My Two Cents: Sense of Urgency is Obvious with Indiana's Football Team

Indiana won eight games a year ago for the first time in 26 years. The pressure is on for an encore, and everyone associated with the Hoosiers' program knows it.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The conundrum is blatantly obvious. In the craziest of football seasons, trying to decide whether to go fast or go slow is difficult. And that's a daily dilemma at Indiana, and everywhere else, for that matter.

It's certainly the most pressing issue on Tom Allen's plate every day as he gets just a few weeks away from playing a college football game in the middle of a pandemic. Almost all of spring football was taken away because of COVID-19, as were all of the players' voluntary summer workouts. That spinning wheel of stops and starts has — once again — landed on start.

In preparation for their Oct. 24 opener against Penn State, the Hoosiers got back to practice last week and on Saturday, they put on full pads for the first time. What did they do? They had a full-bore scrimmage three weeks out from their opener, like they always do.

This time, they had to do it on the first day of padded practices. In years past, they would have been in pads for two weeks before that first scrimmage.

Welcome to 2020, the new normal. A scrimmage on Day 1? It seems almost unimaginable.

"It was only our second day in full pads since the bowl game (against Tennessee on Jan. 2,'' Allen said Monday. "We snuck in one day of full pads during spring ball, and it was our final day that we had. This was our first time since then, so you are trying to get your guys ready, but we reduced the numbers quite a bit. 

"We have tried to speed up the learning process (without hitting). We have done more situations in walk-throughs, situational things in special teams, offense and defense, trying to teach those things to be able to get guys ready to play at a high level, and cover all those potential things that do not always happen in a game and may not even happen in the first game or the first several games, but you never know. I just think you're just trying to balance that whole mindset of getting physically ready and not hitting too much.''

Allen said getting 50 or so reps in the first scrimmage is usually the case, but Saturday inside Memorial Stadium, they kept it to 25-30 reps for the starters and backups alike. And, Allen said, it went surprisingly well.

"In some ways, yes, we are also trying to battle through a normal progression of getting into pads, but I think our tackling was positive. Obviously, you are going against each other, but our goal was to get about 25-30 snaps of live (plays)  for some guys. We are just trying to keep building a sense of the goal next time we have our Saturday scrimmage, with this coming Saturday to double those numbers. 

"And then the next time that we would have a full situation will be our game, so that's definitely a unique situation. You go through and you evaluate it, and I have watched it three times now, and I feel like that for the first time doing some of those things in a long time, it was pretty clean. There were not a lot of false start penalties on the offense, not a lot of penalties in general terms, it was pretty clean execution from my perspective.

Allen said that changing up practice plans during the week to get in more scrimmage-like moments is a must now. They will work on things in full pads during the week, too. They have to. There's just no other choice on this condensed calendar.

'We will go live a couple of days this week, but it will be segmented,'' Allen said. 'It will be more like short-yardage goal-line things. It is kind of hard to do those, even in thud tempo and keeping guys up is tough, whether it is third-and one, third-and-two, on the goal line or whether it is even in midfield, so I can see us doing those live. 

"I do not see us doing a full-bore scrimmage during the middle of the week, we will save that for Saturday. We will have a pretty lengthy one this weekend. That is the plan. We are just trying to be very careful, just really evaluate our guys, know where we are at, know which workload we can handle as we continue to build this thing each and every day.''

That sense of urgency is there because Penn State is the first challenge, and the Nittany Lions are a top-10 team. Allen is fine with that, because they were preparing to open the season with Wisconsin anyway in the first two renditions of the Big Ten schedule.

Still, it's critical to be ready right from the first snap.

"For me, we were supposed to play anyway in the original schedule. We were going to play at Wisconsin in the first game, so from that perspective it is not different.'' Allen said. "We are just trying to manage the calendar with the number of days we've been given here to get ready.''

Relying on experience

 What helps a lot is that Indiana has a lot of returning talent on its roster, on both sides of the ball. Most everyone is on the same page, and this group is great about veterans helping newcomers. They can go fast in the learning process, and no one falls behind.

Indiana's improving defense is in its second year under Kane Wommack, and they're two deep with experienced players at every level, even though early injuries to Marcelino Ball and Raheem Layne are concerning.

And even though this is Nick Sheridan's first year as the offensive coordinator, he's been around a long time. They aren't changing a lot from a year ago, where Kalen DeBoer's offense was one of the best in the Big Ten.

Sheridan and his quarterback, redshirt sophomore Michael Penix Jr., have a great relationship that dates back to early in Penix's high school career in suburban Tampa, Fla. They know each other so well that they can move quickly through abbreviated preseason practices, too. Throw in a lot of returning starters at all the skill positions, and they're going to be fine.

“Our relationship dates back a few years, we have known each other for a long time. That is what makes coaching special, and what makes the game of football special,'' Sherida said.  “Michael, as well as the other quarterbacks, are like family. I have known them for so long. I love those guys, and Michael is certainly included in that group. It has been great.”

Sheridan was the key recruiter in getting Penix to Indiana, and they've known each other well for five years now. He was Penix's quarterbacks coach his freshman year, but last year, when Sheridan was coaching tight ends, they still talked often.

“The relationship is not that much different. We have always had a strong relationship since I have been here.” Said Penix. “Last year, when he moved to tight ends, we still talked a lot. He still knew everything that the quarterbacks had going on, so it has always been a good connection.''

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Allen and several of the players have talked this week about how well practices are going thus far. They're just glad to be back out there on the football field, and all being together again. Don't ever underestimate how difficult it's been for teammates to have to distance themselves from each other during the pandemic.

Now that they're back together, they can see that first game creeping in, finally. It's just 18 days away now, and it gives the Hoosiers that rare opportunity to build on something special after last year's eight-win season.

Indiana tackle Caleb Jones (76) understands the sense of urgency that faces the Hoosiers this year. (Photo courtesy IU Athletics)

They open with Penn State and play Michigan at home two weeks later. The Hoosiers' numbers are horrible against those two — just 1-22 all-time against Penn State and on a 24-game losing streak to Michigan — but they sense they can change that this year.

Sense of urgency? Absolutely. 

"I think a lot of guys on the team know that because this is such a unique situation,'' said Caleb Jones, a second-year starter who's switching over to left tackle this year.  'There has to be a heightened tempo when it comes to being in the weight room, watching film and becoming a better player overall. 

"I like that our team has really taken on that challenge and taken everything that the coaches and strength staff have given us and try to push ourselves to be the best that we can be and prepare for the season in the best way that we know.''