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Finally my time to chime in. I don't believe our defense will be garbage. Will they be a top 25 defense no. But have a significant growth from last year.... Yes. Why... Because our dbs are deep, young athletic and most of all our young guys are experienced and played in tough games. Our LBs are deep. Where we are short is the line that was our biggest hit of the offseason. But I think Hoff, Robinson, green, and McCray given he is healthy/back by big ten is a great core down in the trenches they are strong. And I think barwick gets in and turns heads. We don't have 6'5 DTs that we had with latham. However we have Sykes who was a highly coveted boy who went to Notre dame and he has been making a name for himself. Now onto this diamont argument. Does he have a huge arm. No. Did he in HS yes. What happened idk. Mechanics. Loss of strength somehow. Who knows. However, he has maybe thrown 10 deep balls in his career. He has been thrown into situations in which I believe he wasn't ready for. So let's throw those possibilities into the discussion as well instead of just saying oh he's trash he can't really develop. Yes I wish he was bigger, yes I wish he had more of a touch on his balls. But from what I've seen his short route timing and precision is there. I can hear the argument coming (but you have to be able to throw the deep ball in wilsons offense) yes and no to that point. I believe if diamont is named starter or has to step in if Lagow doesn't workout... I think Wilson has a gameplan to ground and pound.... Short dumps to quick passes 15-25 yards, then let him work with his feet. I don't think Wilson had a vision that would lead us to where we are today and honestly boys over the past couple of years we are RBU. We have depth and some big boys back there. Now back to the QBs. I love the size of Lagow. I like Cameron and what he has shown especially when he threw some zingers and darts in the PSU game (next red rocket) lol. However to the ARE QB situation the arguments are a little blurry because remember boys we had a scrambler back in Mid 2000's who had the hoosiers on a hype train. That man was Kellen Lewis before he got into shenanigans. I also think it's unfair to compare the likes of ARE and Diamont at this level. Yes the kid is cocky, has the Hollywood flair, but he hasn't been given the best scenarios to prove it in my opinion. That's all. I needed to Finally say something. One last thing. I think the koolaid is actually just sitting in... And Tom Allen is the energy and by in that IU has been looking for. He believes there is change coming and the boys they are eating it up and getting takeaways. Not turnovers but takeaways this year. This is the calm before the storm and I think we will be shocked with how we look in the first game. I mean that in a good way. Luce is out.

Can IU’s Tom Allen do what so many could not? By Pete DiPrimio, pdiprimio@news-sentinel.com Monday, August 22, 2016 6:10 PM BLOOMINGTON -- Tom Allen coaches on the move. He strides around Indiana’s football practice fields like a power lifter preparing to hoist a personal best. It’s all about the fire, you see. The defense sets and Allen sets with it. He lines up as if he’s a linebacker. Wait. Now he’s a cornerback. Wait. Now he’s a safety. Passive coaching, it seems, won’t turn the Hoosiers’ perennially bad defense into a difference-making one. In this goal-line practice moment, the No. 1 defense braces to stop the No. 1 offense. Allen revs up as if he will make the play. A red hat wedges low on his forehead. Dark sunglasses cover his eyes, but not his passion. The ball is snapped. Tailback Devine Redding blasts up the middle virtually untouched for a touchdown, and Allen is instant fury. “That’s ridiculous,” he says and punches the air. “I want the 2s out here!” That would be the No. 2 defense. The No. 1 group is kicked to the sidelines to watch, stew and wait for redemption. Allen continues firing verbal shots. He does not sugar coat. If tough love is necessary, if it needs to come at mouthwash range, so be it. “He’s a really intense guy,” linebacker Marcus Oliver says. “He’s a great guy. He will get on you, but he never crosses the line. He doesn’t curse. Not all all. He’s strong in his faith. He’s a motivator. He’s a unique kind of guy. It’s a great opportunity to learn from him.” Adds Allen: “When you do need to get on them, if a young person knows you love him, he’ll listen. If not, he’ll rebel. “Coaching is like parenting. Your personality in parenting comes out in coaching. You still have to get all those core things. They want to be great. They don’t know how to get there. So you keep teaching, coaching, pushing.” A few minutes later, redemption opportunity comes. Linebacker Tegray Scales stuffs the offense and Allen sprints to offer high-five congratulations. “Way to go, Tegray!” Just over a week remains before the Sept. 1 season opener at Florida International and urgency grows. Overturning a generation of bad defense starts with this change-the-culture priority -- mediocrity is unacceptable. “Tom has done a great job of having a standard,” coach Kevin Wilson says, “and he is pushing those guys harder than they have ever been pushed.” Allen pushes himself just as hard. Cornerback Rashard Fant remembers one practice when Allen, standing close to the line of scrimmage, caught a batted pass and ran toward the end zone, caught up in Pick-6 frenzy. “It was amazing to see,” Fant says. “He caught it and took off.” Allen didn’t show Usain Bolt speed, but it wasn’t bad, Fant adds. “It was like 4.7 speed (in the 40-yard dash). It was pretty good for an old timer. He had enough to get to the end zone. Of course, we were blocking for him. We took care of him.” A cynic could say a 46-year-old coach sprinting down the field is begging for an injury, but Allen has no time for cynicism given the challenge he faces. With six previous college stops on his resume, including SEC power Mississippi, he has the background to push all available buttons. “It was me being me,” he says. “It was just a reaction. Afterward I’m like, why did I do that? “It’s like I jumped on a kid the other day and about broke my back because I flipped over the top of him and landed on my back. I’m like, I’m getting a little old for this.” Old or not, such enthusiasm serves a purpose. “I think the players take on my personality,” Allen says. “I know they do. I can’t just talk about it. I’ve got to be able to show them.” Scales wouldn’t want it any other way. “That’s what we need. From a defense that hasn’t had a lot of success, we need something different. We need that energy. “He’s the first one to tell you when you’ve done something wrong and the first one to celebrate when you do something right.” Forget the new 4-2-5 defensive scheme. In the end, it’s about playing with passion, purpose and focus. It’s attention to detail. It’s getting into position to make a play, and then making it, every down. Oh, it’s about one other thing. “If we’re not having fun, we’re making a mistake,” Allen says. “When you were a kid playing football, you were having fun. It’s like I tell them, I promise you if you weren’t having fun, you would have quit a long time ago. Don’t ever forget that.” And so the Hoosiers don’t. “Coach Allen has great passion for the game,” safety Chase Dutra says. “He brings his juice (as in energy) every day. It’s paying off. This defense will be a great defense. We’ll surprise a lot of people.” Surprise is critical given IU has allowed at least 32.8 points a game for six straight seasons. Three times in that stretch, it’s allowed 37.3 points, including last year’s 37.6 disaster that cost defensive coordinator Brian Knorr his job. “Attention to detail is a big deal,” Dutra says. “We have to know our stuff. It’s about knowing the playbook and bringing the juice.” Allen remains the full-throttle example. He says he could never be a watch-from-a-tower coach, and the players feed off of it. “His energy is amazing,” Fant says. “Every time we make a play, he’s out there running and jumping up and down. “Sometimes it’s scary. You think he’s one of the players the way he’s jumping all over with no pads.” Combating the spread offense is a national defensive obsession. Allen’s three years at Mississippi (a spread team) helped prepare him to deal with it. “What I really like is that Coach Allen has been a part of a no-huddle offense and he does not stress or panic about that,” says Wilson, who has had three defensive coordinators in his six seasons. “He knows what to do, how we do it and he wants to do it“ I have been very encouraged.” Encouragement includes better players. The Hoosiers have the talent to make a defensive impact, but it’s more than that, which leads to the ultimate defensive question: What does Allen want from a player? “It’s the ability to play for somebody other than yourself. That’s the key component for me. How do you figure that out? You’ve got to get to know them. I want unselfish guys, guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. That’s what we talk about from the beginning -- loving each other; don’t care who gets the credit; and that it’s not about me. We preach that from Day 1. That’s the No. 1 thing I look for. When you get that, you have a chance to mold him into a player who can fit in. “Obviously you have to have a base level of talent to play at this level. I get that, but if you play hard and can play with a physical component, you’ll have success on defense. It’s not a complicated game. It’s a game of tackling, of getting to the football and making plays in space. Guys who care and who are unselfish, you can get them to do that.” The season’s success depends on it.

I have a class with Freddie and saw him up close and personal. Dude is huge and looks like a freak athlete. Didn't stand next to him put the listed weight of 220 seems low to me

I had to add this pic because the app shows some Kansas stroker.

Purchased my tickets last Thurs on the UofL athletics site along with a lot of other southern IU fans. I think they will be surprised at the IU fans in the UofL sections..lol# Sent from my SPH-L720 using BtownBanners mobile app

We've had some luck with short pgs in recent history :)

Darius is apparently doing very well in preseason, Raiders fans seem convinced he's a lock to make the team, with possibly an even bigger role.

"More of a touch on his balls" hahahahaha Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I'm almost certain he's throwing down in some of his mix tapes, not that that decides if he's a good player. If he can step in and be that floor general, like senior Yogi, he should have plenty of weapons around him.

That's what she said

If I'm not mistaken, Cameron has been getting many of the second string snaps behind Lagow. It's camp, so how the board stacks up in the season may be different, but from what I've read it sounds like Diamont is third string at this point.

At the 0:58 mark is when you can see him throw down Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

On paper I think our defense should be a lot better. The extra experience in the secondary between Andre Brown and Jonathan Crawford alone should be enough to improve that unit significantly, and the reports of Marcelino Ball having a great camp are encouraging. We already know we have a couple good players back there in Chase Dutra and Rashard Fant. On paper the linebackers should be one of the top units in the B1G between Tegray Scales and Marcus Oliver. The real weak point for the defense is at the D-Line right now. Robinson and Gooch are really going to have to step up at the defensive end positions, and Hoff/Green need to at least be respectable on the inside against the run. The depth along the defensive line is also pretty concerning. Add all the units up though and I don't think it's unrealistic to expect some solid improvement from the defense as a whole. Also, I disagree with your point on comparing Zander to Randle El... Not because Zander would ever be that good, but because the Indiana offense as a whole has more talent than when Randle El played. Redding was a 1,000+ yard rusher last season... And Wilson still says Camion Patrick is the best player on the team at RB. The offensive line has been one of the better units in the B1G for the last few years now and that's expected to continue, and our WR core is stacked between Ricky Jones, Simmie Cobbs, and Mitchell Paige with a lot of promising depth behind them as well.

Honestly, this kid is Tyler Ullis 2.0 with more athleticism. I'll take him as he is.

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In honor of the big fella finally arriving on campus, below is a video that offers an inside look at what De'Ron is like beyond the on-court mix tapes. Enjoy:

To close this thread, a pretty neat pic that I'm surprised no one posted. A pic of most of the IU olympic athletes in the village prior to the Games.

Well I served up that one. Well played.

Until I see IU play defense in the B1G slate I will be keeping my fingers crossed with hope while filled with doubt. We have the personnel to be better, but year after year our D is shredded since my college years with Randle El. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners

I kind of have to agree with Old Friend here. If Diamont is our starting QB this won't be as good of a season as we want, QBs have to be able to throw and he can't; it's not just his arm strength but his accuracy as well, last we saw he struggled just to throw on target intermediate passes.

If Zander is our QB, we will not win 6 games. He is a novelty. Can't throw the ball downfield, which means teams can stack safeties. He is okay as a relief pitcher when teams don't prepare for him, but when they do? He's a bad option. And shame on the coaching staff. Sudfeld was a senior a year ago, and that was no secret. To go into this season even discussing Zander as our #1 QB is embarrassing. He IS tough. He IS fast. But we had one of those for 4 years under Cam Cameron, never went to a bowl game with him; and he COULD throw the ball. There's history here, folks. Zander is a million miles short of Antwaan Randle El. It's very easy to think this team is different and Zander will be just fine and the team will overcome his weaknesses. But.....he's not. It won't. To win in the Big Ten, you need quality QB play, which means you need a guy who can throw it; or you need dominance in other areas; and Indiana doesn't have that. Zander as the #1 QB is a horrible idea and an ominous sign for the football team. He is what he is....a small, quick QB with very limited skills. He's not going to be 6'4" with a Big Ten arm. I hate the idea of him under center.

You're a ******* idiot, and since this site isn't managed anymore, shut the **** up.

I doubt if we see much zone. I would imagine seeing it only as a change of pace or to hide several minus defenders. He did mention something about pressuring in the backcourt and pushing the ball more. If JN, CuJo, and DG can play defense I'd like to see us pressure the ball more and play the passing lanes. OG and JMo have great defensive instincts.

That's exactly it. In their opinion it shows the trajectory and trends of a recruitment. I could pretty much have a CB account. Once OVs (or top lists) are set it gets easy to guess, then switch etc. They definitely piggyback off certain people. Bozich CB Wilkes for example means more to me than a random yahoo picking UCLA because Meyer did. Sent from my iPad using BtownBanners