Indiana Safety Phillip Dunnam's Interception was No Surprise: 'He Does That Every Day'
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — No one was surprised when Indiana safety Phillip Dunnam intercepted Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord on Saturday.
Well, that's not entirely true. Hoosier fans inside Memorial Stadium certainly reacted with raucous excitement, and McCord was probably surprised to see Dunnam caught his pass instead of his intended receiver.
But on the IU sideline? No. No one was caught off guard when the ball was intercepted by No. 6 in crimson. It's what he did throughout fall camp practices.
"He just has a great feel. He made the exact same play in practice," said Indiana coach Tom Allen about Dunnam. "It's amazing. You play the way you practice, and just reinforce that, be able to reaffirm to each player, hey, this is why it matters how you do things every day."
No play gave Indiana more life than Dunnam's interception. The Buckeyes were threatening to go up 14-0 in the second quarter when they went for it on that 4th down. The Hoosier offense was struggling, and another score from Ohio State likely would have triggered a full-on rout.
Instead, the sophomore safety shot across the middle of the field for the takeaway. He denied Ohio State a chance at seven points, and his interception led to Indiana's only score of the day, a 43-yard Chris Freeman field goal. Dunnam swung the game by 10 points with that one play, and prevented what ended up being a 23-3 defeat from looking far worse.
All offseason, both Allen and new defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri stressed the need for the Indiana defense to force more takeaways in 2023 than it did in 2022. Interceptions were the bread and butter of the 2020 defense that finished its season with 17 picks in just eight games.
For both Allen and Guerrieri, Dunnam's interception on Saturday was payoff for the hard work he and the defense put in this offseason to become an interception-heavy unit once more.
"That play that he made, I could show you 50 times already on the practice field," Guerrieri said. "I tell our guys all the time, if you do it in practice, you're going to earn the opportunity to go play meaningful snaps, and whatever you do in practice is going to show up in the game."
Coaches often say good plays in games reflect what has already happened in practice. It helps them relay that message to their players, constantly emphasizing the importance of all the reps that don't happen on the field, so that the reps on the field look even better.
But the legend of Dunnam as the Indiana defense's main man for takeaways isn't just coach-speak. Ask any other contributor to the IU defense from Saturday's game about Dunnam's pick, and they essentially paraphrase the same things that Allen and Guerrieri said.
"He's been our leading interception guy in practices," linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar said. "So it's almost like ... not like it's expected, but it was [just] like, 'Oh, there's Phil.'"
"He's doing it in practice. It just makes sense that it's going to happen in the game."
Even the other defensive backs on the Hoosiers' roster, who themselves want to be the interception guy in order to reach the team's internal goal of forcing three turnovers each game, all report the same.
There's no guy as good at takeaways as Phillip Dunnam.
"The person y'all seen Saturday with the interception — he does that every day," fellow Indiana safety Louis Moore said. "Phillip is a ball hawk. He's young still, now he's a sophomore, he played as a true freshman. He's got a lot of talent. He's maturing more, and as he matures more, y'all are going to see him have a bigger role than what he has now."
Fans and media alike were pleasantly surprised with how the Indiana defense held up against a vaunted Ohio State offense on Saturday. Sure, some plays could have been better, but by and large, the defense gave the Hoosiers the chance to compete if the offense could have strung anything together.
A large part of that chance was created by Dunnam and his big interception. Indiana coaches all offseason wanted new players to step up as playmakers on this defense, and he answered that call on Saturday.
"[Phillip] is one of our most talented defensive players," Allen said. "He's still young. He did play for us last year as a true freshman in a limited role. But he was a guy we knew we needed to have him take the next step."
One game into the 2023 season, it sure seems like Dunnam is taking that next step.
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