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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2016

Kevin Wilson

Bloomington, Indiana

KEVIN WILSON: Happy Thanksgiving week to everybody. Michigan game, last week defensively some guys we thought played well. It was a tough game. Guys really battled. A couple plays, I think they had three plays offensively that got us, the QB scramble and the two runs by the running back. Offensively we had two drives, but other than that was it was tough sledding but our kids really battled and played hard.

Again, you watch the tape, got to find a way to make some more plays, but it was -- appreciate their fight, the confidence they played with. They battled really, really hard.

I think the drive at the end of the game, we had two penalties there. We would have had them I think 3rd and 7 on the late hit. We had a 16-play drive in the fourth quarter that -- the way we managed the end of the third quarter on our one drive, that drive was kind of the difference in what closed it off.

Defensively Nate Hoff played very, very well. Five tackles and three assists, very active. Same with Patrick Dougherty, who had two tackles and four assists. Those guys had one and a half tackles for loss. Tegray Scales, I saw int the game, 13 total tackles, two tackles for loss, Marcelino Ball, statistically his best game as far as his grading out. He's continuing to grow with less error. Only had two tackles and one quarterback hurry. Didn't get a lot of action but really played well, and same with Rashard Fant, who had three tackles. Those two didn't get a lot of work as far as the ball getting away, but very solid all game.

Offensively really had no one up front, tight end, running back, those guys were stressed and challenged all day. The two guys we thought played well were the two outside receivers, Westbrook, who had four catches for 78, and Rick Jones, four for 40. But those guys graded percentile in their performance grades. They did well.

Our special teams, there wasn't a lot of action. Our punt team wasn't very good. I think we had two blocks that led to three points. The defense did a nice job after those of responding, and they only didn't hurt us except for three points.

Kickoff return, didn't get much because they were all outs. Our punt return, our field goal I thought Oakes was really good a couple weeks in a row. Appreciate his efforts and the way he played.

Players of the game, offensively was Westbrook, defensively Nate Hoff. Special teams player was Griffin Oakes, and our attack look Peyton Ramsey. A couple of our other skill guys, Berry and Cann (ph), had three guys offensively, some of our scout team guys are walk-on guys, and then Wes Green and Thomas Henderson were our defensive scouts of the week.

So again, tough battle. Guys played really, really hard, had a good week. Our scouts last week were awesome going into that game. Coach Allen was very, very complimentary of our offensive scouts, and we're playing a team that played multiple tight ends in different personnel settings and things that sometimes you don't see as much, and just very complimentary of those guys. I think it's evident by the way the kids played, it's one thing for those guys to go out and execute the plan and for them to perform well, but also to get the looks. Again, those scout team guys have been really good. We've had some good, strong efforts.

Two weeks ago we had some turnovers that got us. This game here, playing a really good team and a couple minor errors, but again, the guys have battled hard.

We've got another strong test here this week playing a rival that, again, offensively has played very well, and putting up numbers. Number one in the conference in passing, quarterback is making all the throws. David Blough is extremely talented, great arm, quick arm. Yancy, their big receiver, statistically and the plays he makes had 155 against Wisconsin the other day, ran by those guys, and Wisconsin is playing about as good a defense as there is in the country.

You look at their outings, the last few outings, they've had Wisconsin in the first quarter last week 3-0, second quarter got away. Northwestern is 14-10 at half. They've got the lead at Minnesota 28-23. They're tied up with Penn State 17-17 at the half. They have the lead at Nebraska 14-10. So last five games, they've came out and Coach Parker has got those guys playing hard, and they're making some plays on offense, and then you've seen us play enough that we've had turnover issues and we've had the ability to leave points on the board, so we're expecting a great challenge.

We're going to have to have what we told our team our best week. We're off to a good start and we've battled, what is this now, about nine weeks in a row, whatever, 10 weeks in a row without an open date, but we're, again, healthy coming out of the last game, practicing pretty good, playing good, not quite good enough all the time, but we're going to need a good week because any time you play the rival game, end of the year, there's always a lot of juice and energy from both sides. It's going to be a physical game. It's going to be a tough game, and to me like we told our team last night, we're very, very fortunate to have this game and to have a strong, great rival because there's a lot of programs and schools that don't have this chance, so it's a great opportunity to play the game, and with a lot of respect, we look forward to having a good week. We'll need one.

Questions?

Q. I know it's too early to think really big picture, but Coy has pretty much entrenched himself at left tackle. How do you evaluate him deep into the season, how well he's done at a position with that kind of pressure?
KEVIN WILSON: Good question, because he could be significantly better just with fundamentals. You know, he's learned to play at a high level against some of the -- I think the third leading tackle on Purdue's team is their defensive end, and every week when you're going against the guys in the Big Ten bracket in the Big Ten East, you're playing against some stout guys who are going to throw it a lot, and he plays one of those positions where you're on the island. Like I said before, center and guard, you're always helping each other. That tackle has got a lot of one-on-one blocks. Once in a while there's a little tight end help, once in a while there's some guard help, but he's out there exposed a lot. And sometimes the differential in athletic mismatch, Zach is pretty strong. That guy is a little bit quicker, more athletic than me blah, blah, blah.

Coy is a very good athlete. I've been extremely impressed with his just toughness. He's a competitive -- his dad is an old coach here and his mom is an educator, and he's been raised where he's a tough kid. He battles. His fundamentals could be so much better. He's learned how to play. He's kind of a high school linebacker, kind of running around, just a big athlete. He's got a lot of upside on fundamentals, but if he continues to polish with his skill set and get stronger and matures and really learns the craft of being a college tackle, he's got a chance to be another good offensive lineman for us. He's had a great freshman year, and like I say, you don't get a lot of help, and it's sink or swim.

Psychologically, we tell a lot of kids on our team that psychologically as they're going through things, that's a position where psychologically there's a lot going on out there, and for him to handle that as a young kid is pretty neat. Like I say, same deal with A'Shon Riggins playing corner and same thought out there with Marcelino. Those three guys are playing positions where they get on an island, and they've all for freshmen have handled it -- very proud of them. They've handled it very, very strong.

Q. (Indiscernible) better of that area, tough to win when the opponent is starting at their own 38-yard line?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, all of those were into the wind now, and we didn't manage the one right before. We ran the ball so poorly in the third quarter. Well, we had one good run, had a holding penalty on 3rd and 10 and popped for one. The first drive, we ran the ball, took a deep-ball shot, ran it on 3rd and long and Devine made a great little run against the blitz, and we caught them in something that we thought would have a chance, and we got called for a perimeter hold on one of our receivers. But after that, the rest of the half, we didn't run the ball.

You know, we -- I think there's low minutes left in the third quarter and we came out and the first drive we ha a high-percentage throw we thought we could execute because we needed to get a 1st down, and I think punting one more time on a whim was one of the differences in the game, which we didn't want to do, but we thought we had a high-percentage pass that we had hit earlier in the game to Ricky Jones, and we felt pretty confident we could hit it, and we needed -- and we were backed up. We started out, we spent the whole first half, we spent the whole third quarter and we're going into the wind.

So the one thing that helped the punt team is when your offense runs for 55 yards and they run for 220 yards there's the difference in the game because when you're going against the wind you've got to be tough enough to punch it out. So we needed to flip the field position, and we didn't. Quite honestly, we were very fortunate that they didn't get more. I think the one drive on the 1-yard line we had a go ball to Nick Westbrook coming out and flipped it. Our two drives were both long drives into the wind where we scored our 10 points, because we're really lucky, if we didn't make those plays, it could have even snowballed and been worse.

Now, punt team we had two errors where two guys basically just missed an assignment, and we cut a guy clean, and it's not very confusing on who we got; A, B, C, who you got, and we had some guys just make some mental errors trying to help a guy not do their jobs. That was where the punt blocks were, and then punting into the wind, no one was going to kick into that wind. That's why we squib kicked it on our kickoffs, a little bit into the wind.

But the offense was a little bit of the Achilles heel. When you don't run the ball well in late November and in the Big Ten games, it's just hard to have some success. That comes back to the finding a run game.

Q. Your seniors have a chance to win the bucket for the first time. Can you talk about the seniors as a group and what they've meant to this program?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, it's a good group. It's not a lot. I think last week they had 43 seniors up here. I think we've got seven that are playing, and some of these guys -- there's always a fourth-year guy that may not want to play his fifth year. That's an option we give kids. Sometimes it's our thought, you're not playing a lot, sometimes it's their thought. Some of those guys, the wear and tear on your body and the year-round commitment to play some of those positions is pretty gruelsome (sic).

But academically I think we've mid-year graduates, maybe eight mid-year graduates that are graduating in December with our fifth-year guys, so proud of those guys, from Dimitric Camiel, who hasn't played recently, and Ralph Green and Dan Feeney and Wes Rogers, Jacob Bailey, all those guys are mid-year graduates, Mitchell Paige, Ricky Jones, Dawson Fletcher. They're all mid-year graduates, so proud of those guys.

That actually opens up recruiting spaces for mid-year, if you want to put a walk-on on scholarship or bring in mid-year guys. You can't bring in mid-year guys if spaces aren't available, and the only way space becomes available is if a guy graduates. So we've got some of those guys.

It's a good group. I mean, to me it doesn't seem -- they've been such a pleasure to coach for the last couple weeks, it doesn't seem -- the weather has been awesome. Got cold here the last couple, three days, but it hasn't seemed like November. Seems like it's October because it's a good group to coach. You don't feel like you're pulling teeth every day to get them going. So it's a good group, they've set a pretty good standard.

But as far as the game, we go back to it's -- this is this week, and this team and this week, and last year's team had success, where other teams have or haven't, but my thing with these guys, we just come back to this week and the game and the week of preparation, and not to be corny, but that's how we started with them yesterday. It's about this week.

Love them to death. It's a great group of guys that are going to be very, very successful. We've had several strong classes overall of kids that I think are helping us get there. Not where we want to be. I think we've got some guys that will have a chance maybe for NFL opportunities. As a matter of fact, I don't think it'll come -- can I make that comment right now? Okay, we'll have good news about one of our guys here within an hour. We're having an little accolade for one guy that's coming along, so there's some good things happening for guys, so it's a great, great group. Love them, and really we're not melancholy about like it's the end, because to me, I enjoy coaching those guys so much, it's like I just talk about you want the season to continue and maintain the life of working together, and we went out today, and we didn't talk a lot about seniors. We talked about the best Monday we can have and the best prep we can have to have a great game and play well in our game against Purdue on Saturday.

Q. You said you don't want to get melancholy, but Dan, win or lose, is playing his last game here?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, the other guys, too, though.

Q. But you've talked a lot about Dan through his career. You've said he's one of the better players you've ever worked around. How have you seen him grow even in his final season what he's had to go through and what'll it mean to you to see him go out for that last one?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, you want him to play well, and I appreciate, one, him having the confidence to come back. I think in talking to scouts I've dealt, he dealt with an issue there that cost him a couple weeks of the season, but he's still considered very, very high in the comments. Those aren't always the decision makers, it's the scouts that come through. But when I say compare him to this guy and this guy and this guy, they have very high regard for him. I think him playing the tackle spot coming back and playing well shows, again, his durability, his flexibility, and as I say, I've been lucky for 20 plus, 30 years, whatever it is, to have some decent linemen and some guys that had nice pro careers, and his college background and his college pedigree is as strong as any of those guys. He is a tremendous player. He is a better person, and he has all the intangibles that I think it takes to have been a great college player, and I think it sets up for him to have a chance to have a great pro career. We're going to finish this college thing really, really strong if we can.

Q. With Dan playing tackle, I saw Stepaniak got some action --
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah.

Q. And as you said, they can help him there a little bit. Any young guys coming on for you in the line that you see?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, we've got Grayson Stover, Mackenzie Nworah that are being redshirted that we're high on, and Delroy and DaVondre Love, the two big tackles I think are going to be solid for us. I think D-Love is really coming on good.

Stepaniak playing in the last game was pretty encouraging, though. He had a great look in his eye. I mentioned that to Coach Frey. I think he got it there and was having some fun. I think we had him set up and slated, we thought potentially to start, and kind of had a sluggish preseason camp and Jake Bailey being a veteran and Wes Martin and -- we actually at one time looked at Simon at center, and we very much expected him, so I think he's finishing good, and having been here two years, it's kind of good to see. We need him to come through.

He's been pretty solid. Let me think who else here. Of course Wes has been -- Brandon Knight we think is going to be a great player, Coy Cronk we think has got a chance to be a great player. We'll need to recruit and get a little bit more, be two deep like we need to be, but I think we're going to -- those seven, eight out there, and the way we lift with Coach Caton, and I think Coach Frey and Coach Patton's background, and a little bit of my background as a line guy, hopefully we can continue to develop those guys. It's a developmental position. It's a credit to those kids, though. Some good bodies and there's some good DNA at work with just their mindset, the way they approach the process of playing college line. It's a tough job.

Q. You've said that you're not melancholy about this being the end. Have you talked to these guys if you win this week, this isn't the end, that you get another one?
KEVIN WILSON: No, we haven't talked about that. Haven't from -- since we started. We've never had a goal of we've got to be a bowl team. Our goal was to play as good as we can each week, see how we stack up, and statistically there are teams that are going with -- that have the bowl opportunity at five, so I mean, we're not even -- but we need a good week. This is our rival. It's a big week. We've gotten better each week down the stretch. We let a couple slip away. You don't get every bounce and break, and sometimes when you don't, you sit there and point fingers. We blamed our quarterback for picks, and now he's got a couple games of playing pretty good ball.

Our kicker got a little awry. He's got a couple weeks in tough conditions, back on track. We've got several injuries -- this team is battling and this team is overcoming and it's been playing good. All we're talking about, man, we just want to have a fun, good week, and we just -- it's not corny, but to me there's just a way you go through practice. You've got to have talent, and you've got to put together a game plan. You've got to call plays and all that, but there's a way that you go through the week that gets your team ready, and we've been really, really good at that. We've been a rock-solid practice team for a while, and we're trying to etch that into being a better game performance team, and we need to just have a great week and go out and play as well as we can and see where that stacks up, and that's kind of all it is.

I think sometimes, too, we get melancholy. I think sometimes guys have regrets. The way these guys practice and go about it, I don't think there's a lot of regrets. You're kind of sitting there, you see people sometimes at funerals wailing and all that stuff, and I made a comment about a finish, how strong they were at dealing with something. I think our team is pretty much at peace with itself because I think it's pretty strong because I think they respect -- I know as coaches we respect them, and I think they respect themselves and the way they go about their business, I think we're at a different point where we are in analyzing ourselves.

You sure would like to have had a few more W's, but you sit there and look at it, it is what it is. Those mistakes or that play made it good or made it not good, but again, we go into this week, like I say, we're working as hard as we can to have another positive week. I know today's practice, it was a good day out there. We need to have a great week.

Q. The opportunity to do something, win four straight bucket games, which has only been done once, I don't know if you talked about that or not, but how significant would that be?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, that'll -- that's a story that you guys will talk -- all we talked about was this team and this week because that's not this team's -- somebody this week is going to earn that bucket, this team or the rival. And that's all we talk about, like that bucket is last year's. That's last year's. Now it's this year. You've recruited, you have developed, you have practiced, you have played your season, and now you're into this game week, and now you have this game week and you go play this game. You go about and see if you can do what it takes to earn it. That's all we talk about.

Q. Whatever contributed to Griffin getting into that funk a little bit mid-season, what do you think as you talk about he's getting better the last couple weeks, what do you think has helped get him out of it, I guess?
KEVIN WILSON: I don't know. I mean, ask him. I know from a coaching standpoint we've been pretty confident that we know how good his leg is. I know he's dealt with a little bit of a quad, little muscle pull sometimes, and you're missing kicks, you want to kick more, and the more you kick, maybe the weaker it becomes. There's a fine balance there, a fine line. We didn't do a lot of kicking. We did go back with Mitchell, the holder. I just tried to be a little bit more consistent with where the spot was. It's a credit to him. He's the only one that can get himself out of it. He's got to battle through it, and short-term he has.

You know, Golf World back there, had a great line and I've never forgot a long time ago from Crenshaw that golf is a game you never own, you just rent it from time to time. I think that about kicking. You never own it. It's just the next kick, and you're fighting, and it's fleeting, and it's like it went away, and it's a credit to some of these guys, they stand out there -- I was thinking the other day, it's kind of funny you sit here and look and you watch some of the media deals, and we've been a part of it on the good side and the bad side. But where they take a college kid and kind of mock him on the plays of the week and kind of laugh at a kid, that's a college kid, like come on, man, that's just a kid out there playing ball, and that ball takes funny bounces. You know, and just -- I was just thinking about that the other day. I was going through it -- not personally because it bothered me about any of our guys, but you're just sitting there and you've got all these college kids and all of a sudden we're ridiculing a guy for missing a slam dunk and air balling this, just dropping the ball before he scored. At the same time, it's still some kids.

You know, like I say, you never own sports, and those are a bunch of good kids. I think it's a credit to Griff to get where he is now and be a sign of maturity to see if he can keep it, keep it locked in, because it's hard to do.

Q. You guys got about 14 or so commits. I know big bodies, linemen were a priority early on. From now until signing day, what kind of positions or priorities do you have to finish off the class?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, one, it'll be interesting because as you go through this season, exactly what do our final numbers end up being. We have a small senior class but we always use the walk-on scholarships because those are kind of one year and those guys earn them back. What are our exact numbers? Do we get to 20, 21, 22? Do you have guys that decide to -- is anybody going to look at the NFL? We'll next week talk to kids and we'll go through the process of if anybody wants to, to get their grade, we'll visit with their families and give them a chance to make their decisions.

You'll have some fourth-year guys that say, hey, I think maybe I want to graduate. We've got a couple guys that have been dealing with injuries. We've had -- like this past year was Isaac Griffith or a year before it was Ralston Evans. We've had Dom Booth, guys that couldn't play anymore. So what is your final scholarship numbers. We don't know, but down the stretch we need a quarterback, and we're working hard at that. We need a couple receivers with what's gone on. I think defensively, we'd still take another D-lineman. I think we'd take an offensive tackle possibly. We've got two tight ends, maybe a running back if we find the right one, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a corner or safety in the mix. We do need two linebackers in the class. We've got one but we need two more.

And at the same time, I don't know what you've got because recruiting, unless it's a mid-year kid, will start Thursday after the convention, January, I think it's the 12th, and then it's hang on until February 1, and it's rock and roll, because there will be a lot of -- with coaching changes and coordinator changes and things and out of the blue guys come out of the woodwork. Right now recruiting has gone solid, but we need to hang on, and we need to finish strong, and we expect to do so.

Q. Ricky Jones and Mitchell Paige's last game; they've given you a lot of intangibles more than just their play on the field.
KEVIN WILSON: Well, they've both been really good special teams players. Ricky was recognized, he had a couple tackles on the kickoff cover team again. Mitchell is back there as our return guy and our hold guy. But where they've really been is when they talk to our team, the way they talk about their preparation and the way they play and then they go out and put it on tape. Those kids play very, very hard. They practice very, very hard, and it's a joy to watch. Like last week, Jacob Bailey was on a scramble block, and he was on his hands and feet, the old kind of bear crawl thing, going 10 yards fighting and scratching on a Friday practice when it was light, because it was a senior knowing he needed to go hard and get ready for this game. So when you have the visuals of Dan Feeney, and I've always talked about Devine Redding being a good practice player. Mitchell Paige and Ricky Jones are two of our best practice players. They're two of our best game players, and they're verbally two of our best leaders, not only because they're nice with their verbal skills, but they back it up with their actions. They're awesome academically. They're both set to graduate. They're going to be successful. They've been great Hoosiers, and I know they both talk about wanting to finish strong, and they've played well down the stretch. It will be nice to see how they finish here down the stretch.

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