Indiana University Athletics
Thursday Takeaways: Ohio State
10/21/2021 4:00:00 PM | Football
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana head football coach Tom Allen addressed the media on Thursday (Oct. 21) in front of the Hoosiers primetime game against No. 5/5 Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. on ABC inside Memorial Stadium.
Below is a partial transcript of the press conferences, while video of the full media session can be found on the right sidebar at IUHoosiers.com.
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On what went into Chris Childers coming to Indiana…
TA: To be quite honest with you, he was at Indiana State, playing there, and wanted to come here. Bottom line, he actually sought us out and came to see me. I called his head coach there at Indiana State, Curt Mallory. We talked and he had a lot of positive things to say about him and his ability to potentially help this football team. So, we do our homework with that for sure. But he sought us out and he wanted to come here and believed he could play here and it's awesome to see a guy like that be able to come here, buy in, work hard, and believe in himself, and have an opportunity. And when he gets those opportunities, he makes the most of it. So, really proud of him.
On how much things change when you are facing teams like Penn State or Ohio State…
TA: I do think that is a fine line. I think you bring up a great point and that's where the core structure of what you do isn't going to change dramatically. Yeah, you have to adjust things, and there's no doubt we're in the process of doing that, to be able to create the outcomes that we want. You start to mess with too many things and that affects their confidence and their ability to execute just from lack of rep base or lack of just believing in whatever it is you're doing. So, yeah, it is a fine line. It's a judgement call you have to make as a coach to be able to know your team well and be able to work with them in those areas, whether it's schematically, technically, with some technique, some fundamental things, you're teaching or modifying in those areas. But, at the end of the day you have to execute at critical times. You're right, both of those games last year we found ourselves behind, obviously very, very far behind in the beginning of the Ohio State game. The resiliency, the grit, the fight, and the toughness of this team I think has not left us. That's who we are, that's what this program is all about. We just have to be able to execute in those moments to have those opportunities. So, yeah, there's no doubt we're trying to make some adjustments and make some changes that we need to, to get the outcome we want, but to do it very judiciously.
On Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor…
TA: Both have been working extremely hard. Have gotten them out there at different times. Just trying to see where they're at. So, we don't know for sure yet, but trying to get them ready for sure. We'd love to get those guys back. We definitely need them.
On the recruiting process of Noah Pierre…
TA: He's a guy that we obviously were recruiting and weren't 100 percent sure [if we were going to offer]. Obviously, he had some really good film. We had a chance to get down there and evaluate him, it's an area where we recruit heavily as a staff. So, we knew the coaching staff there well at his high school and so to me it was just more of a matter of making the decision if we were going to go on him or not. We loved a lot of things about him. I knew he was going to have an amazing attitude, toughness, grit, fight, competitive spirit. Some of the measurables you want to make sure that they're what they are and that they're enough to be effective in this league. I just think sometimes it causes guys like that to be guys that you definitely offer, and you want, but you have to make a decision are we going to take those guys when it comes down to the end? So, he was a guy we came down to the end on, made some decisions and really it was one of those gut calls on my part. I remember having to make that decision. Our secondary coaches liked him and wanted him. And I had to say, 'you know what, okay, we're going to go.' We had other guys we were looking at, but there was just something about him. There was no doubt his film showed some really physical play that I love. Because you have to be a tough guy to play in this league and to play college football, period. I just loved what I thought that we had in him and the other people that knew him down there. The competitive spirit that he had, the competitive fight that he had to be a guy you could count on. We did think he had some position flexibility, too. So those are all things that go into saying 'okay, hey this is a guy we're going to go after,' even though it was a little bit later in the cycle, but at the same time, we had a chance to get him up here, and he's obviously a guy that we're so thrilled that we chose, and he chose us, like he mentioned the other day. It was pretty awesome the way he said it because it's very true. We are so appreciative of his attitude, how much he's worked, how much he helped us on special teams a year ago, and then was patient and was able to wait his turn, and then when opportunity presented itself, he took full advantage of it.
Below is a partial transcript of the press conferences, while video of the full media session can be found on the right sidebar at IUHoosiers.com.
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On what went into Chris Childers coming to Indiana…
TA: To be quite honest with you, he was at Indiana State, playing there, and wanted to come here. Bottom line, he actually sought us out and came to see me. I called his head coach there at Indiana State, Curt Mallory. We talked and he had a lot of positive things to say about him and his ability to potentially help this football team. So, we do our homework with that for sure. But he sought us out and he wanted to come here and believed he could play here and it's awesome to see a guy like that be able to come here, buy in, work hard, and believe in himself, and have an opportunity. And when he gets those opportunities, he makes the most of it. So, really proud of him.
On how much things change when you are facing teams like Penn State or Ohio State…
TA: I do think that is a fine line. I think you bring up a great point and that's where the core structure of what you do isn't going to change dramatically. Yeah, you have to adjust things, and there's no doubt we're in the process of doing that, to be able to create the outcomes that we want. You start to mess with too many things and that affects their confidence and their ability to execute just from lack of rep base or lack of just believing in whatever it is you're doing. So, yeah, it is a fine line. It's a judgement call you have to make as a coach to be able to know your team well and be able to work with them in those areas, whether it's schematically, technically, with some technique, some fundamental things, you're teaching or modifying in those areas. But, at the end of the day you have to execute at critical times. You're right, both of those games last year we found ourselves behind, obviously very, very far behind in the beginning of the Ohio State game. The resiliency, the grit, the fight, and the toughness of this team I think has not left us. That's who we are, that's what this program is all about. We just have to be able to execute in those moments to have those opportunities. So, yeah, there's no doubt we're trying to make some adjustments and make some changes that we need to, to get the outcome we want, but to do it very judiciously.
On Tiawan Mullen and Reese Taylor…
TA: Both have been working extremely hard. Have gotten them out there at different times. Just trying to see where they're at. So, we don't know for sure yet, but trying to get them ready for sure. We'd love to get those guys back. We definitely need them.
On the recruiting process of Noah Pierre…
TA: He's a guy that we obviously were recruiting and weren't 100 percent sure [if we were going to offer]. Obviously, he had some really good film. We had a chance to get down there and evaluate him, it's an area where we recruit heavily as a staff. So, we knew the coaching staff there well at his high school and so to me it was just more of a matter of making the decision if we were going to go on him or not. We loved a lot of things about him. I knew he was going to have an amazing attitude, toughness, grit, fight, competitive spirit. Some of the measurables you want to make sure that they're what they are and that they're enough to be effective in this league. I just think sometimes it causes guys like that to be guys that you definitely offer, and you want, but you have to make a decision are we going to take those guys when it comes down to the end? So, he was a guy we came down to the end on, made some decisions and really it was one of those gut calls on my part. I remember having to make that decision. Our secondary coaches liked him and wanted him. And I had to say, 'you know what, okay, we're going to go.' We had other guys we were looking at, but there was just something about him. There was no doubt his film showed some really physical play that I love. Because you have to be a tough guy to play in this league and to play college football, period. I just loved what I thought that we had in him and the other people that knew him down there. The competitive spirit that he had, the competitive fight that he had to be a guy you could count on. We did think he had some position flexibility, too. So those are all things that go into saying 'okay, hey this is a guy we're going to go after,' even though it was a little bit later in the cycle, but at the same time, we had a chance to get him up here, and he's obviously a guy that we're so thrilled that we chose, and he chose us, like he mentioned the other day. It was pretty awesome the way he said it because it's very true. We are so appreciative of his attitude, how much he's worked, how much he helped us on special teams a year ago, and then was patient and was able to wait his turn, and then when opportunity presented itself, he took full advantage of it.
Players Mentioned
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