Indiana University Athletics
Quoted: Western Kentucky
9/14/2022 4:00:00 PM | Football
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A third straight home contest awaits the Indiana football program in the form of Western Kentucky. Offensive coordinator Walt Bell and defensive coordinator Chad Wilt, along with selected student-athletes spoke to the media ahead of the Saturday (Sept. 17) meeting inside Memorial Stadium.
Check out Austin Render's one-on-one interviews with Alfred Bryant, Mike Katic, D.J. Matthews Jr. and JH Tevis at the links near the top of this story or at IUHoosiers.com/watch.
Below is a partial transcript of the coordinators press conferences, while video of the full media sessions can be found near the top of this story or at IUHoosiers.com/watch.
Walt Bell | Offensive Coordinator
On Connor Bazelak's performance…
WB: I think the biggest thing especially on game day is no matter what happens, good, bad wrong, right or indifferent, you know as soon as he comes off the field he's always going to come to the phone. Literally the moment he gets off, he's calling before I've even got a chance to breathe for a second. No matter what, good, bad wrong, right or indifferent, wide open guy we miss, something bad happens, something good happens, he's the exact same guy all the time.
There's a million types of leadership. You know somebody like Tom Brady is always yelling and screaming. He's a very animated guy on the sideline and you see guys like Eli Manning who's to himself and I think to his strength he's very even keeled. A mistake doesn't rattle him, or something good doesn't change his demeanor. He's even keel and can handle success and failure which is a huge strength for him.
On the offensive line not giving up sacks early in the season…
WB: I think big picture wise the quarterback has much more to do with pass protection than a lot of people think. I don't necessarily mean setting or resetting protections, danger in protections, changing protections at the highest levels of football. You got 2.85 [seconds] or less to make good decisions. You know it doesn't matter, if you play in the Big Ten or the SEC, or in the NFL. When you get to the highest level of college football you don't have the time that people perceive.
You have about 2.85 to figure it out. You know and we spent a lot of time, every throw. In practice there's a timer on and when they come in and watch the film there's a timer down there on the right and it's going say 2.97, 2.84 or 2.10. So, number one is just understanding the body clock of decision making. Number two is the offensive line has done a tremendous job in the pass protection.
Now, not that we haven't had hurries, not that we haven't had issues, not that we haven't had some offensive line quarterback given pressure. Although, they have done a really nice job, coupled with the fact that Connor has done a really nice job getting the ball out of his hand. I think number three is one of the biggest ills in dealing with a young or college level quarterback is once they get passed 2.85 hanging on the football and taking unnecessary sacks. We won our first game because Connor threw the ball away in that two-minute drive. First down from the 5-yard line, there was an issue, and he gets the ball in the stands which allows us to run a draw on second down which allows us to score on third.
Getting the ball out of your hands and throwing the ball away is a huge part of quarterbacking. He's only had six throw aways. That's a good thing. Of course, we would like that to all be completions, but I think the offensive line has done an awesome job in pass protection and Connor has done a good job getting the ball out of his hands.
On if wet weather makes him adjust play calling…
WB: I think the biggest thing is mentality. We did wet ball Wednesday, CQ and RVA but truly when you go out and have to play and you have take the visors off, there's a rigmarole that you have to go through as a wide out to go pitch and catch well. Even down to the balls really wet and the referees are going change balls every single play and work wet ball mechanics, which is going damage your tempo. There's a lot of differences but I think mentally more than anything else just the comfortability of drive to the catch point and do all the things that you normally do, don't be worried that its wet.
Same things for the quarterback. Mentally there are some things you have to get passed. When you're an RPO team and you're willing to throw the ball around, you have to be smart on how you throw the football and they know that, and so sometimes the box will change in the run game. There definitely is some differences that really inclement weather has. When we played early in the game it was a little bit ugly but after the first 10 minutes or so it got back to normally and we didn't play good. We went in, talked about it came out, and played much better [in the second half].
Chad Wilt | Defensive Coordinator
On JH Tevis and what he has brought to the defense…
CW: Very consistent and that's one of the themes that might come up here as we talk about today is consistency. He's a guy that certainly has came in here and has been the same guy every day. He's fun to be around and brings a great energy to his work.
He's always singing, has a good energy about him. That's one of the fun things to be around him. He's the same guy every day, keeps showing up, and got a great mindset for the work. And, he enjoys the work and doing a great job leading the group and leading the room. He really continues to challenge the guys every day to step up. These are the standards this is how we have to play, and he'll tell you that he needs to challenge himself too. He's been a real joy to be around from his mentality to his approach, the work ethic. He likes working. That's' what you want from all these guys, they like the process they enjoy the process of getting better and he's really at the forefront of that.
On Dasan McCullough's impact through two games…
CW: [I've coached] Very few [guys like Dasan]. Reminds me of Chris Long when he was a freshman at Virginia. Chris ended up having a very long career. Chris was also benefited by his father Howie Long who was an NFL Hall Of Famer, and Dasan benefits from a father who's a coach. He's probably a little further ahead of the learning curve in some ways than some other freshman, but he definitely has a raw skillset that a lot of people don't have.
We talked last week about Dasan has a great mind for the work, like JH Tevis. He's got to go through the process and continue to commit to it. He has a humility to him, and he knows that he needs to work but there's very few that I've been around at a young age that you can see those flashes and glimpses of what they can become. He can become as special as he wants to be.
On what makes Aaron Casey fun to coach…
CW: He's a sponge. Every time you see something or say something he goes "oh yea that makes sense" or "I get that." Or you hit him on something, and he goes "I can do that better. "He responds to coaching. He's coachable. Very simple things. He looks you in the eyes, when you coach Aaron Casey, he looks you in the eyes. You try and talk to him, and he's engaged with you.
When you coach him with those things, he's usually right on it the next time. There's a reason we call it practice, glad we don't play games on Tuesday's but he keeps working on it and preparing on it through the week, keeps attacking it and by Saturday and you've coached him up, he's learning, he's responding, he's growing, he's gaining confidence all throughout the week. Boom, it's Saturday and he goes and makes the play. It's fun to coach kids who are coachable.
Check out Austin Render's one-on-one interviews with Alfred Bryant, Mike Katic, D.J. Matthews Jr. and JH Tevis at the links near the top of this story or at IUHoosiers.com/watch.
Below is a partial transcript of the coordinators press conferences, while video of the full media sessions can be found near the top of this story or at IUHoosiers.com/watch.
Walt Bell | Offensive Coordinator
On Connor Bazelak's performance…
WB: I think the biggest thing especially on game day is no matter what happens, good, bad wrong, right or indifferent, you know as soon as he comes off the field he's always going to come to the phone. Literally the moment he gets off, he's calling before I've even got a chance to breathe for a second. No matter what, good, bad wrong, right or indifferent, wide open guy we miss, something bad happens, something good happens, he's the exact same guy all the time.
There's a million types of leadership. You know somebody like Tom Brady is always yelling and screaming. He's a very animated guy on the sideline and you see guys like Eli Manning who's to himself and I think to his strength he's very even keeled. A mistake doesn't rattle him, or something good doesn't change his demeanor. He's even keel and can handle success and failure which is a huge strength for him.
On the offensive line not giving up sacks early in the season…
WB: I think big picture wise the quarterback has much more to do with pass protection than a lot of people think. I don't necessarily mean setting or resetting protections, danger in protections, changing protections at the highest levels of football. You got 2.85 [seconds] or less to make good decisions. You know it doesn't matter, if you play in the Big Ten or the SEC, or in the NFL. When you get to the highest level of college football you don't have the time that people perceive.
You have about 2.85 to figure it out. You know and we spent a lot of time, every throw. In practice there's a timer on and when they come in and watch the film there's a timer down there on the right and it's going say 2.97, 2.84 or 2.10. So, number one is just understanding the body clock of decision making. Number two is the offensive line has done a tremendous job in the pass protection.
Now, not that we haven't had hurries, not that we haven't had issues, not that we haven't had some offensive line quarterback given pressure. Although, they have done a really nice job, coupled with the fact that Connor has done a really nice job getting the ball out of his hand. I think number three is one of the biggest ills in dealing with a young or college level quarterback is once they get passed 2.85 hanging on the football and taking unnecessary sacks. We won our first game because Connor threw the ball away in that two-minute drive. First down from the 5-yard line, there was an issue, and he gets the ball in the stands which allows us to run a draw on second down which allows us to score on third.
Getting the ball out of your hands and throwing the ball away is a huge part of quarterbacking. He's only had six throw aways. That's a good thing. Of course, we would like that to all be completions, but I think the offensive line has done an awesome job in pass protection and Connor has done a good job getting the ball out of his hands.
On if wet weather makes him adjust play calling…
WB: I think the biggest thing is mentality. We did wet ball Wednesday, CQ and RVA but truly when you go out and have to play and you have take the visors off, there's a rigmarole that you have to go through as a wide out to go pitch and catch well. Even down to the balls really wet and the referees are going change balls every single play and work wet ball mechanics, which is going damage your tempo. There's a lot of differences but I think mentally more than anything else just the comfortability of drive to the catch point and do all the things that you normally do, don't be worried that its wet.
Same things for the quarterback. Mentally there are some things you have to get passed. When you're an RPO team and you're willing to throw the ball around, you have to be smart on how you throw the football and they know that, and so sometimes the box will change in the run game. There definitely is some differences that really inclement weather has. When we played early in the game it was a little bit ugly but after the first 10 minutes or so it got back to normally and we didn't play good. We went in, talked about it came out, and played much better [in the second half].
Chad Wilt | Defensive Coordinator
On JH Tevis and what he has brought to the defense…
CW: Very consistent and that's one of the themes that might come up here as we talk about today is consistency. He's a guy that certainly has came in here and has been the same guy every day. He's fun to be around and brings a great energy to his work.
He's always singing, has a good energy about him. That's one of the fun things to be around him. He's the same guy every day, keeps showing up, and got a great mindset for the work. And, he enjoys the work and doing a great job leading the group and leading the room. He really continues to challenge the guys every day to step up. These are the standards this is how we have to play, and he'll tell you that he needs to challenge himself too. He's been a real joy to be around from his mentality to his approach, the work ethic. He likes working. That's' what you want from all these guys, they like the process they enjoy the process of getting better and he's really at the forefront of that.
On Dasan McCullough's impact through two games…
CW: [I've coached] Very few [guys like Dasan]. Reminds me of Chris Long when he was a freshman at Virginia. Chris ended up having a very long career. Chris was also benefited by his father Howie Long who was an NFL Hall Of Famer, and Dasan benefits from a father who's a coach. He's probably a little further ahead of the learning curve in some ways than some other freshman, but he definitely has a raw skillset that a lot of people don't have.
We talked last week about Dasan has a great mind for the work, like JH Tevis. He's got to go through the process and continue to commit to it. He has a humility to him, and he knows that he needs to work but there's very few that I've been around at a young age that you can see those flashes and glimpses of what they can become. He can become as special as he wants to be.
On what makes Aaron Casey fun to coach…
CW: He's a sponge. Every time you see something or say something he goes "oh yea that makes sense" or "I get that." Or you hit him on something, and he goes "I can do that better. "He responds to coaching. He's coachable. Very simple things. He looks you in the eyes, when you coach Aaron Casey, he looks you in the eyes. You try and talk to him, and he's engaged with you.
When you coach him with those things, he's usually right on it the next time. There's a reason we call it practice, glad we don't play games on Tuesday's but he keeps working on it and preparing on it through the week, keeps attacking it and by Saturday and you've coached him up, he's learning, he's responding, he's growing, he's gaining confidence all throughout the week. Boom, it's Saturday and he goes and makes the play. It's fun to coach kids who are coachable.
Players Mentioned
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