NOTEBOOK: Jackson’s Playmaking Ability Continues to Impress
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The ceiling remains high. Tayven Jackson is not yet the Indiana quarterback he will become, the guy who will dictate to defenses with his arm and legs.
But he's getting closer.
The 299-yard passing effort against Louisville is an early sign of what’s coming, but you have to go past the statistics to really understand the potential.
Head coach Tom Allen understands. Take, for instance, the redshirt freshman’s ability to rock a defense geared to pressure and disrupt him.
The Cardinals loaded the box to stop the run and force Jackson to win the game. He almost did. He threw for his first career touchdown, completed passes to eight different receivers, and his diving attempt at a tying touchdown late in the game came up inches short.
“Tayven's ability to make reads in the throw game was impressive,” Allen says. “They were trying to make the young quarterback make plays, and he was able to do that. He created several plays out of nothing.”
As a former defensive coordinator, Allen knows how important that is.
“That’s a key quality you're looking for in a quarterback. Can he make something out of nothing? When something breaks down, can he extend the play long enough to get his eyes down the field, which he's able to do, and either beat you with his legs or beat you with his arm?”
Jackson will get another chance to prove he can do that at a high level on Saturday night when IU (1-2) hosts Akron (1-2).
“He’s got to keep growing,” Allen says. “He just needs to play football. The more he plays, the better he's going to get. I believe that.
“We saw some progress. We’ll continue to build off of his strengths, continue to grow and develop him and grow and develop our offense around him.”
Chris Freeman’s successful onside kick to start the second half against Louisville was a big step in the redshirt sophomore’s development, Allen said.
“Those are hard to get. The placement has to be perfect. The spacing is pretty compressed, and there's a little window that we took advantage of, but if the ball doesn't hit just right, sometimes you overthink it and you don't hit it quite hard enough.
“To be able do in that moment, that gives him confidence. There's nothing like doing it in the game. Executing it in that moment in that setting at a critical time was very important.”
IU’s running game remains a work in progress. The Hoosiers managed just 58 yards with a 2.1-yard-per-carry average against Louisville. For the season, they average 114.3 yards per game on a 3.4 yards-per-carry average.
Jaylin Lucas leads with 141 yards and two touchdowns. He averages. 4.9 yards a carry.
“We’ve got to run the football better,” Allen says. “We did not do a good enough job. Now, there's no question that schematically, they are loading the box trying to take it away, and we threw for a lot of yards. That's what you've got to do, but at the end of the day you've got to be able to score more than 14 points.
“The offensive line wasn't consistent enough in its execution. We are going to continue to focus on that.
“We did a good job protecting our quarterback and giving him time to throw. We're making progress, but it's got to continue. It's got to continue to elevate each week.”
A fast start against Akron is a top IU priority, especially after the 21-0 halftime deficit it faced against Louisville.
“Starting fast and starting well is very important,” Allen says. “You don’t want to get in (a situation) that we're a team that starts slow. That's not what you want.
“We've got to get that out of our system and get back to playing good football right out of the gate.
“It goes back to making sure that we are executing at a high level on both sides. I want us to be a team that plays well early, makes good adjustments and finished strong.”
Beyond that, Allen said the inability to play a complete game was disappointing.
“I want to see us execute better. It's not complicated.
“This is a big week to get better. That's what we're going to emphasize -- to prepare at the level that they have to prepare at to be their best.
“It's about executing at a high level of confidence, and playing at the speed I want us to play from the opening quarter.”
IU’s strong second half against Louisville -- it outscored the Cardinals 14-0 and controlled the action most of the final 30 minutes -- was a blueprint for what Allen wants to see all the time.
“I want to see us play with the confidence that we played with in the second half from the get-go.”
IU brought in a lot of new players, especially on defense, from last season. Sometimes such transitions take time to fully develop.
“We've got a lot of new faces,” Allen says. “We have to make sure we are doing a good job of being simple enough to where our guys can play with that confidence from the opening kickoff. That’s the focus for this week.
“Make sure we are simple enough so we can execute. Make sure we are confident in our reads and our keys and our execution of those reads and keys, both offensively and defensively.
“That's my responsibility as a head coach. It gets to that point where we are playing with an edge about us and playing with some confidence and playing with some swagger.”
Akron has lost to Temple 24-21 and to Kentucky 35-3, and has beaten Morgan State 24-21.
The Zips average 42.3 yards rushing a game, and 220 yards passing. They’ve thrown for three touchdowns and four interceptions.
Running back Lorenzo Lingard leads with 78 rushing yards.
Quarterback DJ Irons completes 65.3 percent of his passes for 392 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Quarterback Jeff Undercuffler Jr. completes 75 percent of his passes for 269 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.
“We’ve got an important game against Akron to continue to develop our team, build our team, and get better in all three units,” Allen says.
“It’s an important week for us to lock in and welcome a team that's got a lot of good athletes. It has a lot of guys that are good enough to make it really challenging for us. They play really hard. They will be very good schematically on both sides of the ball.”