VIDEO: Here's What Indiana Offensive Line Coach Darren Hiller Said Friday

Indiana offensive line coach Darren Hiller met with the media on Friday and he talked opening about the progress of tackles Caleb Jones and Matt Bedford, but the battles going on for playing time with the three interior spots.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Longtime Indiana offensive line coach Darren Hiller is always entertaining with the media, and he had a lot of great things to say on Friday about his offensive line and how they are coming together in fall camp.

Here are the highlights, plus the full video of his press conference. Check it out:

On working with new running backs coach Deland McCullough:

Darren Hiller: Whenever you have an opportunity to look at things through different lenses, it’s always great. I’ve never thought I know everything. Coaching the offensive line and the run game, there’s really three types of schemes – there’s zone schemes, gap schemes and man schemes. It just sometimes when you are going through it, and you are installing it and its really not specifically what we are doing offensively; it’s how the defense is attacking us and how can we be better to get our stuff pointed in the right direction in the run game. Having Deland come in and some of the stuff they were doing at [the NFL] level – even when he was at USC and prior to that when he was here at Indiana. It’s awesome because we’ve got a great staff on offense, and we’ve got a lot of different ideas and we’ve all come from different backgrounds. You can go out there and get a playbook [four-inches thick] and have a lot of really fancy plays in it, but if the kids can’t do it, it doesn’t matter. The best way to get it across to our players is to make it easy as possible to be able to adjust to whatever the defense is doing or throwing at us.

On Caleb Jones’ offseason conditioning:

Hiller: It’s been tremendous. He and I have had these conversations since 2017 and I think he finally in January really committed to it. He’s a guy who when he has been in the building has always been great. He always worked – whether it would be in the weight room or on the practice field – it was always just a matter of what was he doing when he was outside of the building and the weight room. He battled that. [His fitness] it’s showing up from a quickness standpoint. He just looks better running, changing direction and all of the movement that he’s doing out there. It just shows up. Now there’s always football things from an offensive lineman perspective that he’s got to get cleaned up and take from the drill work to the team work and all those things. He’s moving a lot better, and I can tell you he looks a lot better. I’m watching the film and you know how it is; when you’re around the guys every single day and you see him on a consistent basis you kind of forget what they used to look like. We were throwing on some film of 2019 and 2020, going back and looking at some things, and it was drastic when you looked out there and you see No. 77 in those two years compared to right now. I look forward to him having a great football season.

On being a better run/blocking offensive line:

Hiller: I just think that we are always trying to run the football. There were times where we did run the football well but there were games that I don’t want to rehash last year because last year is last year. But there were games where we didn’t run the football very well. We are always trying to establish the run game and there’s times that defenses are going to put more dudes in there than we can block and when they do that what we have to do is be able to block the ones that we feel like schematically are more important and if we do hand the ball off to the running back he’s got to make a guy miss or run through a tackle if there’s an extra dude in the box. He’s got to do that and it’s a mentality and it’s got to be a mentality of just because they stacked the box doesn’t mean we have to throw the football. There are answers to that, but we also have to be able to say you know what, we don’t care how many dudes are in there. I think there were sometimes last year during the season that we had to closeout a game and we were able to run the football, generate some first downs in late game situations against heavy boxes and I think we proved that we can do it. But the consistency wasn’t there. It’s just a grind. It’s always getting through the details and being as best as we can in there and being tough enough and strong enough.

Related videos on Indiana football

• INDIANA OFFENSIVE LINEMAN MATT BEDFORD (Aug. 20): Indiana junior Matt Bedford talks about his offseason improvements, especially with his pass blocking and so much more. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA OFFENSIVE LINEMAN CALEB JONES (Aug. 20): Indiana senior Caleb Jones talks about getting his weight under control and playing at a more reasonable weight this season, adding quickness and endurance. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR NICK SHERIDAN (Aug. 19): Indiana offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan talks about making improvements in the running game during fall camp. CLICK HERE

Related stories on Indiana football

• OFFENSIVE LINE SETS THE TONE: Indiana has lofty aspirations this season, and for them to reach their goals, the offensive line is going to have to be better in the run game and keep quarterback Michael Penix Jr. healthy. They're ready to do just that, tackles Caleb Jones and Matt Bedford say. CLICK HERE
• MIKE & MICAH PODCAST: Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and linebacker Micah McFadden, both All-American candidates, are joining the Sports Illustrated Indiana team this fall to take part in a 30-minute podcast every Tuesday during the season. The podcast will be broadcast live from Yogi's every week. CLICK HERE
• RANKING ALLEN'S WINS: Indiana coach Tom Allen has won 24 games at Indiana so far, and some wins have been bigger than others. Which ones have been the most important? HoosiersNow publisher Tom Brew ranks them all, from No. 1 to No. 24, CLICK HERE
• INDIANA SCHEDULE: Here is the complete schedule for Indiana's 2021 football season, with dates, game times and TV where applicable. CLICK HERE