Quoted: Fall Camp Edition - Tom Allen (Aug. 19)
8/19/2022 4:04:00 PM | Football
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana head football coach Tom Allen talked to the media following the second preseason scrimmage on Friday (August 19) inside Memorial Stadium.
Below is a partial transcript of the press conferences, while video of the full media sessions can be found on the right sidebar at IUHoosiers.com.
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On how the decision at starting quarterback is looking…
TA: I think that was kind of the initial plan, and I still think we feel pretty good about that process, timing wise. We may take a couple days after we get through all of this. We still have two more days of practice before we're kind of out of fall camp and into Illinois prep. So, we're not there yet. So, definitely we'll be making a decision in the near future.
On the progression of the newcomers on the defensive line…
TA: I would say, first of all, we've got several of those guys you mentioned that have all been here since January. The youngest one, Nick James, has really been impressive. I think he keeps getting better and better every time we practice. Which you expect that. He kind of did the same thing in the spring. I thought he really, once he started figuring out, getting more comfortable, even in the same way here in fall camp when it can be a little information overload sometimes even though he's been here, he has not been through a college fall camp before.
JH [Tevis] continues to be a really strong leader. Productive, really understands football, smart guy. I think LeDarrius Cox and Patrick Lucas Jr. give us some big bodies in there that have some mass that we haven't had in the past. Both are working hard, doing a good job, learning all the time. Learning the system. I feel like, a lot of new guys, yes, but guys we expect to help us.
Nick's the only one right out of high school where he's been playing before … So, definitely a big part of us, and then you've got Sio [Nofoagatoto'a] and Demarcus [Elliot] who continue to be in there and play really hard, and I'm excited about the group. They've got to play well for us, and we plan to play a whole bunch of them and rotate them and allow them to be able to stay fresh and play hard and physical.
On what he wanted to see out of the quarterbacks in the second scrimmage…
TA: I think continuing to understand our system is a big deal, and I haven't really strayed from the three things that I'm really looking for from them.
Step one is understanding just having great command of the offense, and that continues to grow each week as each day passes. Also, the ability to protect the football. That's going to be a big variable in this decision. You know how much peril you put your whole team in when you don't protect it and when you make poor decisions. So, I'm continuing to see those. I think that's becoming a little more clear with each one of those guys and where they're at and I think that's got to be a huge priority.
Number three is winning the confidence of the locker room. I think that happens on a consistent basis. It happens just from having interactions, happens on how you play every day, the trust that's built over time. I think both of those guys continue to grow and execute some of our offense, both continue to do some good things in moving the ball down field and getting the ball in the end zone, which is huge.
Today is a part of that evaluation, obviously haven't watched the film yet, but I feel like the last couple of days, been able to do a lot of things in the area to get our offense more comfortable with what we are doing. Being able to execute and play at a high level and be able to play with confidence and clarity.
So, to me, that's what it's going to come down to. Whoever we feel has those three qualities and is able to do that consistently well, and I think that, as you would expect, they're growing in those areas in understanding what you're doing. There is no question defensively we do enough things to make that challenging for them at times, which is good. Make them have to be able to do a lot of things and allow them to execute the offense at a high level which is not easy to do. I don't think, just because of the multiplicity of things we try to present with them. But, at the same time, that's part of it. We'll see a lot of the same stuff. The progress has been good, and we're anxious to get to make a decision and move forward.
On if the depth chart is close to being finalized…
TA: After today, that will be the case. We've been, probably of all the fall camps I've been a part of, we've played more guys and more reps for multiple groups of guys than we ever have. Ones, twos threes and fours. We've done that consistently. That will begin to change here. This scrimmage was targeted as a time to say, okay we're going to start setting our depth chart and really say who's going to be the guys that that are going to be playing on gameday.
That would be your ones and your twos and a few threes that are in that rotation, as well. This scrimmage to me and the staff they will have tomorrow morning will be a huge part of that. We'll have a lengthy discussion about that and obviously have a whole bunch of data collected. You've got to have about roughly 50 snaps today, so we're going to have about 850 snaps to be able to evaluate throughout fall camp of skelly, team move the ball, scrimmages, all those kinds of things combined together to make a pretty good, accurate [evaluation of] guys. And as we tell them, it's their responsibility to prove to their position coach they deserve to play. That's how we present the idea of how the depth chart is created.
Below is a partial transcript of the press conferences, while video of the full media sessions can be found on the right sidebar at IUHoosiers.com.
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On how the decision at starting quarterback is looking…
TA: I think that was kind of the initial plan, and I still think we feel pretty good about that process, timing wise. We may take a couple days after we get through all of this. We still have two more days of practice before we're kind of out of fall camp and into Illinois prep. So, we're not there yet. So, definitely we'll be making a decision in the near future.
On the progression of the newcomers on the defensive line…
TA: I would say, first of all, we've got several of those guys you mentioned that have all been here since January. The youngest one, Nick James, has really been impressive. I think he keeps getting better and better every time we practice. Which you expect that. He kind of did the same thing in the spring. I thought he really, once he started figuring out, getting more comfortable, even in the same way here in fall camp when it can be a little information overload sometimes even though he's been here, he has not been through a college fall camp before.
JH [Tevis] continues to be a really strong leader. Productive, really understands football, smart guy. I think LeDarrius Cox and Patrick Lucas Jr. give us some big bodies in there that have some mass that we haven't had in the past. Both are working hard, doing a good job, learning all the time. Learning the system. I feel like, a lot of new guys, yes, but guys we expect to help us.
Nick's the only one right out of high school where he's been playing before … So, definitely a big part of us, and then you've got Sio [Nofoagatoto'a] and Demarcus [Elliot] who continue to be in there and play really hard, and I'm excited about the group. They've got to play well for us, and we plan to play a whole bunch of them and rotate them and allow them to be able to stay fresh and play hard and physical.
On what he wanted to see out of the quarterbacks in the second scrimmage…
TA: I think continuing to understand our system is a big deal, and I haven't really strayed from the three things that I'm really looking for from them.
Step one is understanding just having great command of the offense, and that continues to grow each week as each day passes. Also, the ability to protect the football. That's going to be a big variable in this decision. You know how much peril you put your whole team in when you don't protect it and when you make poor decisions. So, I'm continuing to see those. I think that's becoming a little more clear with each one of those guys and where they're at and I think that's got to be a huge priority.
Number three is winning the confidence of the locker room. I think that happens on a consistent basis. It happens just from having interactions, happens on how you play every day, the trust that's built over time. I think both of those guys continue to grow and execute some of our offense, both continue to do some good things in moving the ball down field and getting the ball in the end zone, which is huge.
Today is a part of that evaluation, obviously haven't watched the film yet, but I feel like the last couple of days, been able to do a lot of things in the area to get our offense more comfortable with what we are doing. Being able to execute and play at a high level and be able to play with confidence and clarity.
So, to me, that's what it's going to come down to. Whoever we feel has those three qualities and is able to do that consistently well, and I think that, as you would expect, they're growing in those areas in understanding what you're doing. There is no question defensively we do enough things to make that challenging for them at times, which is good. Make them have to be able to do a lot of things and allow them to execute the offense at a high level which is not easy to do. I don't think, just because of the multiplicity of things we try to present with them. But, at the same time, that's part of it. We'll see a lot of the same stuff. The progress has been good, and we're anxious to get to make a decision and move forward.
On if the depth chart is close to being finalized…
TA: After today, that will be the case. We've been, probably of all the fall camps I've been a part of, we've played more guys and more reps for multiple groups of guys than we ever have. Ones, twos threes and fours. We've done that consistently. That will begin to change here. This scrimmage was targeted as a time to say, okay we're going to start setting our depth chart and really say who's going to be the guys that that are going to be playing on gameday.
That would be your ones and your twos and a few threes that are in that rotation, as well. This scrimmage to me and the staff they will have tomorrow morning will be a huge part of that. We'll have a lengthy discussion about that and obviously have a whole bunch of data collected. You've got to have about roughly 50 snaps today, so we're going to have about 850 snaps to be able to evaluate throughout fall camp of skelly, team move the ball, scrimmages, all those kinds of things combined together to make a pretty good, accurate [evaluation of] guys. And as we tell them, it's their responsibility to prove to their position coach they deserve to play. That's how we present the idea of how the depth chart is created.
Players Mentioned
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Wednesday, September 17
FB: Mikail Kamara Media Availability (9/16/25)
Tuesday, September 16
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Tuesday, September 16
FB: Curt Cignetti Media Availability (9/15/25)
Monday, September 15