What Tayven Jackson Said After Indiana's 29-27 Win Against Akron

Indiana quarterback Tayven Jackson spoke to media following the Hoosiers' 29-27, quadruple-overtime win over Akron. Here's everything he had to say.

Daniel Olinger | Sep 24, 2023

What Tayven Jackson Said After Indiana's 29-27 Win Against Akron /

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Quarterback Tayven Jackson was one of just many Indiana Hoosiers who did not have their best night on Saturday.

Coach Tom Allen and his team still won, but the victory required some wild turns of good fortune, and four stress inducing overtimes. Indiana beat Akron 29-27, but no would blame any Hoosier fans for treating tonight's result like it was a loss.

Here's everything Jackson had to say after his performance tonight, where he completed just 11-of-26 passes for 190 yards, one touchdown and an interception:

On the end of regulation and overtime

Jackson: "You know I had never been in that situation before, so it's new. But our coaching staff did a phenomenal job of keeping us calm so we can go out there and execute."

On the struggles of the offense

Jackson: "We got to execute better in practice. We play a Big Ten team next week, and what we did out there today is not going to cut it. So we got to be better on Sunday and Monday, and the rest of the week."

On what can improve for himself and the offense

Jackson: "For me, it's seeing signals and being better at reading the defense. I got rushed a little bit, and I was trying to force things, and that's never good. But as a team, we just need to have better focus."

On how comfortable he is with two-point plays

Jackson: "We practice them Thursday and Friday every week. So we were really comfortable with what we called out there today, and I feel like we executed at a high level."

On the overtime play where he missed Jaylin Lucas

Jackson: "He's not my read. It's 1-2-3, and then get out of there, so I've never looked at Jaylin ever [while] running that play in practice. So, I know he's butt naked [open on that play], but it's not my read."

On drops from his receivers

Jackson: "They were on me. That drop that Donny (McCulley) had, that was one me. I put it at the knees, and I should have put it higher for him to catch that ball easy. All the other drops were on me, they weren't perfect throws. Unless they're absolutely perfect throws, then we can talk about it, but it was on me."

On what was said at halftime

Jackson: "We had to get momentum. In the locker room, coach [Walt] Bell came up and talked to us as a whole offense and said, 'Hey, we're good. We got to execute better.' We needed to have a little bit more moxie and swagger."

On the game-winning pass to Dequece Carter

"I saw him wide open, and I almost just wanted to shovel the ball to him. I see a lot of times where people just throw it, and they drop it. So I tried to do my best to give him a good look, and he did the rest and caught it, and he did a good job of getting open too."

On the lesson the team will take from this game

Jackson: "I think we can take the lack of focus from this game. If you don't focus, and you don't really dive into the details during the week, no matter who the opponent is, you can never look over an opponent. We can do a better job of that."

On how he can be a team leader as a younger player

Jackson: "I have a lot of great components around me. Coach Bell, he's going to do a great job getting the guys ready for next week. But what I can bring is leadership vocally in practice, bringing energy, bringing high level energy and moxie. That's what I'm going to try to focus on this week, is just making the energy level high during practice."

On the mood in the locker room

Jackson: "It's not a great win, but a win is a win. We can mourn on it tomorrow, but celebrate it today, because we went out there and we won a football game."