Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: vs. Idaho
9/10/2022 11:11:00 PM | Football
Postgame Quotes
Idaho at Indiana
September 10, 2022
Idaho at Indiana
September 10, 2022
Tom Allen | Head Coach
Opening Statement
TA: All right, well, we won. So that's a positive thing, but obviously, didn't start the right way. Poor first half. Especially on offense.
Did some good things on defense in the first half. Did respond in the second half and did some good things in the second half, especially offensively. Then just really still frustrated with how we finished on defense.
Just a very frustrating night, but find a way to win the game, continue to work on the things. We showed some improvement in some areas that we need to work on. That will continue.
Proud of our guys to respond the second half. Obviously, didn't respond to the delay very well. Didn't respond to the weather very well. That's on me. Obviously, the way I've prepared them wasn't good enough.
So always appreciative for a win. I know they're hard to get. You look around the country. There are some pretty disappointed fan bases tonight, but at the same time that's not acceptable in my mind as far as the standard with which we have to play.
Too many mistakes and just not good enough, but I'm never going to take for granted a win. Proud of our guys for doing that. Got to get ourselves healthy and came out of it pretty healthy I think, and then get ready for a big one next week.
Questions.
On sticking with the offense and what was misfiring in the first half…
TA: Just out of sync. I don't know. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. Obviously, things were -- the different schedule we were on. You go in and sit and wait. Both teams had that, so that's just reality.
Just the weather, have you to learn to deal with the weather. Tried to have a rain practice this week. We knew rain was coming and got some sprinkles. We did the wet ball drills with our guys trying to get ready for that.
The interception that Connor had before half was just an overthrow. It slipped out of his hand, but you've got to make that throw. The guy is wide open.
Just felt like, gosh, we should have been up by multiple scores in the first half. And Chuck missed two field goals, which he hadn't missed in a long time. So it was just, golly, felt like it was Halloween every time. Just weird stuff and just crazy things and leaving guys open.
Two of our best players gave up those last two touchdowns on defense. Two of our best players, in the second half and on blown assignments. To me it's just lack of focus.
That's my responsibility. So obviously the message for this week was pretty stern. As a matter of fact, I lost my voice on Wednesday's practice, lost my voice on Thursday's practice. Just trying to make sure that the team didn't take these guys for granted because they blew them out a year ago. It wasn't the same football team.
You saw the team that they almost beat a week ago. Went into Madison and beat the Badgers, in Washington State. I knew this team had talent and this team had some good players on it and is good enough to beat us if we didn't show up.
Obviously, first half -- I was concerned about that. I really was. You get them confident to hang around, which they did. They were at 10-0 half. Coming out in halftime, that was a big deal.
Golly, we sure enjoy making it hard on ourselves. Could have been a whole lot different, but we didn't and you have to own what happened. That's on me. I was pretty stern with them in there.
We sang the fight song and do what we do after a win, but this is not the standard we have to play be able to be where we want to be as a football team. We'll take the win, but we're going to take what comes along with poor play, which is accountability. That's on me.
On Dasan McCullough's defensive performance…
TA: That's the goal. You balance that with his youth. He is obviously only his second college game, so you don't want to put too much on him. He also see the skill set that he has and the different things that he can do in the pass rush game, in the coverage game, in the run game.
Talented football player, and we have to continue to utilize him and really proud of him. I tell you what, though, this is the thing I love about Dasan. He has talent.
He is 6'5" and 225 pounds. He can run. But he is a really good practice player. He is very locked in. He is very mature for his age as a freshman. He understands how to study film. He cares a lot. Works really hard.
He is really good during walk-throughs, which usually is an area that freshmen struggle with because it's not what they're used to and being locked in during those and just the positioning of him and just the checks and adjustments.
I'm really proud of him, and he is making plays. He came up big for us tonight, so that's going to have to continue.
On how the team dug themselves out of the first half deficit…
TA: It's a positive thing. We can say what we want, but we had a heck of a third quarter, and that's how we're supposed to -- I envision that being the first quarter, to be honest with you. That's how I expect us to start the game off and defense and special teams.
Yeah, there's no doubt. I got after them at halftime, and I told the coaches to get after them at halftime. It was also, Hey, guys, just play football, execute, play hard. Do what you're supposed to do.
That to me is a good sign for our guys. They did respond and were able to take back the momentum that we lost.
They had all the momentum. At the end of the second half they got the ball back to open the third quarter, and that whole sequence of events there. Just to be able for the guys to be able to dig deep. I grabbed individual leaders on our team in each different areas and challenged them to make sure our guys came out the second half ready to compete.
The response was very encouraging. Just can't wait for halftime to start playing football.
On what stands out about RB Shaun Shivers…
TA: I think it's consistency. Ever since he got here, he brings juice to the weight room. He brings energy to practice.
I will say we were doing a perimeter drill, and he about had his guys into a brawl, which was a good thing from his perspective. He has an edge about him. He practices with that edge. He has a lot of, I would say, South Florida confidence. Sometimes that brings a little chippiness and a little bit of chirpiness to the situation, if you know what I'm talking about.
He likes to talk a lot, but at the same time there's an edge about him. I say there's a reason why he is this tall, and he thinks he is this tall.
He really has a different mindset. He really does. That's infectious. That's what I love about him. He is tough as nails. You saw that shot he took last week. I mean, that was like, holy smokes. He just had a sore chest, and that was it. He came back and played.
There's a toughness to him. In that practice, as a matter of fact, it's one of those where I had to stop the whole thing and bring everybody together, but at the same time I was, like, Okay, I like this. We didn't have this last year. We didn't have anybody on offense like that last year. That's the truth.
Walcott had that about him. He wasn't here last year. We lost that edge on the offensive side of the football, and Shaun Shivers has that. To me that's what you got to have.
It's a fine line. We talk about just having that controlled rage that you should be able to be under control but have an intensity and toughness to you and edge about you, and Shaun brings that on our team.
On how they opened up the run game with offensive changes this week…
TA: We made it a priority and knew we had to. I don't see the exact numbers here, but rushed for 200 yards, which is what you really want to be able to do. I guess 239 total.
That's something we just know we have to do, and I know different schemes and do different things to try and take it away, but at the same time we know that's a big deal for us.
Really proud of our offensive line. Proud of our running backs. Proud of our offense for doing that because that's a big deal for us.
I just know that that's going to continue to be a focus, and we've done more things with inside drill and going ones versus ones and getting our guys ready. We did it all last week and will do it every week to just try to continue to get better at that. Just try and find some good schematic edges for our guys to give them a chance to execute the calls and have success in run games because it takes the pressure off.
Honestly, I do believe. I don't know. We stopped ourselves the whole first half. Every time we turned around it's like, Good grief. Sometimes you have to be on the battlefield for games. Hopefully that's out of our system, but running the football needs to be what we do effectively.
On bringing in WR Donaven McCulley into the goal line package…
TA: That was something we wanted to add. My whole thing is I go through, and I don't tell them what to do, but I tell them I want certain guys involved. We're trying to find ways to get him involved more, and I feel like he is a special player.
I think seven [D.J. Matthews Jr.] was a special player. He was a huge part of the spark to get us going. To me those two guys kind of stick out to me to be able to say, hey, they're different physically, and they have got different skill sets.
Definitely want to get him more and more involved. He had another catch, and he has a lot of talent, but he is also learning a new position. But, yeah, to me I can see those are the kind of things we need to be able to do to help us get in the end zone.
Have a great night.
Indiana Student-Athletes
Connor Bazelak | QB | R-Jr.
On what made the difference for the second half…
CB: I don't want to make an excuse about the weather, but the ball was definitely slick in the first half and that plays a part in your confidence out there and really just getting into a rhythm. Getting a sweat going, getting the ball moving with the run game and getting some easy completions is when this offense is good. We just got on a roll and got moving.
On what the conversation was at halftime…
CB: It's hard not to be frustrated, but I think the main message is to just stay the course. That's what I was telling everyone. Just keep playing our football, our style of football, our game and let the big plays come to us. Don't try to force them. I think we did a really good job of not forcing stuff in the second half and just playing our game.
On the impact of getting the running game going…
CB: Yeah, it's awesome. It takes pressure off of me, obviously, in the throw game. The O-line did a great job tonight, Shaun, Josh, Trent, Jaylin, they were all in there at the end. They all did a great job.
AJ Barner | TE | Jr.
On changes in the second half…
AB: I wouldn't say we really made changes, we just had to rally the troops and come out with a better mindset. I really feel like we didn't come lackadaisical either, but obviously when the game started we weren't doing our thing. In the second half, no adjustments were really made, we just had to do our job.
On the locker room at halftime…
AB: It was a little bit disappointing, but I feel like we just, like I said, rallied the troops, and we knew what we had to do. We knew we were the more talented team but props to Idaho because they had some good players too.
On the field conditions…
AB: Any time it was raining like it was, it definitely didn't help. But when it did dry off we were able to open things up a little bit more. But when you play in a conference like this we have to be able to do our thing no matter what.
Aaron Casey| LB | Senior-RS.
On starting off slow and how the team was able to come back..
AC: For us I feel like it was not starting off with the right intensity. We didn't think we would blow them out, but our mindset wasn't right, and it showed in the first half. Luckily, we were able to come back in the second half and go up and get everybody together for a common goal and come back and ball in the second half. So I'm proud of how the team came together like that.
On holding teammates accountable during halftime…
AC: It was not a good environment at halftime. We weren't playing how we wanted to be playing and we all knew we had to change it. We had to change how we were going at it and approaching it and just come together. We just keep saying we need to play like how we know we can play, and ball like we know we can ball.
On teammate, Dasan McCullough's improvement...
AC: He's been growing ever since fall camp, you can tell his game is elevating. And he's still young, so he has a lot
of time to improve but he's been doing a great job.
Donaven McCulley | WR | So.
On his touchdown run…
DM: It definitely felt good, but I really want a receiving touchdown. That's what I really want. I'm glad I got the touchdown at quarterback, but I really want a receiving touchdown."
On how comfortable he is switching from quarterback to receiver…
DM: I feel like I belong. I feel like I'm very comfortable, and that's the best spot for me.
On how the passing game changed from the first half to the second half…
DM: At first I think we were just beating ourselves, playing too fast. The second half, I think we locked in and got our stuff together. Our leaders got on the whole team about it because we shouldn't be down like that at half. No disrespect to Idaho, but we shouldn't be down like that. That's not the team we are, and our leaders made us step up and adjust the whole team, and we came out and won the game.
Shaun Shivers | RB | Sr. +
On his edge in his game…
SS: That's something I've always had since I was a kid. Since I was four years old. That was when I first started playing sports. I always kind of had that edge about me.
On how the run game was played…
SS: That's exactly what we preach it to be. What we practice is exactly what came out there. We spread them out. We knew what they were going to have one guy on the ball, even though that's back and make his guy miss.
On what he saw during his touchdown run…
SS: I saw they had one guy in the back in the bunk. But as soon as the ball hiked, he blitzed. Then I kind of leaned to the right so he thought I was going right, and then I hit the left side and scored.
Jason Eck | Idaho Head Coach
On the touchdown in the fourth after a disastrous third…
JE: The Vandals aren't going to quit. I was happy with how we responded to adversity and kept firing. Give credit to Indiana, they made some good adjustments at halftime. They really came out and did some good things in the third quarter. But, I also think we had some self-inflicted wounds that we got to clean up. We snapped the ball early on the safety, the quarterback wasn't ready for it. We had some other plays where we had blocking errors and defense gave up some big plays. That was uncharacteristic of our defense, that they have done a great job last week and the first quarter. First half of this game didn't give up big plays. I think we got worn down a little bit up front on the D-Line by their O-Line. They had a good O-line. In warmups they looked a lot bigger than us. Proud of the effort, but got some feedback. We have to get a lot better and keep improving.
On QB Gevani McCoy's performance...
JE: I thought he did a good job. He did a better job of getting the ball out on time than he did last week, took less sacks. He took three sacks, but last week he took six. So, that was an improvement there against a good front. I think he continued to battle. I kind of challenged him after the first couple drives. I think he needed to manage the huddle better and have some better leadership. I thought early in the game we had some self-inflicted wounds on offense where we weren't getting the play called correctly, we weren't lining up right. But I like the way he responded after that.
On momentum shifting after halftime...
JE: Things switched. They came back and played better the second half, kicked their butts into gear a little bit, and we have to go with them when they do that. We have to up our game. I thought we could've had a bigger lead at halftime. I thought defensively we played pretty well in the first half. I thought there were some things offensively we could've played better in the first half. Our kickoff team wasn't very good in the first half. We kicked two balls out of bounds. So, you can't miss opportunities against good teams.
#GoIU
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