Here's What Tom Allen Said in Final Media Session Prior to Opener Vs. Iowa

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana coach Tom Allen met with the media for the final time ahead of Saturday's season opener at Iowa, and he had a lot to say on Thursday.

This is the third time in Allen's five years that the Hoosiers have started the season with a conference game against the ranked team in the season opener, and they are 1-1, losing to No. 2 Ohio State in 2017 and beating No. 8 Penn State in 2020. Both of those games were at home, though.

Saturday's matchup between No. 17 Indiana and No. 18 Iowa is in Iowa City though, and it's a tough way to start. But it's also helped zero in on the focus throughout fall camp, and Allen said the Hoosiers are ready to go despite having a great deal of respect for their opponent.

"The thing that sticks out to me with them is the soundness of what they do on both sides of the football and special teams,'' Allen said. "They just don't make a lot of mistakes. You have to be very physical, and you don't have much margin for error.''

Here's the best of what Allen had to say on Thursday.

-- On how preparations have gone during the preseason:

Tom Allen: "I feel good about where we are, but the first game always has a lot of unknowns. There are a lot of things that make you nervous and keep you up at night, but the bottom line is that our guys have worked extremely hard and I thought we had a really good week of preparation.

"We just finished up our final on-the-field practice, and we will have walk throughs and team meetings from here until kickoff. We coach until kickoff. That's our philosophy here and our guys have prepared extremely well. We have a lot of guys that have played a lot of football and we are going to rely on that for them to be able to prepare well from now until the game starts on Saturday.''

-- On how healthy the team is entering the opening weekend:

Allen: "We have some guys dinged up. David Ellis is a guy we are still evaluating and probably won't know anything until kickoff. We feel like we have a few more guys in that position and being able to figure some things out for them.

"Overall, we're pretty healthy, and the guys you have asked about in the past, we have talked about those guys [already]. Michael Penix Jr. has continued to have a very good week, so he is scheduled to be the starting quarterback. We talked about it before, Marcelino McCrary-Ball and Thomas [Allen] are back from season-ending injuries, Raheem Layne is the same thing. All of those guys are expected to go.''

-- On the physicality of Tuesday's practice:

Allen: "Tuesday is a very physical practice for us by design. Wednesday is pretty physical, too. We go full pads on Tuesday and shells on Wednesdays. We practice a lot in shells and call it thud tempo, like everybody else does. We really work hard to practice very physically in those two practices, keeping guys up off the ground, do live tackling drills in regard to taking [tackling] dummies and shields and other mechanisms to the ground, but not bodies, unless it is a controlled type of deal.

"Nothing scrimmage-wise has been live on those days, nor will it be moving forward. Very physical though, until you get to Thursday, and we are wearing spiders. It is a lot of hands and proper placement at full speed, that doesn’t change. We have high expectations and very clear standards for how we practice each and every day and what the expectations are. Our guys have bought into that and are doing a great job with that.''

-- On Iowa's physicality:

Allen: "I think that's something they have done a really good job of in the past and that is a tribute to [Iowa], a testament to [the coaching staff] and is a huge part of this football game.

"Yes, there is no question about that [being focused on Iowa being physical up front]. Also, the thing that sticks out to me with them is the soundness of what they do on both sides of the football and special teams. They just don't make a lot of mistakes. You have to be very physical, and you don't have much margin for error.''

-- On what winning this game on the road would do for the program:

Allen: As you've mentioned, we have had two previous Big Ten openers since I have been the head coach here, but they've both been at home. This will be our first road one, but any time you open the season with a conference game, the stakes are high.

"The bottom line is that it is one game, not multiple games. It is one game, but it does have a lot of value. It is a great opportunity for both teams, as is the case for everyone that is playing conference opponents week one. You always want to set the tone and that never changes no matter who you are playing.

"We are focused on one thing and that's playing our best football on Saturday. That's all we can control right now is how we are preparing to do that, and we understand that the opportunity that is presented by this game and who we are playing and the quality of who we are playing and the venue we are playing in. So, it also makes for a very exciting opportunity for our guys. Our guys are very excited about this, but we have to keep coaching to kick off.''

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