarterback pretty much the whole game is a credit to what those guys are doing on the back end. Certainly, they are gifted but their skillset is really honed in right now. They are doing a good job of communicating with each other off of rubs and picks, so I feel like we are in a good place in terms of what we are trying to get accomplished from a man standpoint.

Q. On Michigan quarterback Joe Milton…
WOMMACK: I am pleased in a lot of ways where we are as a defense. To me there is a fine line between wanting to acknowledge the things that you do well, praise the things that you have done well up to this point and yet being relentless in the detail of fixing things that need to be fixed. There are some things that I am excited about in our pass defense, and certainly there are some things that we got to continue to evolve in as the season goes on. The more things that we put on film are going to give more data for the offense to look at, try to expose, so we got to adapt and adjust as always in games and I think we have players that can do that. Looking on to Joe Milton, you are talking about a big body that has the dual-threat ability. He can make all the throws on the field, and he is getting better as a decision maker. To me, the name of the game, nowadays, is quarterbacks that can extend plays with their feet. We have one of the perfect examples of that in Michael Penix Jr. over the last couple of weeks. I think Joe Milton is a player that can extend plays with his feet and can get the first down when he needs to. That will be a challenge that honestly, we have just grown accustomed to. Seems like every quarterback nowadays can do something with their feet.

QB Michael Penix Jr.
Q. On reviewing plays with Coach Sheridan…
PENIX: We have a lot of conversations about that stuff and that is what makes us so strong on that side of the ball. Coach Sheridan always asks my opinion on each play every week. He wants to make sure I feel comfortable on the field running those plays. It is really good for an offensive coordinator and a quarterback to get together to talk about. That helps everything flow easier. It makes his job of calling the plays easier knowing that I am comfortable with that calls.

Q. On what went better this week than in week one…
PENIX: We were able to connect with the wide receivers a lot more and that started earlier in this game. The guys were still making plays on the outside. The offensive line was working really hard to make sure they stayed on their blocks. We executed the simple plays that Coach Sheridan put in. The execution level was way higher than in the first week. We are getting better in each week.

Q. On red zone offense…
PENIX: It comes down to Coach Sheridan setting us up for success and simple execution. The defense, on most of those, the defense gave us great field position. I feel like it is a team effort. The defense causes turnovers whenever the opponent was backed up, and that gave us a short field. We took advantage of it. The offensive line is blocking extremely hard to make sure that we get into the end zone. That is something that we emphasize every week. When we get into the red zone, we are trying to score. We try to score every time, but especially when we are in the red zone. We really want to make sure we are putting points on the board.

Players Mentioned

Ryan Barnes

Jeremy Boyd

Charles Campbell

Joseph Daniels Jr.

David Ellis

Bryant Fitzgerald

Peyton Hendershot

Connor Hole

Jamar Johnson

Damarjhe Lewis

Miles Marshall

Devon Matthews

Tiawan Mullen

Michael Penix Jr.

Whop Philyor

McCall Ray

Reese Taylor

DeKaleb Thomas

Cameron Williams

Jaylin Williams

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