Indiana football: Hoosiers make the most of bye week
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Because of a quirk in the calendar in 2019, most college football teams have two bye weeks this year instead of the usual one. Indiana just had its first one after five games in five weeks, and the timing is perfect.
It's a good time to catch their breath, heal up some bruises and get reinvigorated for what lies ahead.
Actually, what's even nicer is that the second bye week comes on Nov. 9, so it breaks up the season nicely. It puts a nice picture frame around this next four-game stretch — Rutgers at home, Maryland and Nebraska on the road and Northwestern at home — and also placed an enormous amount of emphasis on it, because this stretch likely will define the Hoosiers' season.
"One of the goals (during the bye week) was to get them back mentally and physically refreshed and rested,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said. "We actually practiced a little more today than we usually do on a Monday. I thought it was extremely productive. I just like where we are as a team.
"We mapped it out for our guys and specifically talked about the next four games that fall into this next window before our next bye and what that looks like in terms of just the progression that you go through mentally and physically. We try to be very proactive with our guys and very up front and honest and very accurate in what we see the future holds.
But our emphasis is very clear, and that is that our No. 1 objective is 100 percent focus on Rutgers and 100 percent focus, once we get to know who we have each week, to make sure we're getting better.''
This stretch is very important as Indiana looks to reach their goals of having a winning season and reaching a bowl game. They are heavy favorites against Rutgers — 26 points at the moment — but the other three games will all be toss-ups or close. Putting together a nice winning streak would be something special.
"The schedule is what it is, good or bad. We don't control it, so you just adapt to it and adjust to it,'' Allen said. "But it definitely has a good flow to it. You've got two home games, two away games.
"To me, the whole focus is — and that's the beauty of being able to sit down with your guys and have some mature guys who understand the big picture — it is just one week at a time. There's no doubt, we all see the schedule. Everybody can look at it. But it is about being solely focused on them, Rutgers, and that's it.''
Having time for Allen and his entire coaching to recruit throughout Indiana and the rest of the country was important over the weekend. What was also important last week was having the time to re-evaulaute what they've been doing in all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — and zero in on what needs to be tweaked and improved upon going forward.
Considering Indiana has given up 51 points to Ohio State and 40 to Michigan State in its two Big Ten losses, getting better on defense in critical. There is talent there on that side of the ball, but it's also young talent. Mistakes are going to be made, but they need to get cleaned up as the season goes along.
That's right now.
"You cannot miss (run)-fit things, and that includes tackling. We continue to work on tackling,'' Allen said. "But to me, the run fits and the windows and getting tighter windows, and, to me, (we worked on) kind of just simplifying some things to help us execute. Today it's about execution. So, you go through and you say, OK, why are we not executing in these situations? Well, to me with the group that's still young, you better make sure that the rep base is there to execute those key things at critical times.
"I think it's simplification, in some ways. And to try to create as much carry-over as we can within the system. To me it still goes back to stopping the run and then we talk about situational. We went through and did a study on 2-minute situations. Did a study on third downs and red zone. Those are the areas you're focused on for the bye week for me, and to try to attack how can we be better in those three areas, because to me it's situational football; that's really what it comes down to.
"But I just think that we've got to continue to simplify and execute better in those three key areas. But it also starts with stopping the run. I thought today was very positive and we've just got to keep working on it.''
That same kind of off-week work went on with the offensive line, where the Hoosiers are still reeling from the loss of senior left tackle Coy Crunk. True freshman Matt Bedford actually performed well in his first start at Michigan State, but he still has so much more to learn, and the group as a whole needs to continue to adjust to each other.
"A week to (work on fundamentals) when you don't have the pressure of a game, I thought, was really good for him,'' Allen said of Bedford. "He's going to be tested. And he's going to have to really rise up and study and dive into it and prepare at a high level.
"But he's got a great mentor, and one of Coy's jobs will be that. He's going to be Coach Cronk here real soon. He's got a chance to come back from his surgery and he's got his little scooter now; he's out there with his cast on and everything. He's a team guy. He's a captain. He's a leader of this team. And he just isn't going to be doing it on the field. But he's highly respected and he's going to play a big role in helping Matt Bedford's development.
"I love that about Coy. And he's excited about that. And that's what leaders do. So he's a special guy.''
