Tom Allen Reviews Idaho Win, Looks Ahead to Western Kentucky on 'Inside Indiana Football'
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen made his weekly appearance on 'Inside Indiana Football' on Wednesday night at Southern Stone restaurant with play-by-play announcer Don Fischer.
Allen and Fischer walked through Indiana's 35-22 win over Idaho last weekend and previewed the Hoosiers' Week 3 matchup against Western Kentucky (2-0) that will kickoff at Noon ET on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Here are five notable quotes from 'Inside Indiana Football.'
Fischer: Of course nobody wants to take into consideration that it was just pouring down rain, it was just one of those nights. And then a 30-minute delay before the ball game, so you guys are sitting in there for an extra half hour, obviously that had something to do with the start.
Allen: Well, I mean you know those are just excuses because both teams play on the same field and both teams are in the same boat, but it definitely throws off your schedule. There's no doubt about that. But it's good to have that happen so you learn from that and make some adjustments. We joked today, because we go through and we have all this pre-planning and the forecast, and we got a guy that's a meteorologist we use and he was absolutely, completely wrong. He said it was supposed to maybe have a little sprinkle during warmups. That's what they said, a maybe a little sprinkle during warmups, but by the time we kickoff – and I'm like, 'It was a monsoon.' So that all went out the window, but you've got to learn to adapt and we did not handle that very well, obviously, especially offensively. Missed a couple field goals, which we never do, Charles [Campbell] is awesome. It kind of just showed we were out of sync, but fortunately, as I told our guys, it's a 60-minute game, it's two halves and you've got to play both of them from start to finish. Even if you have a great first half, if you don't show up in the second half you'll be very frustrated and disappointed. You got to play four quarters, which we did not. Like I said, the one positive thing was they responded and did some really good things in the second half."
Fischer: Obviously getting that win was important, but you did have a pretty sound halftime talk with these guys, I'm sure.
Allen: Well, the bottom line was it was about just us playing Indiana football. Executing, protecting the ball on offense, executing the calls, finishing drives. We moved the ball down there then we just stalled out and missed field goals. It was animated, there's no doubt about it. I was not happy, but at the same time, you've got to just stinkin' play. You do your job and you do it the best you can, full speed, every snap, and I thought it was more mental than anything. We went back and watched film, there wasn't poor effort, it was just we got to have that high level focus. Even defensively, there were some things we did that gave up way too many big plays that I focused on. They had 180 yards going into the fourth quarter, so it wasn't like they had a lot, but it still wasn't what I expected or wanted to have happen. Some of our best guys just not being 100 percent locked in, and they're good enough to make you pay for that. So to me, that was really the halftime talk was to be locked in and focused and execute and play the game the way it's supposed to be played.
Fischer: Talk about the defensive performance in this game. I know at the end you were not pleased because of the couple of touchdowns Idaho was able to score in the fourth quarter.
Allen: When you go back and watch it, the last touchdown to me made me want to throw up. Just should have been a routine play. Should have been – we were going to get a sack if we just covered him like we were supposed to, but there was just some hesitancy on the part of one of our guys and didn't spin down and take his guy and left too much space. Just frustrating to me because it should have been the opposite result. It happens, so you get a chance to teach off of that. You go back and look, we had some run fits, I think I said this at the press conference on Monday, just the way we do things schematically is not necessarily the traditional way of fitting things, so our new guys on the defensive line and at linebacker I felt like still aren't 100 percent getting those right all the time. We just got to keep working on that, so we'll get that cleaned up, but to me it was better than the week before, but I thought there were three plays all kind of the same exact thing happened each time. We gave up some runs there, but they were still around two yards per carry, which is not good. That is not what you would want as an offense, so I guess I was probably being hypercritical, but at the same time I've got to stand up for what I want it to look like and we didn't live up to that. At the same time, there was progress and I was encouraged and thought the kids played really, really hard and that's a big deal. That's the one variable you completely control, so if you can keep doing that, the tackling will keep getting better each week and we'll get more guys to the ball and improve in that and the run fits will improve. Just got to make sure we do a good job communicating. I thought a couple times it was a little bit not completely laser-tight focused that we have to have. We play a certain way, systematically, where we rely on the guys around us, so we got to make sure we're doing that to get the results you want. That to me was just OK and it could be better."
Fischer: Going into this [Idaho] ballgame, I talked to one player – I'm not going to name the player – he kind of thought that maybe the team as a whole kind of looked past Idaho a little bit.
Allen: Yeah, that kind of ticks me off because on Wednesday, that's what I couldn't talk on Wednesday and Thursday. If I sensed it at all, I pounced on all over it because I was worried about that. You can talk 'til you're blue in the face, but last year's game was just too easy. We got up 35-0 just like that – the blocked punt returned for a touchdown, we got a sack and a fumble that we scored off of. If you look at the stats from a year ago, we didn't have a lot of offensive stats. We had the punt-return touchdown, blocked punt for a touchdown, we had defensive play where we didn't score but we gave them the ball inside the 10-yard line and they scored like the next play. So it was like we were up 35-0 before you could blink. It was just kind of like you can tell them that they're a different team, you can tell them that they've got new players, you can show them on film, but sometimes they just don't stinkin' listen. I don't think they listened very good. I sensed it a little bit on Wednesday and I was all over it, sensed it a little bit on Thursday and I was all over it. It is human nature, I get that, but I do think that I hate it because it's frustrating when that happens because I knew [Idaho] was way better than our guys thought they were. You try to build them us as best you can, but sometimes they just don't believe you. Just being honest."
Fischer: You're going to face a Western Kentucky team that you beat last year 33-31 in a dogfight because they wouldn't give up. They were kind of like that dog that grabs a hold of your pant leg and won't let go. They were a really good football team. They were the best offensive football team in the country last year.
Allen: That's correct. The thing about it was, we played them early last year also, so you only had a couple games on them and they hadn't had a lot of success winning yet, but I knew. You do this long enough you kind of know what it looks like, so getting ready for them I'm like, 'This team's really good now.' Then you go play them and you realize how good this quarterback really was. They led the nation in almost every category on offense. They averaged about 450 yards passing per game, over 100 yards rushing per game, darn near 50 points per game, so that's the system they have. They have a new quarterback and they've got some new players, but they've got the core of their guys that are still back. Really good football team, so it's kind of the opposite of last week with what we talked about with our guys. Our guys were there, they know, they understand how much of a hard fought game it was a year ago, and we were fortunate to get out of there with a win. They fully understand it's a really good football team we're about to play."
Related stories on Indiana football:
- INDIANA WEEK 3 DEPTH CHART: Indiana football (2-0) will host the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (2-0) on Saturday at Noon ET at Memorial Stadium. Here is Indiana's Week 3 depth chart. CLICK HERE
- MEET THE WESTERN KENTUCKY HILLTOPPERS: Indiana football hosts the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in a Week 3 matchup on Saturday at Noon ET at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind. Indiana won last year's game 33-31, and both teams enter this season's contest with a 2-0 record. CLICK HERE
- WKU COACH TYSON HELTON TALKS INDIANA: Western Kentucky is off to a 2-0 start to the season with wins over Austin Peay and Hawaii. After a highly-contested game against Indiana in 2021, Western Kentucky coach Tyson Helton shared his thoughts on the Hoosiers on Monday. CLICK HERE
