Jaylin Williams Believes Indiana's Secondary Can Reach Next Level

Indiana leads the nation with 16 interceptions this season, but the Hoosiers still feel like they have room to improve on the back end.

Dylan Wallace | Dec 1, 2020

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — If there's one thing that holds true on this Indiana football team, it's that no one, from the coaches to the players, is ever satisfied.

If they reach a milestone for the first time in program history or accomplish something that hasn't been done in 30-plus years, they celebrate it in the moment, then file it away and move on to bigger and better goals.

It's the mindset Tom Allen has instilled in the program, and a perfect example of it is Indiana's secondary.

The Hoosiers lead the nation this season in interceptions with 16 of them. That's nearly three interceptions per game this season.

The vision coverage defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has them playing has really helped the secondary come away with so many picks.

"Vision coverage has been a big thing for us," Jaylin Williams said. "I feel like in the secondary, there's a lot of athletes, we got a lot of speed on the field, so the vision coverages give us a chance to read the quarterback, see where he's going.

"The past few weeks, there's been a lot of one-read quarterbacks, so we've been able to just base our decision off their shoulders and just move. It's been going good for us."

Not to mention the secondary has also performed extremely well when it comes to stopping the run and rushing the quarterback.

When looking at Williams, Tiawan Mullen, Reese Taylor and Jamar Johnson, those four have combined for 5.5 sacks and 13 tackles-for-loss this season.

"I am pleased with the production we are having in the back end," Wommack said.

But when it comes to the interceptions, there has been one flaw.

For the last two weeks, Indiana has given it away on a takeaway.

Against Ohio State, Johnson picked off Justin Fields, and while he was trying to return it for a touchdown, he fumbled the ball and gave it right back to the Buckeyes.

The same thing happened a week later with Williams, who fumbled the ball back to Maryland after picking off Taulia Tagovailoa.

"There's a fine line there, certainly, but two is way too many," Wommack said. "Those things are critical for us, and we have to do a better job with ball security."

On Tuesday in practice, Indiana's secondary took the offense's ball security drills instead of doing their takeaway circuit.

"The last two weeks we have not been able to capitalize," Williams said. "That's on us, that's on me. We gotta be accountable for that. We're gonna do better because we're gonna get more, so we just gotta get better."

There's the confidence from Williams, knowing the defense is going to come up with more takeaways.

Wommack talked on Monday about how all three levels of the defense need to keep getting 1% better every day.

With as well as Indiana's secondary is playing, Williams believes there's another level they can reach, especially because they've yet to score any points themselves this season.

"Yeah, I think there is. We have yet to take a pick back to the crib, pick six," Williams said. "And I feel like as a secondary, for me personally and I think I'm speaking for the whole secondary, I think that's something that we want to do."

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