Spring Practice Zoom Press Conference – Tom Allen

Below is a partial transcription of Indiana head football coach Tom Allen's Zoom press conference on Monday, Mar. 8.

Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen
Opening Statement…
ALLEN: I'm excited to be back and ready for spring football tomorrow. Really looking forward to that. We had a great six-week period with our guys in the weight room. Coach Wellman and his staff have done a tremendous job with that group and on a consistent basis. I'm looking forward to getting back on the field with our guys. A lot of guys back from the 2020 season as you know. I'm anxious to see these guys and run them around a little bit. We will be in helmets only the first couple of days and excited to build up. Three goals for spring football. Number one, want to do a great job improving our fundamentals and technique, with an emphasis on relentless toughness in everything we do. Number two, for me it's about developing our depth in all three phases, offense, defense, special teams, and also scheme adjustments you always do in the spring time. I'm looking forward to those opportunities for us to grow our team and continue to improve and get better. As far as some new things to add, Brandon Shelby is going to be our assistant head coach. I moved him into that role. I'm excited for his growth and development there. Also, Kasey Teegardin is going to have the responsibilities of both the bull and husky, labeled that as outside linebackers coach in addition to doing special teams, which he worked with those guys last fall. Being able to name that a little differently, just our edge guys. Also, a couple of roster adjustments. Caleb Murphy has moved from tight end last fall for some depth there, moving him back to defensive lineman. Gavin McCabe, also moved him back to defensive line as well, where he started off. We feel good about the depth they can give us there and compete and play. We have an open competition there at the three-technique spot with our two upperclassmen moving onto the NFL. I'm excited to see how that plays itself out. As far as the bull position, D.K. Bonhomme, Alfred Bryant, Michael Ziemba, those three guys listed as bulls, which is our weak-side hybrid/outside linebacker type person. That is all I have as far as the updates and really looking forward to getting back on the football field tomorrow and get rolling.

Q. Talk about the reworked contract…
ALLEN: I am very thankful and appreciative of Scott Dolson. I appreciate his commitment to our football program. University President Michael McRobbie has been a huge in all of this and so has the Board of Trustees. Just appreciative of all of them and the leadership here at Indiana. Like I have said all along, I wanted to be at a place that values the football program, invests in the program, and allows us to have the infrastructure and support to do great things. That is what I want us to be able to do, and I appreciate their support in that area and all that they have chosen to invest in our football program at Indiana University. This is a special time for us, and we are blessed and appreciative of it.

Q. On if people look and react to Indiana Football differently because of the contracts given to him and the staff…
ALLEN: There has been. We talk about this with recruits. We always have conversations about the facilities and why they are important. When I talk with recruits and their facilities about why they are important, it is because it shows commitment and investment. It shows the priority of football at IU. This is an extension of that. You think about when you talk to recruits and their families, they want to know if you are going to be coaching their son when he is a sophomore, junior and a senior. That is a big deal. Things like this send a strong message that direction. The commitment of the university, and the commitment of myself and our family being here. So, that means a lot to me. That obviously puts a lot of power behind your words, that this is not just something that I am saying. This is the action of the people here that are in charge of these decisions of the people here in Indiana, and these are the decisions that they chose to make. It is a tribute to our coaching staff and all the players that come here and believed, bought in, and created an unbelievable environment. It is just so many layers. it is not a simple answer. There are so many pieces to this that speak so strongly to the culture we have created here. I say we very strongly. It has taken so many people and several years. It didn't just happen overnight. So much relationship building, and that is going to continue. To me, that is the whole point. I want to continue to build off the foundation that we have laid here at Indiana. I want to allow this to be what I envisioned it to be when I first got here. To be able to compete at the highest level in this conference and across the country. To be able to have that, this is kind of the next step for us as a program as we move forward. Our university has chosen to invest into our coaching staff, and everybody that is part of this program. This is a very big step for us, and we are excited about what the future holds.

Q. On what he's learned from the COVID-19 environment and what steps are still being taken…
ALLEN: Well, first of all, we are still with similar protocols, we're still testing our guys multiple times a week currently and that will continue throughout spring football. We are wearing masks in the buildings. We won't be wearing them on the practice fields or during outdoor workouts as far as the players go. Coaches will still be doing that during practice. Some of those things have not changed, you think about it, when this happened a year ago, we had our first four practices in, left for spring break and then everything changed. We have learned an awful lot. Right now, we're trying to figure out what the rest of spring is going to look like, what's recruiting is going to look like, what are camps going to look like, summer time? Don't have a lot of answers for that right now. I just think the ability to be flexible and adapt to things, the utilization of technology in recruiting has continued. The Zoom calls have become a huge part of the whole process, virtual tours and virtual everything. That has not changed. We are in the same boat more so now than last year, we didn't even know any of that stuff yet. At the same time, you have to be able to make pretty quick adjustments, lot of preliminary plans for May, June, and July without a lot of answers yet, so that has kind of taught us that you still have to have great planning, you just don't know what those ultimate counters are going to look like. We have to have a lot of things that are in place and ready to go when we get the green light for that to be the case. A lot of unanswered questions still with for what lies ahead, but we are going to be very, very cautious in regards to this virus and how we have to deal with it moving forward. We're taking nothing for granted. Yes, the numbers are definitely improving in this area for sure and across the country, but we're not going to let up. We just want to make sure we are doing everything we can to protect our players and staff.

Q. On his expectations and hopes for QB Michael Penix Jr. this spring…
ALLEN: He's done a tremendous job of following everything we've asked him to do from a medical perspective. Been meeting with him, meeting with the staff and just different things to just get him mentally growing and developing as a leader, growing and developing in his understanding of defenses and all of the different things he has to do to run the offense. Just keep building and progressing. Just want him to be extremely diligent in those areas and just want to see him keep growing, like all of our guys. I just want him to take another step in his growth and the holistic part of how he has to approach the game and be able to get where he needs to be. We expect him to be ready to play to start the season. He obviously is going to have a progression there, we won't see much in the spring with him. He's just going to follow those protocols. He will definitely not be taking any reps with anybody around him. Definitely going to throw some footballs around and things like that, but pretty limited in that regard. But at the same time, still feel really good about the future and the way he's been able to progress so far and the prognosis we've been given from the doctors. Very optimistic about his availability. We're expecting him to be full bore when the season starts.

Indiana University Athletics

Spring Practice Zoom Press Conference – Tom Allen

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Players Mentioned

D.K. Bonhomme

Alfred Bryant

Gavin McCabe

Caleb Murphy

Michael Penix Jr.

Michael Ziemba

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