BLOOMINGTON, Ind. –––– Just three days shy of a neutral site matchup with Louisville on Saturday (September 16), Indiana head coach Tom Allen caught up with the media for one last briefing in front of the Indiana football program’s trip to Lucas Oil Stadium.
https://iuhoosiers.com/watch?Archive=16426&type=Archive
Below is a partial transcript of the press conference, while video of the media sessions can be found on the right sidebar at IUHoosiers.com.
Tom Allen | Head Coach
On what he has seen from Tayven Jackson this week after being named the starting quarterback…
TA: I think [he has been more relaxed and confident in practice]. There were points in times with both guys that you could see the pressure of it [the quarterback competition] during fall camp kind of getting to them a little bit. I just thing to have that process completed helps you feel more comfortable. Probably more than anything he has appeared comfortable during games.
It’s probably a lot harder on the players than most people realize, so I think it is an important part in maturing and growing as a quarterback: learning how to handle pressure because you are going to have a lot of it applied to you at this position throughout the whole course of a season. Once this decision is made and you get through that and you know this is your role now, for both guys, in a lot of ways. Especially for him, to know that you’re the guy and go lead and go be your best every day in practice.
On Louisville running back Jawhar Jordan…
TA: He’s very important to what they do. He’s a very talented player, especially late here in his career. Very productive finishing up last season and the first two games of this season. Really impressive. Comparison wise, the [TreVeyon Henderson] from Ohio State from a speed perspective, where if he gets a crease, he can take it to the house from wherever they are at on the field. Not everyone can do that. He has really good vision and more power than you would think in a guy his size. [Jordan] is a really good running back, has elite speed and is a guy that we have got to have a great answer for.
On offensive line rotation…
TA: We are still working through that. You want to be able to have eight guys that you feel like you can play in any combination to get those five that you want, and obviously with the nature of the season and how things usually unfold with the physicality of this league. We know we are going to have to play multiple guys base on that each week. I feel like we are growing that group and have more and more guys in the mix. I think you’ll continue to see that. We had several guys that didn’t start and still played 40 snaps last week. That is important for us. I have said it all along, I feel like we have more depth at that position and that is kind of showing up already. We will continue to the that because we have to, once again, be able to finish games strong and part of that is being able to be fresh and keep our guys in a position to be able to play consistently well each and every week.
