Spring Practice Report 3/31/21 – Tom Allen - Indiana University Athletics

Below is a partial transcription of a Zoom press conference with Indiana head football coach Tom Allen on Wednesday, March 31.

Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement…
ALLEN: Welcome everybody to this afternoon. I just wanted to begin by congratulating Teri Moren and the women's basketball team for an amazing season. Just so proud of what she's built. I love watching them play. I love how hard they play. The passion they play with, you can tell the team chemistry is special. She's done a great job with that culture. It excites me to see what she's building. I know that they're going to continue to get better and build off this amazing run that they had this year. Excited to see the future of our program with women's basketball.

Also had a chance to meet Mike Woodson. Really excited for him. Excited to have him back home. That's what I said to him when we met. Indianapolis guy that came here, played here. Loves this place. Understands the culture of Indiana and our program and expectations. Just so excited to have him here with us.

Also excited about our Pro Day coming up. We've got a bunch of special guys that have come to Indiana, believed in the vision that we were building here and helped created the breakthrough that we've experienced these past couple seasons. Looking forward to those guys having a chance to compete at a very high level and be able to be seen by the NFL representatives that are going to be here on campus on Friday.

Excited about the progress we're making with our football team throughout spring football. Feel like it's been a really, really good spring. We did make an adjustment here at the end where we are going to be canceling our spring game in terms of that format. We are going to have a final scrimmage on the 10th that will allow us to maximize our days, maximize our preparation. I feel that's in the best interest of our program right now. Really looking forward to the finish here. Got a couple this week to finish out with. Then our final practices next week. Ready to take some questions at this time.

Q. On the final few days of spring practice
ALLEN: You go through and look at where you're at. You get 15 days and to me those days are critical. You look at where you are with players and what you're trying to accomplish. I feel like in order for us to maximize those, we had a little bit of a minor setback last week with COVID, and so just being able to maximize our guys in preparation for what comes next, which is our end of April workouts and then getting into our summer months. I just wanted to make sure every day that we had, we could maximize to the fullest and I believe that's the best way for us to do that.

Q. On Saturday's scrimmage…
ALLEN: Saturday was encouraging. I think it speaks to where we are at as a team and the leadership that we have on this team. As we went through and revaluated where we were in our testing for those couple of days, we added another test in there just to make sure we knew where we were with everything. When we were waiting for those tests to come back in, we were telling the guys to stay locked in, stay focused on what we are trying to do in our meetings, and the other things we are trying to do to get ready if we did compete on Saturday. We did not know if we were going to have that practice or not so for them to come back in full pads in the stadium was encouraging to see. It confirms what I think about this team. We have a lot of strong leaders that care and have been here long enough to know what the expectations are and are able to get their teammates ready to compete. It was a very business-like approach to the scrimmage. The stadium was empty, there were no fans, so you have to create that focus and energy that you need to be able to execute. We got to work on certain situations and we made mistakes, but it is part of it. Young guys are getting a lot of reps and guys getting opportunities to show it and put on film where they are at in their development. I thought it was a positive scrimmage for us and we are going to find a way to maximize every opportunity that we have left.

Q. On the 2019 Maryland game…
ALLEN: It is interesting that you say that because I did watch the video our team put out and it was the first game, and it was fitting that it was. People have asked me about the progression through my four years as head coach and when I knew that the team had bought in. I point to that game against Maryland because you think about how that game went. Michael Penix Jr. was our quarterback to start that game, did not finish so Peyton came in, and did well right away. The defense was able to create a takeaway toward the end of the game, which was huge. Juwan Burgess created a fumble and that allowed us to score a field goal to go up by six, which is a tough spot to be in because they can still score a touchdown, kick the extra point, and beat you by one point. Then after that, the defense created another takeaway to seal the win. Reese Taylor got the pick, and I will never forget that. When that happened, the game was over. All we had to do was take a knee at that point. We had a young defense that says you can count on us to do our job at critical times. They were young guys who came in here and had believed in us. We had young guys making plays in that game and older guys making plays in that game. Nick Westbrook had a huge touchdown catch in that game. You think about the way the players responded and won a game like that on the road that we often would not have finished. So, after that we just kept building. We went to Nebraska and won a game there for the first time in 60 years. That was the beginning. You always have to have points that you go to. Where did you get to experience a finish of a game and that is it for me. That started the belief that our guys had. It creates more belief and then you start building on that. That was a pretty critical moment in our history since I have been here. I believe it gave us the momentum that we are still feeding off of.

Indiana University Athletics

Spring Practice Report 3/31/21 – Tom Allen

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Players Mentioned

Juwan Burgess

Michael Penix Jr.

Reese Taylor

Nick Westbrook

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