Indiana University Athletics
‘Calm’ McCrary-Ball Ready for Cincinnati Challenge
9/16/2021 9:17:00 AM | Football
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Calm has found Marcelino McCrary-Ball. Or, at least, he says it has, in a Memorial Stadium Henke Hall press conference setting, with no running back trying to power over him, no receiver trying to beat him, no quarterback seeking to expose him.
Wisdom comes through pain and disappointment and frustration, and McCrary-Ball has had plenty of that in his six Hoosier seasons. It also comes through success and triumph and growth, and McCrary-Ball has had plenty of that, as well.
Here he is, with a surgically repaired knee, with a sculpted 6-foot, 214-pound physique Michelangelo could have carved, with a determination to make this a Cream & Crimson football finale like no other.
Beating No. 8 Cincinnati on Saturday would be a big step.
It starts by tapping into his inner Zen.
"Calmness," he says with a laugh when asked how he's better now than he was as a freshman.
"I've learned a lot of things -- being an understanding teammate, an understanding player. Controlling my emotions. Understanding when it's time to go and when it's time to listen."
Calmness. It sounds like a simple thing. In a ferociously emotional and competitive sport, it's not.
"Regardless of how my time at IU ends," McCrary-Ball says, "that's one thing, while I'm still here, I plan to emphasize."
McCrary-Ball was an offense-wrecking force from the moment he arrived in Bloomington from Georgia in 2016 (earning All-America freshman honors while leading all Big Ten freshmen with 75 tackles), and still is. Injury-limited career numbers -- 145 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, one fumble recovery, and 12 passes defended in 30 games -- suggest the potential.
Maturity and leadership took longer to develop. Players are encouraged to hold each other accountable, but doing so without generating anger and resentment takes skill and finesse.
McCrary-Ball learned that the hard way, but he learned.
"When I see things from my teammates that (can) be mean in a negative way, maybe being too emotional or being out of place in a certain call or play, I see myself. I used to do that my sophomore year.
"So I urge them, don't take the cheese. Hold your emotions. Learn from me."
A pause.
"Calmness. It encompasses the (ways) I think I've grown while at Indiana."
Growth came with a physical cost. McCrary-Ball has twice had season-ending injuries. He bounced back each time and is, in so many ways, better for it.
"No matter how you plan things," he says, "it doesn't go your way. It's not that you can't plan things, but to plan it and then stress on it, you're wasting your time."
McCrary-Ball is not a man to waste time. In this case, it's about staying in the moment.
"That's what you should focus on, and not what's going to happen 90 minutes from now. It's a one-breath-at-a-time mindset. That keeps me calm.
"You won't be calm every time, you're going to have bad days, but hone in on that. That's what LEO (Love Each Other) is about. Having a shoulder to lean on, being a shoulder to lean on."
McCrary-Ball so badly wanted to be part of last year's 6-2 break-through season, when the Hoosiers intercepted balls at a national-leading pace, when they stunned teams that once owned them, when they rose up the national rankings as they hadn't in half a century.
A torn ACL sidelined him before the season began.
"I got hurt, it was my fifth year, the team goes crazy and I was nowhere part of it physically," McCrary-Ball says. "So getting back to that, I was excited.
"As far as getting back on the field at Iowa, it was exciting, but I've been doing this a long time. No jitters. I was ready to play."
Readiness means embracing a modified defensive scheme. The twist comes with new defensive coordinator Charlton Warren, who brings a man-coverage emphasis to former defensive coordinator Kane Wommack's zone preference.
"It's two different DCs," McCrary-Ball says. "It's the same mindset as far as tackling and effort, but the way we scheme is different. With Kane, we had a lot of eyes on the quarterback. Lot of zone. Lot of blitzing.
"With Coach Warren, it's the same concept, we're still blitzing, but more man (coverage). When I was preparing to come back, I saw (former safety) Jamar Johnson in a zone, reading the quarterback, getting easy picks, Tiawan (Mullen) getting picks, seeing all the picks.
"I came back and, in my position (husky, a hybrid linebacker-safety), it's eyes on a man. I can't read the quarterback. I have to read the man. It was something I had to shape my mindset to. My technique is on point. I'm chasing this guy around."
Cincinnati is coming to a sold-out Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 record, an explosive offense and a shut-down defense.
For the Hoosiers, this is the chance to show the lie to the Iowa performance, that that was short-term aberration and not long-term reality, that this is now the team everyone expected, the one with title aspirations, and the talent, experience, depth, and mindset to achieve it.
"This is what we're here for, the competition," McCrary-Ball says. "Whether it's Cincinnati coming in or the Cleveland Browns, we're not backing down to nobody. We're going to get it going."
IU got it going in dominating fashion last Saturday against Idaho, but that was an FCS team not nearly as talented as Cincinnati.
The Bearcats have a dual-threat quarterback in Desmond Ridder, a big-play running back in Jerome Ford (an Alabama transfer), and enough receiving weapons to stress defenses to the breaking point.
"They are really good," McCrary-Ball says. "They pop on the (film) screen.
"The quarterback is tall, and when he wants to scramble, he can cover ground. He's fast. He throws to every receiver. You have to be alert. Their running back has blazing speed, too. He can hit you when he lowers his shoulder, and once he gets through the hole, he can burst.
"They can do it all. They have threats on the receiving end and in the backfield. It's got to be our best week."
One potential Hoosier edge -- Warren faced Cincinnati during last season's Peach Bowl when he was Georgia's defensive backs coach. The Bulldogs won 24-21 on a last-second field goal to hand the Bearcats their only loss in 10 games.
"You learn they have a quarterback who is hard to trick," Warren says. "He can hurt you with his arm, with his legs, and with his brain. He's very accurate, very tough, very smart.
"It tells you how much you have to respect what they do. You see how well he can execute under pressure."
IU remains an aggressive, attacking defense, and if it hasn't produced any interceptions yet (it has recovered 3 fumbles), well, Saturday would be a good time to start.
"We still want to take the ball," McCrary-Ball says. "At Iowa, we could have had one or two. Against Idaho, we left a few on the table."
The time for a clean table has arrived.
"It's a new challenge, a new week," McCrary-Ball says. "Let's go do it."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Calm has found Marcelino McCrary-Ball. Or, at least, he says it has, in a Memorial Stadium Henke Hall press conference setting, with no running back trying to power over him, no receiver trying to beat him, no quarterback seeking to expose him.
Wisdom comes through pain and disappointment and frustration, and McCrary-Ball has had plenty of that in his six Hoosier seasons. It also comes through success and triumph and growth, and McCrary-Ball has had plenty of that, as well.
Here he is, with a surgically repaired knee, with a sculpted 6-foot, 214-pound physique Michelangelo could have carved, with a determination to make this a Cream & Crimson football finale like no other.
Beating No. 8 Cincinnati on Saturday would be a big step.
It starts by tapping into his inner Zen.
"Calmness," he says with a laugh when asked how he's better now than he was as a freshman.
"I've learned a lot of things -- being an understanding teammate, an understanding player. Controlling my emotions. Understanding when it's time to go and when it's time to listen."
Calmness. It sounds like a simple thing. In a ferociously emotional and competitive sport, it's not.
"Regardless of how my time at IU ends," McCrary-Ball says, "that's one thing, while I'm still here, I plan to emphasize."
McCrary-Ball was an offense-wrecking force from the moment he arrived in Bloomington from Georgia in 2016 (earning All-America freshman honors while leading all Big Ten freshmen with 75 tackles), and still is. Injury-limited career numbers -- 145 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, one fumble recovery, and 12 passes defended in 30 games -- suggest the potential.
Maturity and leadership took longer to develop. Players are encouraged to hold each other accountable, but doing so without generating anger and resentment takes skill and finesse.
McCrary-Ball learned that the hard way, but he learned.
"When I see things from my teammates that (can) be mean in a negative way, maybe being too emotional or being out of place in a certain call or play, I see myself. I used to do that my sophomore year.
"So I urge them, don't take the cheese. Hold your emotions. Learn from me."
A pause.
"Calmness. It encompasses the (ways) I think I've grown while at Indiana."
Growth came with a physical cost. McCrary-Ball has twice had season-ending injuries. He bounced back each time and is, in so many ways, better for it.
"No matter how you plan things," he says, "it doesn't go your way. It's not that you can't plan things, but to plan it and then stress on it, you're wasting your time."
McCrary-Ball is not a man to waste time. In this case, it's about staying in the moment.
"That's what you should focus on, and not what's going to happen 90 minutes from now. It's a one-breath-at-a-time mindset. That keeps me calm.
"You won't be calm every time, you're going to have bad days, but hone in on that. That's what LEO (Love Each Other) is about. Having a shoulder to lean on, being a shoulder to lean on."
McCrary-Ball so badly wanted to be part of last year's 6-2 break-through season, when the Hoosiers intercepted balls at a national-leading pace, when they stunned teams that once owned them, when they rose up the national rankings as they hadn't in half a century.
A torn ACL sidelined him before the season began.
"I got hurt, it was my fifth year, the team goes crazy and I was nowhere part of it physically," McCrary-Ball says. "So getting back to that, I was excited.
"As far as getting back on the field at Iowa, it was exciting, but I've been doing this a long time. No jitters. I was ready to play."
Readiness means embracing a modified defensive scheme. The twist comes with new defensive coordinator Charlton Warren, who brings a man-coverage emphasis to former defensive coordinator Kane Wommack's zone preference.
"It's two different DCs," McCrary-Ball says. "It's the same mindset as far as tackling and effort, but the way we scheme is different. With Kane, we had a lot of eyes on the quarterback. Lot of zone. Lot of blitzing.
"With Coach Warren, it's the same concept, we're still blitzing, but more man (coverage). When I was preparing to come back, I saw (former safety) Jamar Johnson in a zone, reading the quarterback, getting easy picks, Tiawan (Mullen) getting picks, seeing all the picks.
"I came back and, in my position (husky, a hybrid linebacker-safety), it's eyes on a man. I can't read the quarterback. I have to read the man. It was something I had to shape my mindset to. My technique is on point. I'm chasing this guy around."
Cincinnati is coming to a sold-out Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 record, an explosive offense and a shut-down defense.
For the Hoosiers, this is the chance to show the lie to the Iowa performance, that that was short-term aberration and not long-term reality, that this is now the team everyone expected, the one with title aspirations, and the talent, experience, depth, and mindset to achieve it.
"This is what we're here for, the competition," McCrary-Ball says. "Whether it's Cincinnati coming in or the Cleveland Browns, we're not backing down to nobody. We're going to get it going."
IU got it going in dominating fashion last Saturday against Idaho, but that was an FCS team not nearly as talented as Cincinnati.
The Bearcats have a dual-threat quarterback in Desmond Ridder, a big-play running back in Jerome Ford (an Alabama transfer), and enough receiving weapons to stress defenses to the breaking point.
"They are really good," McCrary-Ball says. "They pop on the (film) screen.
"The quarterback is tall, and when he wants to scramble, he can cover ground. He's fast. He throws to every receiver. You have to be alert. Their running back has blazing speed, too. He can hit you when he lowers his shoulder, and once he gets through the hole, he can burst.
"They can do it all. They have threats on the receiving end and in the backfield. It's got to be our best week."
One potential Hoosier edge -- Warren faced Cincinnati during last season's Peach Bowl when he was Georgia's defensive backs coach. The Bulldogs won 24-21 on a last-second field goal to hand the Bearcats their only loss in 10 games.
"You learn they have a quarterback who is hard to trick," Warren says. "He can hurt you with his arm, with his legs, and with his brain. He's very accurate, very tough, very smart.
"It tells you how much you have to respect what they do. You see how well he can execute under pressure."
IU remains an aggressive, attacking defense, and if it hasn't produced any interceptions yet (it has recovered 3 fumbles), well, Saturday would be a good time to start.
"We still want to take the ball," McCrary-Ball says. "At Iowa, we could have had one or two. Against Idaho, we left a few on the table."
The time for a clean table has arrived.
"It's a new challenge, a new week," McCrary-Ball says. "Let's go do it."
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