Indiana University Athletics
Kane Wommack and Kasey Teegardin Teleconference Transcript
4/17/2020 1:41:00 PM | Football
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Kane Wommack
Q: On adjusting to new staff and keeping defense focused during this time…
WOMMACK: I told Tom (Allen) the other day I really am excited about this staff. Just such a good group of guys to work with. There's real chemistry with us. For having two new guys on the defensive staff, I think it's amazing how on the same page we are. I think part of what helps to that is for a guy like Jason Jones. Jason has been in this system before. He was with us for five years at Ole Miss under my dad. So, running the same things. Then Jason and I kept in good contact since I left Ole Miss for Eastern Illinois. We've just kind of stayed up with one another. We've always just been close. I think that piece is helpful and then a guy like Kevin Peoples, him and I are just fundamentally aligned in how we envision D-Line play. Pete Jenkins background, he was kind of a father of a certain style defensive line play. If you work in Nick Saban's system or any of those guys systems, you're going to piece into the way Pete Jenkins does. Pete and I are certainly in line with that. We've just been on such the same page about how we want to do things moving forward. The transition has not been just helpful and good, it has really been a joy for me and I'm floored to be with these guys.
Q: On comfort level of having experienced returners due to spring practice restrictions…
WOMMACK: I do think that's a really good point. You try to look at the bright side of the situation. I think the fact that we're an experienced group coming back even though some people would define us as youthful experience still. The difference between last year and having youthful experience is that those guys played in limited roles that were feature players for us as where this year they played in feature roles a year ago and they're still feature players for us. That part is very exciting because experience is much more significant coming out of last season so I think having those guys back, not changing systems defensively, having enough continuity to our defense even though we got new coaches, they know our system. They know what we're about. They know we're also very aligned fundamentally on what we want to do. Then, the fact we played a January bowl game. That to me helps as much as anything because you just want to keep them connected to the game of football. The fact that we were able to play a January bowl game and at least get four spring practices in puts us in a good situation moving forward, I think.
Q: On making sure the young guys are ready to go…
WOMMACK: I think that to me is the most critical piece and that's what we've spent the most time on talking about from a personnel standpoint. You look at guys like D.K. Bonhomme and Josh Sanguinetti, to name a few others, obviously C.J. Person and a number of guys along the defensive line, young players that played in sparing roles a year ago but are probably going to have a more central role involved in our defense moving forward, those are the guys that we're spending probably the most time with. Communicating, making sure they're getting a little bit of extra work just in terms of how they're watching things, how they're communicating and as best as we can, we're using our resources and tools that we have right now to give them the best chance to communicate like they would on game day. It's not enough to just watch film and say okay, here's what they're doing, here's what I would do. How would I actually communicate this play on the field as I watch the film on the computer? Those are the things that are helpful to our guys, but at the same time in the first four practices, we saw some major strides in some of our young players that I think that can contribute to provide some more depth to the defense.
Q: On experimenting with secondary positions with more experienced players…
WOMMACK: I think that's very intuitive of what you probably saw from spring and what we were starting to do a lot more of. We talked a lot about how we pick those guys that have a little bit more experience now as being central players and how do we maximize our roster based off the situations. For us, situational downs, third down, red zone, two-minute scenarios, four-minute scenarios, how do we get guys not just on the field but how do we get them in the best position to feature them both schematically and athletically? For us, Tiawan Mullen, Reese Taylor, Marcelino Ball, especially featuring him in some different ways and getting him a little closer to the box so that he can check the quarterback on passing downs I think is going to be a huge emphasis to our defense moving forward without trying to give too much away about what we're doing, but I think hey, they watch the film too, they'll see it by the first game. I think we've made some other moves more holistically with Jamar Johnson and Raheem Layne moving back to the free safety and rover position so we can get better cover guys back there on the field. Yet at the same time, both those guys are pretty instinctive players that have proven they will make plays when they're able to play things top-down. I'm probably most excited about our personnel moves as much as I've been in the defense. We'd love to have a couple more reps at it, but I think the experience is going to help us in a big way there.
Q: On your relationship with Nick Sheridan…
WOMMACK: If you can overlook Nick's poor character, he really is good to work with. I really am just playing. I probably shouldn't make that joke on him on a telephone call. He's an awesome dude. You talk about being in line with a person just fundamentally, schematically, the way we see the game of football. I don't know if that's because we're both defensive coaches sons, but we see things eye-to-eye. It's been fun even in this time to just bounce ideas off of each other. He lives about a couple blocks from me so we pass each other on the street when we're going for walks and we have greats talks about what we envision this team doing moving forward. I think when you look at how we install and how we installed our offensive and defensive schemes going into the spring and how we'll do it in the fall camp, there are some things we're very in-line with each other so that we're maximizing the reps on both sides of the ball. Kalen (DeBoer) and I did a lot of that. We started trending in that direction a year ago, but I think Nick and I have kind of taken the next step in terms of putting together a system to maximize what practices we get. I think him and I also have some creative thought processes in terms of how we need to navigate our team through this pandemic and scenarios we've gone through of what it looks like when we do come back. I'm having a blast working with Nick Sheridan as his counterpart.
Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Backs Kasey Teegardin
Q: On different pieces around and set for special teams…
TEEGARDIN: There's no doubt. I think Coach Allen's done a phenomenal job recruiting guys specifically to what we look to do in our kicking game. Coach McInerney has been instrumental for me since I've taken over. Just getting me up to par with personalities in the room and those guys. The nice thing about it is like you said, you have a guy like Haydon Whitehead returning and knows what's expected of him. You've got Charles (Campbell) who came in and kicked a big field goal against Purdue, there was a lot of pressure on him. And I think Sean Wracher is the best long snapper in the Big Ten, in my opinion returning. You've got a lot of instrumental pieces, and you've got good depth behind him as well. I think the unit as a whole has a lot of talent, Jared Smolar with his leg and Jack Cardillo, the list goes on, which definitely helps me get my arms around things to where I can focus more on the schematic side of it in changing a few things the way we're going to do different stuff, and meeting with Coach Allen and making sure he's on board. It definitely makes it a lot easier having Big Ten talent at the specialist positions. Now I have challenged those guys to compete with each other and I told them that no job is safe. My firm belief is that pressure makes diamonds, and those guys, when they're on the field there's a lot of pressure on them. They get one play and it's got to be a game-changer. So even though they've got a lot of returning experience, I want them to raise their level as well, that's been my challenge to them this off-season.
Q: On making IU's special teams a plus…
TEEGARDIN: The very first meeting that I had in front of the team as the special teams coordinator, the entire team was in there, all I talked about was how important that play is. We averaged 32 snaps a game on special teams last year. That includes PAT, field goal and PAT field goal block. When you break it down it is a third of the game. There were some games where on defense we played right around 30 snaps because our offense was controlling the ball so much. So that was my first challenge to the entire team. I wanted everyone to understand, quarterbacks included how important special teams is in terms of field position. I did a study, in 2019 if we won the field position battle, we were 6-0 and I put these numbers up in front of the whole team. When we lost the field position battle, we were 2-5. In 2018, when we won the field position battle, we were 3-1. When we lost the battle, we were 1-4. If you add that up when you win the field position battle, we're 9-1 overall. To me that has a direct correlation to special teams, because if you look at the games that we've lost, losing the field position battle it has been Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan. So how do we take the next step and beat those teams? You've got to do it with great special teams play, pin the ball deep when you need to, changing the field, breaking big returns, get the ball to midfield to start the offense, that's why I wanted the whole team in there. What we're doing on special teams is going to impact the entire team. That's been my biggest challenge to the team in general and just trying to motivate those guys to get them to understand the bigger picture.
Q: On working with Jason Jones…
TEEGARDIN: It's been great. Jason is awesome to work with, I mean you talk about a first-class guy. He came in and we sat down and met and just talked about first our families and our backgrounds, just the bigger picture of things. Then we talked about the safeties, and I know he did a great job of going back and studying them, and we just kind of bounce ideas off each other. He's been awesome to work with. We talk every single day, whether it's about recruiting or safeties, just keeping in touch with those guys that are still back there. Thankfully I was in a position where I had coached Marcelino Ball in the past, and having Bryant Fitzgerald come with me from the free safety spot was awesome as well. He's like family to me, we've known each other for a long time now. The room itself is great. They're an older group. They know what's expected of them, and Samuel Slusher and Gabe Cohen, the two walk-ons, have been excellent in their preparation in what they do. It's been a really smooth transition. I think Coach Allen in general has done such a good job of hiring a cohesive staff, a staff that really gets along and just enjoys being around each other. We joke and say we spend more time with each other than we do our own families until this pandemic, but that is the truth. This staff gets along really well and believes in each other.
Q: On being able to implement every change he wanted to do by fall or having to scale it back without spring ball…
TEEGARDIN: They're not wholesale changes. If it's not broke, don't fix it. I think we can make subtle changes and make things better improvement-wise. Really our special teams last year was probably middle of the pack overall, but they did a lot of good things on kickoff returns, just couldn't break the big ones. If you look at it David Ellis is probably one or two reads away from being the top kick returner in the conference. I'm not going to be making wholesale changes, but definitely some improvements in my and Coach Allen's opinion. We talked about how we can make this better. We started to do a little bit of it in the first four practices. We really focused more on punt, changing some personnel around, looking at different guys. We've got a lot of experience. We're more athletic in my opinion than we've ever been, so we've got to utilize that. But just some wrinkles, I'm going to leave it at that. I think teams will have to really study us.
Q: On competition at the punt return position…
TEEGARDIN: Absolutely. I want competition at every position, every play. Every season, every game, every week, I want competition. Iron sharpens iron and pressure makes diamonds, like I said. I think you've easily got two of the best returners, in explosive players in Reese Taylor and Whop Philyor. It's our job to coach them up better, that starts with me. I've got to get those guys more confident in what we're doing, but it also starts with the other 10 guys on the field. Blocking for them, drawing it up so that we can give those guys an opportunity to field the ball and then get north and south, and not feel pressure right away. I think Whop and Reese are for sure one and two. I think David is a guy that we're going to get some reps back there. He got a few before spring ball was cut. I think David Ellis has a natural instinctive vision. He does a great job of feeling the block before they're even there. He gives us an opportunity at both kick returner and punt returner. I'm also interested to see the young guys that we have coming in. I think we can throw some of them back there and see what they can do as well. We've got a good stable of returners, it's just a matter of getting them coached up and getting the other 10 guys to do their job better.
Q: On adjusting to new staff and keeping defense focused during this time…
WOMMACK: I told Tom (Allen) the other day I really am excited about this staff. Just such a good group of guys to work with. There's real chemistry with us. For having two new guys on the defensive staff, I think it's amazing how on the same page we are. I think part of what helps to that is for a guy like Jason Jones. Jason has been in this system before. He was with us for five years at Ole Miss under my dad. So, running the same things. Then Jason and I kept in good contact since I left Ole Miss for Eastern Illinois. We've just kind of stayed up with one another. We've always just been close. I think that piece is helpful and then a guy like Kevin Peoples, him and I are just fundamentally aligned in how we envision D-Line play. Pete Jenkins background, he was kind of a father of a certain style defensive line play. If you work in Nick Saban's system or any of those guys systems, you're going to piece into the way Pete Jenkins does. Pete and I are certainly in line with that. We've just been on such the same page about how we want to do things moving forward. The transition has not been just helpful and good, it has really been a joy for me and I'm floored to be with these guys.
Q: On comfort level of having experienced returners due to spring practice restrictions…
WOMMACK: I do think that's a really good point. You try to look at the bright side of the situation. I think the fact that we're an experienced group coming back even though some people would define us as youthful experience still. The difference between last year and having youthful experience is that those guys played in limited roles that were feature players for us as where this year they played in feature roles a year ago and they're still feature players for us. That part is very exciting because experience is much more significant coming out of last season so I think having those guys back, not changing systems defensively, having enough continuity to our defense even though we got new coaches, they know our system. They know what we're about. They know we're also very aligned fundamentally on what we want to do. Then, the fact we played a January bowl game. That to me helps as much as anything because you just want to keep them connected to the game of football. The fact that we were able to play a January bowl game and at least get four spring practices in puts us in a good situation moving forward, I think.
Q: On making sure the young guys are ready to go…
WOMMACK: I think that to me is the most critical piece and that's what we've spent the most time on talking about from a personnel standpoint. You look at guys like D.K. Bonhomme and Josh Sanguinetti, to name a few others, obviously C.J. Person and a number of guys along the defensive line, young players that played in sparing roles a year ago but are probably going to have a more central role involved in our defense moving forward, those are the guys that we're spending probably the most time with. Communicating, making sure they're getting a little bit of extra work just in terms of how they're watching things, how they're communicating and as best as we can, we're using our resources and tools that we have right now to give them the best chance to communicate like they would on game day. It's not enough to just watch film and say okay, here's what they're doing, here's what I would do. How would I actually communicate this play on the field as I watch the film on the computer? Those are the things that are helpful to our guys, but at the same time in the first four practices, we saw some major strides in some of our young players that I think that can contribute to provide some more depth to the defense.
Q: On experimenting with secondary positions with more experienced players…
WOMMACK: I think that's very intuitive of what you probably saw from spring and what we were starting to do a lot more of. We talked a lot about how we pick those guys that have a little bit more experience now as being central players and how do we maximize our roster based off the situations. For us, situational downs, third down, red zone, two-minute scenarios, four-minute scenarios, how do we get guys not just on the field but how do we get them in the best position to feature them both schematically and athletically? For us, Tiawan Mullen, Reese Taylor, Marcelino Ball, especially featuring him in some different ways and getting him a little closer to the box so that he can check the quarterback on passing downs I think is going to be a huge emphasis to our defense moving forward without trying to give too much away about what we're doing, but I think hey, they watch the film too, they'll see it by the first game. I think we've made some other moves more holistically with Jamar Johnson and Raheem Layne moving back to the free safety and rover position so we can get better cover guys back there on the field. Yet at the same time, both those guys are pretty instinctive players that have proven they will make plays when they're able to play things top-down. I'm probably most excited about our personnel moves as much as I've been in the defense. We'd love to have a couple more reps at it, but I think the experience is going to help us in a big way there.
Q: On your relationship with Nick Sheridan…
WOMMACK: If you can overlook Nick's poor character, he really is good to work with. I really am just playing. I probably shouldn't make that joke on him on a telephone call. He's an awesome dude. You talk about being in line with a person just fundamentally, schematically, the way we see the game of football. I don't know if that's because we're both defensive coaches sons, but we see things eye-to-eye. It's been fun even in this time to just bounce ideas off of each other. He lives about a couple blocks from me so we pass each other on the street when we're going for walks and we have greats talks about what we envision this team doing moving forward. I think when you look at how we install and how we installed our offensive and defensive schemes going into the spring and how we'll do it in the fall camp, there are some things we're very in-line with each other so that we're maximizing the reps on both sides of the ball. Kalen (DeBoer) and I did a lot of that. We started trending in that direction a year ago, but I think Nick and I have kind of taken the next step in terms of putting together a system to maximize what practices we get. I think him and I also have some creative thought processes in terms of how we need to navigate our team through this pandemic and scenarios we've gone through of what it looks like when we do come back. I'm having a blast working with Nick Sheridan as his counterpart.
Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Backs Kasey Teegardin
Q: On different pieces around and set for special teams…
TEEGARDIN: There's no doubt. I think Coach Allen's done a phenomenal job recruiting guys specifically to what we look to do in our kicking game. Coach McInerney has been instrumental for me since I've taken over. Just getting me up to par with personalities in the room and those guys. The nice thing about it is like you said, you have a guy like Haydon Whitehead returning and knows what's expected of him. You've got Charles (Campbell) who came in and kicked a big field goal against Purdue, there was a lot of pressure on him. And I think Sean Wracher is the best long snapper in the Big Ten, in my opinion returning. You've got a lot of instrumental pieces, and you've got good depth behind him as well. I think the unit as a whole has a lot of talent, Jared Smolar with his leg and Jack Cardillo, the list goes on, which definitely helps me get my arms around things to where I can focus more on the schematic side of it in changing a few things the way we're going to do different stuff, and meeting with Coach Allen and making sure he's on board. It definitely makes it a lot easier having Big Ten talent at the specialist positions. Now I have challenged those guys to compete with each other and I told them that no job is safe. My firm belief is that pressure makes diamonds, and those guys, when they're on the field there's a lot of pressure on them. They get one play and it's got to be a game-changer. So even though they've got a lot of returning experience, I want them to raise their level as well, that's been my challenge to them this off-season.
Q: On making IU's special teams a plus…
TEEGARDIN: The very first meeting that I had in front of the team as the special teams coordinator, the entire team was in there, all I talked about was how important that play is. We averaged 32 snaps a game on special teams last year. That includes PAT, field goal and PAT field goal block. When you break it down it is a third of the game. There were some games where on defense we played right around 30 snaps because our offense was controlling the ball so much. So that was my first challenge to the entire team. I wanted everyone to understand, quarterbacks included how important special teams is in terms of field position. I did a study, in 2019 if we won the field position battle, we were 6-0 and I put these numbers up in front of the whole team. When we lost the field position battle, we were 2-5. In 2018, when we won the field position battle, we were 3-1. When we lost the battle, we were 1-4. If you add that up when you win the field position battle, we're 9-1 overall. To me that has a direct correlation to special teams, because if you look at the games that we've lost, losing the field position battle it has been Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan. So how do we take the next step and beat those teams? You've got to do it with great special teams play, pin the ball deep when you need to, changing the field, breaking big returns, get the ball to midfield to start the offense, that's why I wanted the whole team in there. What we're doing on special teams is going to impact the entire team. That's been my biggest challenge to the team in general and just trying to motivate those guys to get them to understand the bigger picture.
Q: On working with Jason Jones…
TEEGARDIN: It's been great. Jason is awesome to work with, I mean you talk about a first-class guy. He came in and we sat down and met and just talked about first our families and our backgrounds, just the bigger picture of things. Then we talked about the safeties, and I know he did a great job of going back and studying them, and we just kind of bounce ideas off each other. He's been awesome to work with. We talk every single day, whether it's about recruiting or safeties, just keeping in touch with those guys that are still back there. Thankfully I was in a position where I had coached Marcelino Ball in the past, and having Bryant Fitzgerald come with me from the free safety spot was awesome as well. He's like family to me, we've known each other for a long time now. The room itself is great. They're an older group. They know what's expected of them, and Samuel Slusher and Gabe Cohen, the two walk-ons, have been excellent in their preparation in what they do. It's been a really smooth transition. I think Coach Allen in general has done such a good job of hiring a cohesive staff, a staff that really gets along and just enjoys being around each other. We joke and say we spend more time with each other than we do our own families until this pandemic, but that is the truth. This staff gets along really well and believes in each other.
Q: On being able to implement every change he wanted to do by fall or having to scale it back without spring ball…
TEEGARDIN: They're not wholesale changes. If it's not broke, don't fix it. I think we can make subtle changes and make things better improvement-wise. Really our special teams last year was probably middle of the pack overall, but they did a lot of good things on kickoff returns, just couldn't break the big ones. If you look at it David Ellis is probably one or two reads away from being the top kick returner in the conference. I'm not going to be making wholesale changes, but definitely some improvements in my and Coach Allen's opinion. We talked about how we can make this better. We started to do a little bit of it in the first four practices. We really focused more on punt, changing some personnel around, looking at different guys. We've got a lot of experience. We're more athletic in my opinion than we've ever been, so we've got to utilize that. But just some wrinkles, I'm going to leave it at that. I think teams will have to really study us.
Q: On competition at the punt return position…
TEEGARDIN: Absolutely. I want competition at every position, every play. Every season, every game, every week, I want competition. Iron sharpens iron and pressure makes diamonds, like I said. I think you've easily got two of the best returners, in explosive players in Reese Taylor and Whop Philyor. It's our job to coach them up better, that starts with me. I've got to get those guys more confident in what we're doing, but it also starts with the other 10 guys on the field. Blocking for them, drawing it up so that we can give those guys an opportunity to field the ball and then get north and south, and not feel pressure right away. I think Whop and Reese are for sure one and two. I think David is a guy that we're going to get some reps back there. He got a few before spring ball was cut. I think David Ellis has a natural instinctive vision. He does a great job of feeling the block before they're even there. He gives us an opportunity at both kick returner and punt returner. I'm also interested to see the young guys that we have coming in. I think we can throw some of them back there and see what they can do as well. We've got a good stable of returners, it's just a matter of getting them coached up and getting the other 10 guys to do their job better.
Players Mentioned
LB
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K
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DB
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WR/KR
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DB
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DB
/ Football
DB
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DB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
WR
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DB
/ Football
DB
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K
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DB
/ Football
P
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LS
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