Hoosier Roundtable Podcast: 'When All the Pieces are Put Together, We Can Be a Really Good Football Team'

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In Episode 2 of the Hoosier Roundtable Podcast, tight end AJ Barner and defensive back Jaylin Williams join HoosiersNow.com publisher and host Tom Brew to break down the Hoosiers' rainy win over Idaho and preview the upcoming matchup versus Western Kentucky.

Read a brief summary of what was said in the podcast, or scroll down to watch the entire 22-minute podcast.

— On how the Hoosiers handled the rain delay

Williams: "Honestly, we didn't handle it too well. We could've came out a lot more focused than what we did, but we were just trying to calm the storm, and we knew we just had to make some adjustments when that second half came because we did not play to our standard at all the first half. Especially me.

Barner: "Two weeks in a row with night games, it was a little bit difficult. At the end of the day, there's no excuses for it. We came out kind of flat and not like we should've, and we did not play well at all in the first half."

—On what went wrong in the first half

Barner: "For example on one of our drives, we got stopped at the goal line. That can't happen. We got to get a push up front, and we got to get those yards. We had some pre-snap penalties that killed drives. We started the game with a false start. We had an alignment issue when we were in the red zone, and we got a first down, and that play got called back. Just little things like that when we get into these bigger games, we can't have those issues."

—On the locker room discussions at the half

Williams: "What was said in the second half is we just need to lock in. We just need to focus more and do what we know we can do and what we came out there to do in the first place, and we shouldn't have came out like that regardless.

"We were just giving them (Idaho) confidence in those first two quarters so we know they were going to come out swinging even harder, and it's crazy because we weren't even getting started yet."

Barner: "It was embarrassing too, because that's a team we should handle pretty easily. We have respect for them, and they have good coaches and good players, but I feel like just at halftime, it wasn't necessarily screaming and yelling just because we all knew we needed to make changes.

"We talk about controlled rage. We don't really want to come out and be super jacked up and pissed off in the second half, and I feel like we knew what we needed to do."

—On Barner's touchdown

Barner: "It felt good to get the ball down the seam a bit. It was kind of the first shot of the season I've had down the field, so I'm just looking forward to having more of those opportunities in the future.

"Our defense picked us up too. Our third quarter was a really good quarter of football. We probably could have scored on every possession in the second half."

—On being 2-0

Williams: "Yeah, those are wins we can continue to build on because in all facets of the game, we were not at our best for both of those, so we're blessed to come out and be 2-0."

—On Western Kentucky

Williams: "It's just always being alert and always staying focused knowing how fast they can go just staying hydrated and staying in shape and being ready for their pace.

"It's all mental with this team because they try to get you tired and try to get going at the end of the game with their pace."

Barner: "I'm just really confident in our defense's ability, and we respect their offense greatly. We know how great of an offseason they've had, and they had the best offense in the country last year and have a lot of good players on that side of the ball, so I feel like iron sharpens iron

—On playing at noon on Saturday

Williams: "We're a morning practice team, so for us noon is honestly perfect. As far as the 8 o'clock games, the meetings sort of get pushed back, so now there's no more waiting around. It's kind of like, eat, meet and go straight to it, which is kind of like practicing early in the morning. Me personally, I love noon games.

Hoosier Roundtable Podcast: 'When All the Pieces are Put Together, We Can Be a Really Good Football Team'

Hoosier Roundtable Episode 2

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