Postgame Quotes: vs. Purdue
11/26/2022 6:00:00 PM | Football
Indiana vs. Purdue
November 26, 2022
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On adjusting after Dexter Williams III goes down…
TA: It was a devastating loss, to be honest with you. He did a great job last week, and I felt great about our game plan, and it was working to perfection. We were driving the ball when he went down. Just a freaky non-contact. You all saw it. I just can't put into words how I feel in some ways with regards to the injuries we've had for two straight years with key guys. You try to play to the strengths of your guys. We tried to play to the strengths of that room, and felt really good about what we had laid out as far as our offensive coaches did a great job with that.
So yeah, just definitely, it's just tough. I hate it for him. He's an amazing young man. He's took him to the hospital, so yeah, just -- my reaction, there's just no words to be honest with you. It's part of the game. Learn to adjust.
On Dexter Williams III's injury…
TA: They need further evaluation, so that's the last update I got as I walked out of the training room here. But yeah, he was taken to the hospital. It is not an ACL, I do know that. So it's not that. But it's obviously serious.
On revising the offense with a mobile quarterback in the offseason…
TA: Yes, absolutely without question. That's what I know we need to do. That allows us the chance to be able to do the things we need to do to be able to blend and different things, yes, but with the idea of the tempo that we used and the quarterback run game and throw game combination to me is really what I want us to be able to do, and want to build off that, absolutely, without question.
On the trouble in the red zone…
TA: Yeah, you know, I think that just the field gets smaller, shrinks down. We've got to win the one-on-ones at receiver. Just a guy like Cam Camper who steps up and makes those plays in that situation, we need that guy to step up. Obviously Cam has been injured; we lost him for the season. So another guy needs to step up and take on that role, and then losing DJ in that role, as well.
I think when you get in that area of the field, you've got to win the one-on-ones. We obviously were not able to do that. It is a little harder to run the football down there, but obviously those happened without Dexter in the game in terms of the way we had planned those out, I thought we would be able to finish those with touchdowns if we had him in those situations, but we didn't. You've got to be able to adapt to those.
Yeah, to me it comes more down to being able to get in those situations, whether it's a tight end, receiver, because it's a very tight window and those guys got to make contested catches, and they've got to be able to do a great job with that.
Definitely disappointed. We got the ball down there and we had -- we ran for over 200 yards, and 26 1st downs, but we've got to get touchdowns. That's why -- we tried to kick a couple field goals, missed two of them, which is frustrating. That's not usually who we are in that area. Then obviously had to go for it there in the end to get a touchdown.
But yeah, to me, a lot of red zone opportunities, not enough touchdowns.
On Connor Bazelak's performance…
TA: Yeah, he came in there and gave us all he had, and obviously we had to have two different type game plans, and obviously some things worked more for him that were different from Dexter, and some of the runs you didn't want to be in and all that. I think there were some good things we were doing there. But he's come in there and battled for us, so it's just obviously we didn't score enough points to win the game.
At the end of the day, it's all about everybody, and Connor stayed with us even though some guys made different decisions, but Connor has got high character and he's an awesome young man, and I'm proud of him.
On Purdue's 60-yard touchdown pass…
TA: Yeah, we had a blown -- we brought pressure and we had a DB that didn't do his job. To me, call it what you want. You've got to be able to do different things. It was a modified version of cover-two that we were running but we had the two VH, three VH players, and one of those guys who was the safety got beat. To me it's a wall technique that really should be something we can execute and we spend a lot of time on. It's kind of part of our base, and just can't let that happen.
When somebody gets injured like what happened in that, we lost Jonathan Haines for the game, and then the guy behind him just struggled to execute the call in that situation.
I called it because I felt like we had the guys back there to do it, and it didn't work, so that's on me.
On freshman Kaidan Turner's performance…
TA: Yeah, tough kid. I hated to throw him in that situation. Didn't know until after pregame the situation there that we were going to have to do that. We were trying to get Aaron Casey ready to play. He battled all week, tough as nails. So proud of him. He gave us everything he had. He pretty much probably extended himself last week and it caused him to probably not be able to get back this week. But I appreciate him, and not having Aaron in there the whole game was tough.
But Kaiden got a chance to start as a true freshman and got thrown into the fire there sooner than we'd like for him to be able to be, but at the same time he stepped up, and even Jared Casey who's been out for a long time with an injury came back and played some Mike backer for the first time today because we didn't have anybody else left. Just our linebacker room has been decimated with injuries.
But I thought Kaiden stepped up. He's got a lot of room to grow, but he's a tough, physical kid that cares and loves this game, and he'll be a good player for us moving forward.
On getting Aaron Casey back…
TA: He practiced twice. When I say "practiced," he did workouts twice this week, and then I watched him closely. It was kind of one of those things where I just didn't feel like -- we had to have a conversation about this. I wasn't going to put him out there if he wasn't 100 percent. He could go one direction pretty good, but he couldn't plant, and I'm just like, nah. He busted his tail to get back. We were trying to get him back for last week, and then we thought maybe this week.
But the good news is for him it's not a long-term injury that he will be able to have a full recovery from, so it won't affect his NFL opportunities.
But I just can't say enough awesome things about that kid. He's a special, special young man, great, great player, but just even better man and a great leader. He's given us his heart and soul and given everything he has. He tried hard to come back, and it would have been a huge lift to get him back, but I wasn't going to put him out there if it wasn't in his best interest, and I didn't feel that it was.
On the cause of so many injuries…
TA: Yeah, I mean, I wish I had an answer for that. We brought in a specialist last year. We'll do it again to evaluate everything we do from that perspective to see if there's anything we're doing or missing. But we had toe ligament injuries this year, which is like hardly ever heard of that in my career, had several of those.
Obviously Dex's situation is -- who knows what that is yet, but it's very unique without question, non-contact, you plant -- I don't even know how you prevent that. We've had obviously Bedford with ACL, Cam Camper is ACL. The NFL hasn't figured out how to stop those, either. Seems like they happen every week.
But gosh, we've got an amazing strength and conditioning coach that's phenomenal. We didn't have as many this year. It was unfortunately the wrong guys, some pretty key guys that we missed. We're going to evaluate it, but it's hard to prevent some of these. They are part of the game, and it's just tough. No excuses. You've got to have other guys step up. That's the bottom line.
I hate it that those guys weren't able to be part of this game.
Indiana Student-Athletes
Kaiden Turner | LB | Fr.
On his first career start…
KT: Overall, as a team, you never want to lose. Personally, I felt I could have done better. It's never good enough. I just need to work this offseason and just continue to work on some things.
On the difficulty of defending Purdue's offense…
KT: They can run the ball, they can pass the ball, they run a lot of trick plays. They didn't pull out as many as they thought they would tonight. We know they have a tricky head coach.
On when he knew he would start…
KT: Throughout the week I was with the ones. It was kind of a gametime decision. Honestly, today, I was told Ace (Aaron Casey) can't go and they said it's on you.
Emery Simmons | WR | Sr.
On the emotion after Dexter Williams' injury…
ES: For a guy like Dexter, just to see how he came in last week, played well against Michigan State, and got us a dub. And now just seeing how he's been progressing in practice throughout the year and for him to get his opportunity and a chance to start. For all of that to happen, that was a tough moment. But you've got to shake it off. The game still goes on. He was in our thoughts and prayers the whole time. But at that point we had to just talk him up while he was down, keep playing football and try to win the game.
On how Williams' injury affected the play of the team…
ES: It affects us, but at the same time it's fine. What hurts more is just like, dang, that's another player. Even still, other players and other teams see that happen to them. You don't want to see someone go down like that. So, I feel like with us it was a sad, dull moment but at the same time it's just another reason to play harder in my opinion.
On the game plan with Connor Bazelak…
ES: Of course, you know everybody doesn't have the same skill set. Dex likes to run while Connor (Bazelak) is a pocket passer. So, you just change the game plan around the quarterback and then go from there. I feel like we still did good things out there, but just a lot of stuff that we left on the table. Now you have to go into next season, get it corrected and come out hard in 2023.
Alfred Bryant | OLB | R. Sr. +
On his favorite memories of the team…
AB: Being with those guys every day and building a relationship. They will be my brothers for life, just love them boys to death. I appreciate every little minute of it.
On his relationship with Coach Allen…
AB: We're close. He texts me every day. He tells me he loves me every day and makes sure we are good.
On the culture of the team…
AB: As a team we are still bonding. We still believe every game we are going to go out there and win, but sometimes it's not meant to be.
Jeff Brohm | Purdue Head Coach
Opening Statement…
JB: Definitely a proud day to be a boilermaker. You put in a lot of hard work, your players do, your coaches do for dreaming about this opportunity. Obviously, a lot of things had to go our way, and we understand that. But our guys just competed hard all year long. We tried to learn from our mistakes. They battle and play. Our game is not perfect. Every game goes back and forth, but we found a way to do enough to win. I couldn't be prouder of our team. It's a huge accomplishment. It really means a lot and shows you that anybody can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. When you play in this conference, if you want to come to Purdue and put yourself out there and try to make a difference, I think we can try to help you do that. Credit to our guys. They had a chip on their shoulders. They play that way. They want to prove themselves. Our coaches have worked really hard to help them get there. So this, of course, feels tremendous. It's a great feeling and it's been a lot of hard work, and it hasn't been easy, but I couldn't be prouder.
On winning the Big Ten West…
JB: It's the ultimate feeling because, like I said, you dream about and hope it can happen, but it's hard. It's really hard. We had a little luck go our way, we understand that. But we competed in every game. We got knocked around a couple weeks in a row but found a way to bounce out of it and just do enough to win. That's just a sign of a great group of guys that want to make a difference to get that championship. And now we have a chance to do that.
On the importance of the Nebraska win over Iowa…
JB: I didn't get to see all the game, but as you look at the score, Nebraska has a really good quarterback and a great receiver. If the weather was good, I knew they might have a chance to throw the ball at them. That's what they did early, and that's how they got points. They got just enough to hang on and win. When you're up 24 to nothing, it is hard to come back from especially with that style of offense Iowa runs. But they came close, and that's what Iowa does. They find a way to win. So, it was just one of those games where the passing game worked for them I think, and obviously it was huge for us because it opened up the door for us to take advantage of. I think our guys performed well under pressure. There was pressure to figure out a way to close this thing out. The first half wasn't pretty. They did a good job on us, mixing things up. We had to come out in the second half and adjust a little bit on offense. Luckily, we got two early scores that put us in the driver's seat and our defense played really hard and got some key stops in critical situations.
On the impact of RB Devin Mockobee…
JB: He's a difference maker. This is a guy who wanted to take a chance to prove himself. We wouldn't be here today without him. He is that valuable of a player. He's just humble, hard-working, and he'll continue to get better. He doesn't need the credit, he just wants to go out and compete. We had other running backs that played off of him and played really hard and were ready to go in case he wasn't. I just think we have a good group in the room. Coach Barclay does a good job managing that. They played hard, and Devin came through for us. We wanted to get the ball in his hands in the second half. We wanted to get the ball to Payne Durham's hands in the second half. We wanted to get the ball a little bit in Charlie's (Jones) hands in the second half, and then the others feed off of them. I thought we were able to do that early and it helped us.
