ThompsonHoosier

Some highlights from Fred Glass' press conference today: @ZachOsterman: Apparently all football season ticket holders received mini helmet package with tickets this year. #iufb @ZachOsterman: Glass says IU will give Memorial Stadium tours on the Fridays before games. Behind-the-scenes, field access. #iufb @ZachOsterman: Glass: IU will promote Uber, have a ride-share drop off on game days to help alleviate traffic. #iufb @ZachOsterman: They will have pedicabs too. Free, minus tips. So we know how @BlackKeyCycling will be spending training Saturdays. #iufb @ZachOsterman: Food trucks will now be at games, in the Red Lot and outside Gate E2. #iufb @ZachOsterman: Glass says South End Zone project expected to be started as soon as possible after football season. December, January at latest. #iufb @MikeMillerHT: Glass: "We're trying to be fan friendly." Glass also asking people not to be drunk knuckleheads. @MikeMillerHT: This is part of IU's "Don't Be That Guy" initiative. Fans can text 812-369-MYIU to report those knuckleheads. [Edit} link to a more detailed write up of the press release: http://indiana.247sports.com/Article/Indiana-athletic-director-Fred-Glass-announces-football-gameday--46945608

At first I wasn't too excited about having out bye week be on the third week of the season but now I think it may actually help the team; especially Lagow and the defense. He will get some playing time but he will also have that week off to familiarize more with the receivers the playbook. The defense will also have that week to correct mistakes and become more familiar with the new scheme.

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.

10 DAYS PEOPLE!!! TIME TO GET EXCITED FOR A NEW SEASON! #FOOTBALLSCHOOL

Saw this on twitter and figure I would share. Cool story on TE Austin Dorris' dad and his Hoosier Cruiser. http://www.yourohiovalley.com/story/32772585/hoosiercruiser-set-for-indiana

Jesus who would want to stand in front of Natee running at full speed!

I know that sucks, Coach Johns was just saying he was looking fast and ready to play.

@ZachOsterman: J-Shun Harris tore his other ACL. He will miss the season. #iufb

Just listen to coach Patton in the back, around the 1:40 mark. lol

Let's hope the defense finally turned the corner...but realistically, it's probably a little bit of both, the defense improving and the offense still finding their rhythm.

@BTNDaveRevsine: QB situation tough to read. Diamont's arm looks improved, Lagow shows flashes, Cameron clearly in the hunt. @BTNDaveRevsine: My yearly caveat - don't read much into this stuff - but Lagow w 1's, Zander w 2's in 1st set of team drills @BTNDaveRevsine: The defense has absolutely dominated the first 10 minutes of team drills for Indiana. Seriously

@BTNDaveRevsine: Natee lined up as a QB in a zone read drill. Yes, that's a 280 lb option QB

Gedeon supposedly has a huge leg but struggles with consistency. But you are right, Toth could have a nice punt and then turn around and punt for 20 yds out of bounds.

A cool story on our (likely) punter this season. I can already see coach running punt fakes every other game! http://www.crimsonquarry.com/2016/8/3/12367978/meet-joseph-gedeon-your-new-favorite-indiana-hoosier#comments

Plus I want to show Tommy Stevens how wrong he was when he decommitted from IU just to go play for Franklin. And now he's not even starting for them and is not the favorite one going into camp. Also, I don't like what Franklin (supposedly) did with the rape cases down in Vanderbilt.

If we start 4-0 by somehow beating Mich St. at home then we will likely get some love in the polls! And if we are to beat the Spartans, this would be the year. They lost some key pieces in Connor Cook and Aaron Burbridge as well as some other pieces on defense. And their two games before coming to Bloomington are against Notre Dame and Wisconsin.

Been listening to this Whitney album all summer long. The entire project is awesome.

They are fun and everyone is super chill. I've been a season ticket holder for the last 3 years and usually make it to most of the games or give away the tickets if I can't make it. It's usually just another friend and I, sometimes other friends join us. But if you are coming down, let us know and you can always hang with us. We're both in our mid-twenties and we usually grill out and drink before the games.

I cannot wait for that day! All of my fellow IU alumni friends always laugh when I tell them that the football program is on the rise. Lol I'm hoping I will soon be able to say "I told you so!"

A great start to the 2017 class for sure; can we keep them until signing day? We will see. I think a lot will have to do with how the season goes. If we make another bowl game and possibly upset a team or two (Nebraska? Mich St?), the 4-star talent will follow. If we have a 4 or 5 win season, it will be hard to keep some of the current recruits committed.

13th. verbal commitment in the class and 5th from Indiana. Listed at 6'9 and 320 pounds...another big boy!

Recruiting is picking up and we now have our second OT of the class. Welcome to IU Mr. Jones! @IUCoachWilson: #iufb Opening Up Pre-Season Camp - Team is Prepped & Ready to Roll - One More #BOOM to Welcome the Hoosiers Back 2 BTown - #317 is B1G #GoIU