My Two Cents: How Much is Too Much Physicality During the Week?

In the midst of a special season, it's a real balancing act trying to figure out how physical to make practices during the week in preparation for Saturday games, and Indiana coach Tom Allen is adjusting as he goes.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Tom Allen knew all about that long Indiana losing streak to Michigan. He also knew that his Hoosiers were very capable of ending last Saturday, so he wasn't going to take any chances in preparing for the game.

He knew the key to beating a blueblood like Michigan was to win the battle in the trenches, something that's been very difficult to do through the years. 

So during practice last Wednesday, Allen was all over Indiana's offensive line. He reminded them how poorly they had played the first two weeks, especially in the opener against Penn State. This was a full padded practice, and Allen and his coaching staff continued the turn up the heat. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of prodding and a lot manhood-questioning. The practice got very physical, with a lot of full-on hitting.

It was very, very hard.

"That was a tough week for the offensive line in practice,'' Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said earlier this week. "We pushed the offensive line to the extreme last week because we know the capability that they have. We have a great offensive line here.''

The work paid off, but not without a price. Starting left guard Mike Katic was injured during the practice, and he wasn't able to go in the game against Michigan.

And there's the fine line. It turned that Indiana reaped the benefits of having such a tough, physical practice. They dominated the Wolverines up front. Penix was never sacked and Stevie Scott rushed for 97 yards.

But they did it without Katic. Stanford transfer Dylan Powell started at guard and played great, and the Hoosiers never missed a bit. 

It worked, this time. And when Penix got the game ball in the postgame locker room, he immediately handed it over to "my guys,'' the offensive lineman.

"We pushed them and put the emphasis on them to be physical and that is what they showed when it was game time. They played their tails off and had a great game, so I felt like it was necessary to give them the game ball because I could not have done without them.''

How much is too much?

This is a weird year, of course, and in the Big Ten it's no different. Indiana will be playing nine games in nine weeks. There are no bye weeks, and with a conference-only schedule, there are no easy games, either. Some might be easier to win than others, but every single one of them are tough, physical battles for 60 minutes.

Battling how much energy gets expended — and how many starters get exposed to injury — is the ultimate juggling act. Allen believes you need physical practices to prepare for games, but they've also worked hard at dialing things back a bit, too. 

Sometimes, that can be a no-win situation.

"We had a good week in preparation with them and challenged them and I have been hard on them and calling them out the first couple weeks, especially Week 1,'' Allen said. "I felt like that they strained harder and longer than we have in the past and stayed on their blocks and executed better, and communicated better. 

"We are definitely not where we need to be, but I definitely thought we saw progress. They gave us time to throw the football and then gave us enough creases to be able to allow our backs to be effective and get first downs. They were the players of the game for out offense, the entire offensive line, and that is an awesome thing and our guys respect them for that.''

Darren Hiller is a respected offensive line coach, and he's gotten the most out of that group since he arrived in 2017. He doesn't mind pushing hard either, and his players respond well to that. That tough Wednesday practice was very much to his liking, for his starters, and the scout team, too. 

"The emphasis has been to get everybody to play and practice at a high level. I mean, that is what we have to do,'' he said. "We have to do that to prepare us for Saturdays.''

The players might have been seething a bit during the practice, but they understood, too. It was done with a plan in mind. 

"We knew it would have to be a tougher week,'' left tackle Caleb Jones said. "I think the reason practice was so physical was because the scout team was trying to give us the best look possible. I think that they did a really good job. Most of the offensive lineman were not really happy about it, but it gave us a really good result.''

The challenge is different this week, but not much. Michigan State is always known for its physicality. The Hoosiers know they have to be ready.

"Michigan State has a very, very large defensive front,'' Jones said. "They are not quite as explosive as the guys we just faced in Michigan, but they are very stout, very strong. I think that the big thing will be getting our cleats in the ground and rooting those big bodies up out of there to give Stevie some room to run. I think that we have a really good game plan in place.''

Crazy offseason hasn't helped

Offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan had an aggressive game plan to attack Michigan, but to pull it off, he needed a big game from that offensive line.

He got it. He loved how they responded to everything that was thrown at them all week.

"They are coached well, coaches hard, and they have a willingness to be coached hard. Because of that, it has allowed them to improve,'' Sheridan said. "Certainly, we felt like they played their best game on Saturday. They had a lot of snaps, played with great effort and toughness, but it was not perfect. There are things that we can improve on.

"We need them to continue to do that because we feel that we have an opportunity to have a very good offensive line. We just need to continue to work to prove that there are times where it looks really good, just like other positions, and there are times where we need to get better at it. They have been great and they have allowed us to coach them hard, which we have, and they responded. It has been great.''

Sheridan is quick to remind everyone that the group that might be affected the most by the starts and stops of a football season during a pandemic just might be the offensive line. They need to work in unison, every play, every down, every day.

They haven't had the chance to do much of that all year, so being rusty and getting off to a slow start really isn't all that surprising.

"You have to remember that we were trying to find ways to teach run-blocking schemes while keeping our guards and our tackles six feet apart,'' Sheridan said of their difficult offseason. "It is taking some time. The time on tasks, working together, the communication, the body presence of one another — you just can't replicate that without being all together.

"You cannot play offensive line individually; you have to play an offensive line collectively. Five guys have to be working together and seeing the game the same way. That just takes time and I don't know what other programs circumstances have been, but I just know that our guys are extremely well coached, have a willingness to be coached and a willingness to work, so they have made progress.''

Allen said Thursday that Katic likely will be a game-time decision in that guard rotation with Powell and veteran Mackenzie Nworah, so his injury from practice wasn't serious. You'd hate to see something bad happen in practice, much like it did during bowl preparations last December when starting guard Simon Stepaniak tore and ACL and missed the game.

It's football, physical football, and you do have to be prepared. For the Hoosiers, who are 3-0 ranked No. 10 in the country and doing big things, being at their best on game day is critical.

And so far, so good.