Experience, Versatility Aligns for Indiana's Ever-Improving Secondary
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There's a lot more to playing defense at a high level than just knocking someone's block off. The mental side of things is just as important as the physical.
On Indiana's defense, each position group has sort of grown up together in the Tom Allen era. That's especially true in the secondary, where the two-deep at all five positions are filled with guys who already have plenty of game experience.
That means a lot.
Familiarity with the system is one thing, and those years of experience help even more, because now, most of these guys not only know their jobs like the back of their hand, but they also know their colleague's job, because they've either played those positions themselves or learned a lot through years of practice and film work under second-year defensive coordinator Kane Wommack.
"In the past, we'd just be running out there wide-eyed, just trying to do our job without really knowing what we were doing,'' said Bryant Fitzgerald, a 6-foot, 210-pound redshirt junior who was a prep star at Avon High School in suburban Indianapolis. "Now we understand the defense and the things that Coach Wommack wants to call from a schematic standpoint.
"We have a lot of experienced guys here. We're talking constantly, and the growth is like night and day. We're communicating at a rate I've never seen. To see a guy like Tiawan Mullen, he's in his second year, and he's one of the more vocal guys on our defense, and that just shows the confidence that he's playing with.''
Fitzgerald has played safety for most of his career at Indiana. He was voted the Hoosiers' top defensive back in 2018, and played well through most of last year as well at free safety, playing in all 13 games and starting five.
But now, with senior Marcelino Ball out for the year with an ACL injury, Fitzgerald is making the move to the Husky position, a hybrid linebacker/safety in Indiana's 4-2-5 defense. He likes the freedom, likes playing in open space, and likes the idea of being involved in the pass rush a little bit, too.
"I'm just trying to get more in my arsenal,'' he said. "I'll work with the D-Line guys too, getting better on my pass rush. I never really did a lot of that in high school, so it's a learning experience for me, too. But I like playing that spot.''
Devon Matthews, who shared a safety spot with Fitzgerald much of the past two years, also preaches the benefit of experience. He says most of them understand what everyone else is doing these days.
"Experience goes a lot into playing football,'' said Matthews, a Jacksonville native who's one of nearly two dozen Florida natives on the Indiana roster. "Freshman year, when you come in, you're really nervous, not really understanding it. But now, going in two years from now, everybody really understands the defense, really understands the formation. It really helps us out in the long run.''
New safeties coach Jason Jones loves having such an experienced group at his disposal. They put in the work, which he loves, and they can see they are fully invested in making this defense as good as it can be.
"I could tell how focused they are in Zoom meetings when we're watching film,'' Jones said. 'I would ask a question, and (Matthews) would tell me his job, the rover, and he would tell me what the free safety was supposed to be doing, and also the Husky and the two corners. He's knows the responsibility of all five guys on the field. And he works
"You can tell when guys are watching a lot of tape. He'll call me and say 'Hey coach, I'm watching play 16 from practice two days ago and I have a question about this.' That's how you know they're putting the work in on their own away from the office. And you see it on the field, too, because he's playing a lot faster. He's lining up, making all the checks, making all the right reads. It's really starting to show up.''
The Hoosiers have had one scrimmage thus far, and they'll have a second one this Saturday in preparation for the long-awaited Oct. 24 home opener against Penn State. Wommack sees a difference, because they are playing faster, never questioning what they've learned.
"I think, certainly, our athleticism has improved year after year. I think we are more athletic, and we know that athleticism is more decisive now,'' Wommack said. 'It does not matter how fast you can run if you do not know where you are supposed to run to, or you can anticipate.
"For us, the way we teach defense, we spend a lot of time teaching our concepts, then we teach situational philosophy. Third down is played different than base downs, tight red zone versus high red zone, two-minute when they need a field goal versus a two-minute when they need a touchdown, all those things are important. At the end of the day, we shift to offensive recognition and our players have a bigger catalogue of understanding and offensive recognition. They are playing faster, up front. We are excited about where we are from a personal standpoint.''
