Trust, Player Accountability Key in IU’s Football Training Plan

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - If Indiana is to get through this pandemic in Big Ten ready football shape, players have to do the work, Aaron Wellman and his strength coaching staff have to provide the plan and the season-opening green light has to flash as brightly as a sun-kissed fall day.

In other words, trust is key, motivation is high and dedication is crucial.

NCAA rules prohibit Wellman, senior assistant athletic director for football performance, from virtual coaching the Hoosiers through their stay-off-campus training.

But given the promise of the upcoming season (IU returns a ton of talent on both sides of the ball from an 8-5 TaxSlayer Bowl team), the hope is everyone is doing what needs to be done.

Wellman has delivered a series of two-week workout programs. Intensity gradually increases as May turns into June and then July. While there are no guarantees, camp is set to start in early August, and the season on Sept. 4 at Wisconsin.

"(Players are) definitely given a workout plan from Aaron Wellman and his staff," head coach Tom Allen says.

"Sometimes those plans may involve some videos to show them how to do certain activities. There's no live interaction whatsoever. That's not allowable. We're not allowed to monitor their workouts via FaceTime or Zoom, nor are we allowed to have them report back and say I did this much, this weight or these reps or this speed in running, but they can be given a plan. Everybody's good with that.

"It's trusting them to be able to execute what they're given and find a place to run, find a place to do push-ups or sit-ups."

Some Hoosiers have access to strength-training equipment facilities. Some don't. Wellman and his staff take what players have and devise a plan to maximize it.

"Every player was able to give feedback to our strength staff and say this is what I have access to at my house or I have this many dumbbells or barbells or I have bands or I have a medicine ball, whatever I may have," Allen says. "Then Aaron and his staff create a system of individualized workout plans for each guy."

This is Wellman's first year directing IU's strength and conditioning program. He'd spent the previous four seasons running the program for the NFL's New York Giants. That professional background, Allen says, helps him in this unprecedented situation.

"The NFL has a four-month period where they are not with their players in their offseason," Allen says. "Due to their rules, (players) can't be at their facilities. So, he's kind of used to doing this.

"Obviously, it's not in the primitive way where you don't have as many weights to work with, but our guys can have a total body workout, which means totally based on no weights at all. They just use certain types of resistance things creatively."

Beyond strength training, conditioning work is needed to handle the fitness demands of Big Ten action.

"The running workout is probably the most critical part," Allen says, "and that's something they have to do on their own. We can't monitor that. We don't monitor that.

"It's a lot of trust. It's built in. Accountability is built in."

That's a cornerstone of IU's program.

"The culture you have is so powerful right now more than ever because I feel accountable to my teammates," Allen says. "I know they love me. I love them. They're counting on me. I'm counting on them. That to me is what this is all about."

In every sport, player-coached teams is a common theme. The better the players lead, the better the prospects for success.

"The workouts fall right into that," Allen says. "That's where our guys have to take ownership of it, take accountability for it, personal responsibility for it. It's their preparation.

"As this progresses and we continue to be away, those workouts will intensify in terms of what we expect them to do on their own."

Allen says the do-it-on-your-own scenario reminds him of his football and wrestling days at Maranatha Baptist University in Wisconsin.

"It's kind of back to what we did when I was at school. I played college football and I didn't train at (Maranatha Baptist). Everything was done at home. I ran on my own most of the time with the script I was given to do physically.

"(Our players) get a two-week plan that we show them what to do. They are responsible and accountable to follow through. That's part of creating a culture where guys want to work hard."

Still, it's not IU's top priority.

"Player safety has been No. 1, and their mental wellness and their physical wellness is the key," Allen says.

*****

The pandemic has caused uncertainty around the world.

Still Allen is hopeful football will be played in some form in the fall. As far as a cancelled season, he doesn't want to think about it.

"I have no say so in any of that, that's not my decision, but it would be hard to accept that," he says. "It would be a tough situation for everybody for a lot of reasons."

Medical and government officials will determine when it's safe to resume to normal activities, including college sports.

"It's like anything else," Allen says. "You have to be flexible. You have to adapt. You have to plan.

"I'm more focused on that which I can control. We're going to work off the facts. There are things we're going to plan, and we're going to put those plans in pencil because they may have to be adjusted.

"But we're going to plan like we are going to be playing. We don't know when, where or how, but in my mind, I just believe that there's a lot of time until those final decisions have to be made."

Allen has said he thinks teams will need at least six weeks together to get ready, but if it winds up being less, teams will adjust.

"I'm an optimistic guy. I believe that the people who are working hard on this across the country and across the world will help us figure it out.

"There are more important things at stake than playing a football game, and that's the health and safety of our guys and students across the country. That's at the forefront, and that will always be at the forefront for me and this program. That's the priority, and from there we will adjust and adapt based on what we're given."

*****

If a season is played, it might be with limited fans, or in a shortened form, or with a delayed start. All options are open.

"I think it's important that we continue to have lots of meetings about these topics," Allen says. "We will continue to have them each week. We seem to have more information as each week passes.

"The health and safety of our players will drive our decisions. We are going to listen to the medical experts, and the government officials, and the leadership of our university. Those people will make these decisions, and when they tell us it's safe to come back, then we'll come back.

"I told our staff it's like planning in the sand, because you can draw things up and have these things all planned out, but no one really knows. There's a lot of question marks out there. A lot of questions, but not a lot of answers for a lot of things. They're looking at all options.

"All the meetings I sit in on, they're just trying to find creative ways to do this in a way that's safe for everybody. We're trying to do whatever we can to have a season, however that may look. Whether it's delayed, modified, pushed back, I don't know.

"I take the approach that people get paid to make these decisions, and we're going to trust them and the leadership of our state, and our federal government, and the NCAA, and the Big Ten Conference.

"Once they tell us when and where we can come back, we'll have a great plan. We have a flexible response that's ready to take advantage of whatever we're told to do."

Trust, Player Accountability Key in IU’s Football Training Plan

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