Two Scrimmages In, Indiana Football Finding Its Identity

With two weeks left before the season-opener, Tom Allen likes where his team is at ahead of the trip to Iowa City.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Every college football team is allowed to have two full-contact scrimmages, and Indiana wrapped up its second one last Saturday.

Tom Allen said the offense won the first scrimmage, and the defense won the second one, which is the balance he wanted to see.

"That is what you want, both sides of the football showing the ability to respond and play at a high level," Allen said Monday. "Obviously, when you are going against yourself, one side has to have the upper hand and one side has to not on every given play. Holistically, I was really encouraged by the performance of our defense."

Something Allen has wanted to see from his team during the two scrimmages was what identity the Hoosiers will bring to the 2021 season.

Although Allen didn't want to get too specific for what he believes that is, he thinks that identity is starting to come to fruition.

"I feel better about (where we are at) in regard to that," Allen said. "We have to continue to have the edge that you want in all areas, all three of them. By no means are we (a finished product), we had a good solid scrimmage, but you can see we still have a lot of things to work on."

Even though the Hoosiers have a lot of returning players, since this was a normal offseason unlike last year, Indiana has had a lot more time to install new things and acclimate its new pieces.

"Every team is different, every group of guys you work with, even though we have a lot of guys back and we haven't made massive changes schematically, it is all pretty similar, but everyone has to make adjustments (from year to year)," Allen said. "You want to make sure you feel good about those and feel like they are giving you what you want. You won't know for sure until you play some games, but at the same time you are getting a good feel for where we can hang our hat with this team."

The fifth-year Hoosier head coach thinks both sides of the ball have a chance to elevate where they were a season ago, and he has seen some of that during the scrimmages where Indiana has created game-like situations.

Even in normal practices, Indiana's coaching staff tries to create high-stake plays, putting players in competitions with one another or having the winner of a certain drill come down to a final play in practice. Sometimes, the coaching staff will do things like falsify a penalty call just to extend drives and see how the players respond to adversity.

Allen wants to see intensity and toughness, especially with the heatwave hitting Bloomington this week.

"To me, it is just a toughness that you have to develop and that is part of our identity," Allen said. "I feel like we are getting closer for sure, but we are not in game-week prep yet. Tomorrow's practice is going to be important to build some of these things."

Indiana is going to begin some Iowa prep this week, but that won't ramp up until next week gets underway.

With scrimmages complete, Allen also thinks the depth chart is starting to become more clear. According to Big Ten rules, Indiana can only bring 73 players to the season-opener in Iowa City on Sept. 4.

"Obviously, as you get close to kickoff you have to do the things that you do well and find creative ways to get the ball to the guys on offense that can help you win games," Allen said. "Then, get your guys in position to make plays on defense when they have to make them."

Allen believes the Hoosiers have plenty of options on this year's roster to do just that come kickoff.

Indiana opens the season on Saturday, Sept. 4 against the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City. The game starts at 3:30 p.m. ET, and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. As of Tuesday morning, Iowa is a 3.5-point favorite according to sports gambling website FanDuel.com. The over/under is 46.5 points.

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