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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2016

Kevin Wilson

Bloomington, Indiana

COACH WILSON: As game championship performances guys that played on offense -- Mitchell Paige, outstanding game, nine catches, 101 yards, had some strong effort, but we didn't think that performance was quite up to speed. But Coy Cronk and Brandon Knight up front played hard. Need to play better. Wes Martin as well.

Danny Friend did have a critical holding call. I thought Devine battled. Had a clean up and protection issue he had. Zander came in with some spunk. Mitchell is the only one we recognized with the championship level play.

Defensively several guys: Our front was really good. Our second team has got to pick it up a little bit. But Dougherty was very strong. Ralph Green very productive. Nate Hoff and Greg Gooch, those four were recognized with championship performances. Marcus Oliver at linebacker, and then our three safeties, with Crawford, Marcelino Ball and Chase Dutra.

Had some good work in the kick game. The sky punt that Godsil downed led to some point production after the block by Dutra. Tegray Scales with couple of tackles. And Mitchell Paige. So we did really well in the punt game.

Our punt return team accounted for nine points potentially with the blocked safety and the good return set up a short field. The sky punt that we downed led to points. That was good to get. Kickoff cover, Donavan Hale coming on, looking good, growing as player. And Chris Covington coming along good. It's good to see.

Players of the game, offensively it was Mitchell Paige. And defensively, John Crawford, very productive, one interception, pass breakups, very good.

Special teams player, Chase Dutra, been that a couple times, doing well playing, splitting time at safety as a veteran but doing great in the special team.

Zander Diamont, Alex Rodriguez and Taysir Mack were offensive scouts. And Kenny Arnold defensive scout. Those guys get recognized a lot. Zander played some quarterback in the game for us but basically last two weeks has been our scout team guy, running around. Probably get a lot of the same look this week with Northwestern's quarterback. So he's doing great, it's great to see. He's been one of our best teammates.

Offensively, issues again -- score zone opportunities we keep missing, a pick six -- we've lost two games where we loss by less than a touchdown -- we have a pick six in two of the three losses. Went three-and-out or three and a field goal after turnovers, didn't take advantage of defensive turnover play.

And really just the lack of competitive plays. The really only one-on-one real good competitive play was Ricky Jones on the go ball right before our last touchdown. So we're making some plays. We need more competitive plays, whether it be competitive blitz pickup, a shot, a catch a run. Same thing defensively. Really playing well but, again, a chance to make a competitive play when the game is on the line, it's gotta pick up.

Defensively we gave up the big plays. Some of them maybe misfortunate but two big plays. Long drive at the end, 14 play drive. Didn't have really long drive since the first quarter. I think they had 210 yards offense going into the fourth quarter. And really played well after the first quarter. I think second and third quarter we really D'ed them up well. They had that one long play, but then they come off of that with the fourth quarter long drive. They had ten points in the fourth quarter.

Again Coach Allen will talk about in his opinion, just critical execution in crunch time. And we just have a few busts, not as clean as we need to be. Couple things that have been there, game on the line just need to be a little bit sharper.

Good challenge this week. Again good opponent the last week. But another good one this week, Northwestern.

Tailback leads the conference in rushing, young man we recruited very hard. Very, very proven player. Very good runner, had 180-some yards in 34 carries against Michigan State. Last week their wide receiver, Austin Carr, leads the Big Ten in receiving.

They've got the number one runner, number one receiver. He's playing outstanding. He's first guy since Teddy Johnson to score five touchdowns in a row in five straight games. That's back on the 2000 team. I was there. It's a hot team. This team is playing really good offense the last couple of weeks -- 38 on the road at Iowa and 54 at Michigan State doesn't happen a whole lot. It's good football.

Quarterback Clayton Thorson won ten games last year as a redshirt freshman. You can see him growing and settling in. Can move around with his feet, really throwing it clean, running the ball. The last couple of games over 400 yards, holding the opponent down. But Clayton's throwing for couple -- putting 500 yards on Michigan State and 54 points is the most ever in Michigan State stadium. So playing good.

Again they've won at Iowa, at Michigan State and they beat Duke. And we know, having played all those teams, how hard those victories are because those are teams that we've struggled against.

They're 2-1 in the Big Ten, in Big Ten West. They have a chance to continue to move forward there. Defensively have been very solid for years under Coach Hankwitz. Pat Fitzgerald himself is a former great defensive player. They put together a team very well. Don't give up the big play, really good linebacker, outstanding safety, big in the defensive line, big and strong. So good defense.

Had a 95-yard kickoff return last game, 47-yard punt return against Iowa. Good in the kicking game. As a matter of fact, I believe, after the Iowa game they gave up some returns and looking at the videotape it looked like they had complete new punt team and complete new kickoff cover team. Play a lot of their defensive starters last week in the win at Michigan State.

We know the team well. We've got a lot of respect for those guys. Know the school. So for coach, Coach Watson was there with Coach Barnett, myself and Coach Johns and Coach Patton followed that crowd, so we know the school, know their coaches, a lot of dear friends, a lot of people we love and respect up there. It's a great program. A program that came a long way. It's going to be a tough road win. Something we don't have a lot of here, and Big Ten wins we don't have a lot of. So it's going to be a tough challenge.

Coming off a good stretch of games. We're going to need a better week to have a chance to go play well against this team because they're playing good.

Off to a good start. Came in yesterday, made our corrections. Had a good start here today but we'll need a good week playing a noon kick, 11 Central time up there. So good challenge. But ready to keep moving forward in the Big Ten play. Disappointed to be 1-2. Ready to keep moving forward.

Q. Few offensive line guys there talked about last week's performance, played hard but maybe execution wasn't always there. Is it a matter not so much as effort as cleaning up?
COACH WILSON: Really the offense is just a lack of not being as clean a team. I think you've got three receivers in the top 12 in the conference.

Running backs, I think sixth now rushing. Quarterback second. So you've got some guys that are individual being productive, but it's playing as a group and that's what we're talking about, is being together as a team.

And I think individually we've actually had some individuals on defense that haven't been bad, that haven't played together as a team. They're playing better team defense, playing collectively as a group. I think their offense is a little fragmented right now. Not by design. I think it starts with me and our coaches to get that corrected.

And to get those guys centered up and get lasered back in. So there's a lot of things to work with. We've had a few little issues with some bumps and bruises and guys that can't go. But everybody has that.

Guys gotta come in and play. And again you just look at the numbers do not correlate the points. So that's play calling. That's also executing the play that's called as a group. And, like I say, in these last two games Northwestern I think has ten sacks against Iowa and Michigan State.

I think they've had seven turnovers in their three victories that they've created. And so our ability as an offense, play as a group, to eliminate the negative play which has played I think in our three losses we have nine turnovers.

And we have 11 for the season, I believe. So there's things -- it's not very secretive of what wins. You're not going to be perfect. But we need to be better. And like I say, we've got some -- those young tackles played hard.

Wes Martin played hard. And we've got some seniors playing. I don't know if Feeney goes this week. He's doing more each every day. We'll see if Dan gets back.

Ian Thomas played his best at tight end last week. That position always helps the line. Ian coming on helping Danny will help us with some tight end play. But, again, to me our offense is just a little -- there's no egos or selfishness. We're just a little out of whack. And we're talking about tightening it up and you've got to play as one unit.

Right now we've got a lot of individual talent. Just gets a little out of synch. We're just misfiring. We'll see if we can clean it up.

We've also played some really good defenses. FYI. Saw Wake Forest held Florida State 17-6 in Tallahassee. Played some pretty good defenses. You've got to give credit to those guys.

We keep attacking it. We'll keep pointing thumbs at what we can correct. But we've been challenged. Northwestern is really good. We'll be challenged hard this week.

Q. Some linemen in particular, I don't know if (indiscernible) their boys, or what it might be, because all of a sudden they're playing a lot more, they're kind of regular first team guys some of the injuries they had?
COACH WILSON: They need to what?

Q. I don't know, find their voice or confidence or maybe --
COACH WILSON: I mean, to me, you watch Coy Cronk play. He's out there playing against -- small school high school kid playing high end ball, and he's not giving up. He's battling now.

So I mean, like I say, we're just -- you're never that good when you're good. You're never that bad when you're bad. We're just a little bit off.

And there's a lot of things in place to work with. And we'll see if we can, like I say, collectively get them centered up and focused up and get attacking right.

But, again, when you're making those plays, guys blocking. When you're throwing bubble passes -- we had a bubble pass the other day, one of those critical fourth downs. We think on second down we had a receiver just sit there, not block it. Got us in the third and two or three, when it should have been a first down.

When you play as a group, we had a pick because one of our receivers didn't think the guy was going to go out. He kind of slowed down, muddied the water. That was the pick six. He was thinking too much instead of playing fast.

I think the group's pressing a little bit. And we're just talking about there's some individual -- when you don't have players to work with, you've got problems.

And we've got some players. We've just got to clean it up. We're going to work hard, like I say, to correct what's correctible. Bottom line to me is just getting our guys, it's cleaning up some play calling, making sure that we know what we're doing. A little bit more sound understanding.

So we can play harder. We're playing hard we just gotta play better.

Q. Northwestern struggled offensively early in the season. Now they've picked it up. What's the key to that in particular, is it just that they're getting better quarterback play?
COACH WILSON: The line's playing better. I think they've been patient. They've got the running game going with the running game.

The Carr kid come over. Receivers have been awesome. Couple of receivers. That young freshman from in-state here, his dad played here, Skowronek, good player from the Fort Wayne area.

So they collectively, like us, they weather their storms. They were a little out of whack. But I think they went in and coached what they needed to coach, cleaned it up, played really, really well the last few weeks.

I think they're playing good team ball. The team is complementing the offense. They're getting sacks. Getting turnovers. Not giving up plays. Played really well against Nebraska. It was a 24-13 game.

In their last four games they got three victories and a close loss to a really good team. So they've weathered their storm offensively. And they played really well the last two weeks, especially the last two road games, really well on the road at Iowa and Michigan State. Good victories.

Q. How would you evaluate Rich, just the way the job he's done?
COACH WILSON: He's doing I think well. Again, the one pick the other day, he sees what's going on and tries to back shoulder one. Really the receivers gotta space out. I'd still like for him to continue to be more confident, stronger. He's gaining on it.

He's had good practices. He's practiced well, working at it hard. We've got a few more turnovers than we'd like to have. But there's not a lot of times where -- he missed the last one high as protection is breaking. We've got to clean up protection.

You can throw it much better when your run game is going. The last couple of three weeks we've had some tough sledding, running the ball for four weeks. That being said, you're throwing behind chains. And you're getting long yardages. That skews the numbers a little bit.

Q. Couple minutes ago you said something about cleaning up play calling. Are plays being called, or just communication of the calls?
COACH WILSON: No, plays being called. Again sometimes because of what we're doing, you can always, I think, maybe get more offense than you need and just hard getting rhythm, hard practicing it. How many times you've done it. You know what to do but does the kid know what to do.

Does he know what to do with all the formations you have, all the coverages? Like in Rich's situation, all the coverages you're dealing with, or Coy Cronk and Brandon Knight, first-time starters at tackles. All the blitz looks and edge pressures.

And by the time you put all those variables together, they don't get a lot of the same looks over and over and over.

So if you simplify it you get too easy. If you want to get cute and coach too much, you can complicate it for your kids.

And there's a balance that we've got to get where we're keeping the defense off guard and not just run/pass, but there's tendencies you have in formations and down and distances. But as you try to balance yourself, do your kids know what they're doing?

So to me we've just tried to look at what do you need this week and what are we good at, what's Rich good at, but we also just don't want to be bland in what we're doing.

Q. (Indiscernible) is dealing with a little bit of a leg issue and had kind of limited range. Just curious why he was still kicking off as well?
COACH WILSON: Well, we had an issue with one kicker. And so he's the best one. And he had a couple of money kicks at the end into the wind when the game's on the line.

In fact, one of them popped out at about the 27, he pinned the guy down on the 2-yard line, all the way in the corner the way we like it. Those are huge kicks. The 45-yarder (indiscernible).

I think he overkicked a couple weeks ago as he was trying to work through his issues and kind of irritated his leg. And we've tried to modify some of his practices. I think we're, what, eight of 12 in field goals, two out of three? So we've been a little bit off.

And we were close to being in range a couple times. Just felt we wanted to go for it and didn't. No guarantee we would've made the kick. But he really came out of the game I think feeling better.

This will be an interesting game for him. It's the only game this year we've got on the grass. We're so much used to turf.

He's been on the grass kicking for several weeks getting ready for it. Sometimes you can make that a little bit more of a mental case than you need to be. But he came out good. He's got a good look -- looks a little more like himself. We'll see if we can keep him going.

Q. Zander this weekend, how much of that was preplanned, how much was it kind of something you guys felt like you needed to introduce in-game?
COACH WILSON: We talked about in some running situations to have him ready to go and practice it. And it just presented itself, and worked a couple, and we run it a few times.

We also threw it. Overshot a play action post where he needed to squeeze it. Protection was breaking down. As a matter of fact, that running back missed, after the play fake, a backer.

But he overshot his shot to Mitchell. I think he hit several bubble passes. I think he threw the ball seven times. He's not our wildcat guy, but he's a guy that can run a little. And we thought in some of those situations it would help.

It was kind of -- we didn't say, hey, we're doing it here. It was just if we thought we needed it, it was ready to go. And he came in and did well.

Q. Right at the top of the league right now -- Tegray Scales is right at the top of the league in tackles. How much of that is the 4.25? Or how much of it is him becoming all-conference level?
COACH WILSON: I'd say both. Go ahead. Is there anything else?

Q. No. Just his fourth straight game with double digits in tackles.
COACH WILSON: Coach Inge, too, would probably say wish it was less. Means you get less plays. Kind of like when our kicker is kicking all the field goals last year, you wish we were scoring more touchdowns.

I think they'd want those tackles to be fewer. Because you're on the field less. Getting more stops. And the offense is keeping the ball and keeping our defense off the field.

But I'd say one is he's definitely grown. He's in his third year. But I think also it's a part of the structure of where I think both he, our Mike backer, and our couple safeties, Crawford and Marcelino Ball, they're always going to be a focal point of where balls get bounced to them.

And so credit to -- it's a little bit of the schemes, a little bit of the nature of the position. Linebackers and safeties always have a lot of hits.

But that whole crowd, except for Marcelino and A'Shon being freshmen, talented. The whole group in general has grown, matured. Crawford is more steady and more self-assured and confident. Tony Fields and Dutra are gaining on it.

We're getting good play out of Fant. And Marcus has always been rock solid. Tegray has been the best of them. That's a credit to him. Credit to the scheme.

I think it's also a credit to Coach Allen and holding the standard and pushing him. I think Tom and Bill would say they would want him to do better, too.

We kind of share with our defense, much like we shared with our offense a year ago: If you think you're doing good, it's not good enough. Because you've gotta do what it takes to win. And you're doing better. We see it. We're proud of it. But we need that stop at the end of the game as well as you're doing.

Because you consider like, we never -- offense never blamed the defense. The defense is not going to blame this offense.

You've gotta to do what it takes to win. I think that's the mantra and the chemistry of the team we're trying to get.

We're doing good. We just want everything to keep getting better. The offense has a lot of things to clean up. The defense feels the same way. And it's good to see.

Q. With the red zone struggles, is there a thought -- with the red zone struggles, any thought of getting the tight end more involved?
COACH WILSON: With Fuchs being injured, takes a little bit out with some of the passing you had. Ian Thomas really played his best game.

He missed the bulk of summer getting his grades straight. So he's kind of now no different than years ago when Steven Houston started and Timmy Bennett started; they missed the summer. They show up. Takes about until October to get you ready, need a couple of couple of months. Missed kind of June and July. Ian came on. Helps.

Dorris has been a little inconsistent and so -- and Danny does well. He's been a bit more of a big block guy. Used him. There's some of that. No matter what you do, they can always put one more.

I would say as much as anything we talk about the competitive plays. And when you're getting in scoring zone a lot of times it's one-on-one, competitive play. You've got to make it. Gotta make more, whether it be one tight end, two tight ends, no tight ends. Run or pass, we've got to make competitive plays to score.

Q. Seems like he's been getting maybe progressively more work. And we saw Camion draw pass interference this weekend. Is he starting to kind of get that sharpness, not necessarily the help, but maybe gain speed?
COACH WILSON: You know at the same time he's coming off an ACL that was operated on April the 14th. So he's six months. And what's today? What's today? The 17th? So he's six months and three days off of ACL surgery. Typically they clear you, start jogging at six months. So he's kind of -- he's one of the few medical guys we had ahead of schedule and coming back good.

So he's kind of like -- just he's talented kid. Still self-confidence. It's physical strength. He's gaining on it. Had a good go today. Had a few glitches he had to clean up. He's gaining on it. We have to keep bringing -- I was impressed the way Donavan Hale played last week in kick cover, starting to really come on and play fast, not be so timid and tentative.

And as a young player that will help him be a better receiver. He had a nice catch. Ran it out of bounds. Thornton had a bubble pass. We gotta keep all those guys coming along. Camion is doing good. And now most guys would still not even be practicing yet.

So he's way ahead of schedule. And it's impressive to tell you the truth. Credit to him and the medical guys there.

Q. Northwestern has the most passing yards per game in the conference. Is that an area that you maybe look to exploit or are you still -- would you prefer to establish the balance?
COACH WILSON: If we can have balance, it's always easier. And they like our other opponents recently, you know, they're very good at linebacker. They're very stout up front. Safeties and backer fits are extra hats. That's hard.

So if you are just going to come out, wing it, get one, that's the nature of what they do. They want to get you one-dimensional. And you can say that they're last in those stats, but they're 2-1 playing a pretty good conference schedule today.

I mean, Nebraska at home and at Iowa and at Michigan State. So part of it is their formula. And for us, our offense has always been best when there's a run game. And their offense up there has gotten going on because they've gotten their run game going.

With that now they're a little bit more complete animal. So it's going to be hard. We've got to find a way to find it. And we'll work hard it will be a challenge. It will the next week. Really good defenses, really good teams make it hard to run and really good teams can still find a way to get it running.

Q. Dimitric, any feel for whether you'd be able to get him back late in the season?
COACH WILSON: I think most of those guys would be at best bowl and from there you just look -- it's a long time off.

With Fuchs and Simmie and him, all those injuries are -- I don't think we'll know that until we've -- we have to worry about this week. Those are weeks away we've talked to him he's got his plan about where he gets to. We'll see if things materialize.

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