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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 1, 2019

Kane Wommack

Bloomington, Indiana

KANE WOMMACK: First I want to say how this job is really fun when you get to spend time with guys like Tom Allen and Kalen DeBoer. Kalen and I spent a bunch of time this summer hanging out at his pool. I don't have a pool, he's got one, so I spent most of my time this summer with him and my boys and enjoyed that time together with our families. Same deal with Tom Allen, just the relationship that we've built over the years in different capacities in different ways. He's one of my best friends in the world. I trust him, and just to be able to do that with those guys is really fun.

Swarm D is ready to go, our Swarm D culture and what we believe in here. I think we're in a really good place. We believe that the responsibility of stopping the offense, whether it be run or pass is placed on all 11 shoulders of the defense, and I think right now anybody that walks out on that field and represents the Swarm D believes that purpose when they walk out there, and I think that's really important.

I love our coaches and players, the guys that I get to work with in the meeting room in Mark Hagen, Brandon Shelby and Kasey Teegardin do a phenomenal job. We've built trust with one another. That trust is earned. It's not just something that happens when you walk in the door. But really excited about just the group that we have and the confidence we have in one another.

As coaches, our responsibility are to capture the thoughts and inspire the actions of our players, and I think we've done that to this point.

Our players, their responsibility to this defense, this swarm defense is we want to create an environment where unique individuals care more about the success of others than they do themselves, and I think when you do that, we all accomplish our goals both individually and collectively. I think we're well on our way to doing those things.

If you review from spring and summer, I think we're ahead of where we are. Very youthful experience. We do have experience, but it is a youthful group. I think that's a good thing because we're going to have those guys for the next few years. That's a very exciting piece, as Tom has built this place for the long haul. I think it puts us ahead for where we want to go in terms of our fall camp installation. We'll get about 90 percent of our installation done in the first five days of practice just because of what our guys have been able to accomplish from the spring and into the summertime, which is pretty exciting for us to be able to get that in, and that way we just rep and rep and rep the things that we're going to do all season long, and those won't change.

In terms of the culture of our defense, we believe in confidence, and we believe in swagger, all right, and we believe in leaning into one another because that's how you handle the adversities that this conference brings week in and week out, and I think we're prepared to do that.

Our fall emphasis, the three things that we always talk about in our defense, we will emphasize takeaways, tackling and effort, along with the fourth one this fall will be communication. We've got to be great communicators out there on that field. I hope when you guys come out to practice you see us, you will be able to hear, it will be loud on the defensive side of the football every single snap, and if not, then that's something you need to ask me about because I'm not holding them accountable for what I said I was going to do, okay.

Tom Allen has made no bones about it that this place, when he took over here three years ago as the defensive coordinator and then head coach that we wanted to be a top-25 defense. We've accomplished a lot of those goals over the last three years. I think we were right outside in total defense, inside the top 25 in 3rd down defense, 1st down defense, tackles for loss and takeaways. Pretty amazing accomplishment, considering what he's been able to do in three years.

But there's still things left out there. We want to be a top-25 scoring defense, and that's what our goal and our ability is. Rushing defense and red zone defense, those are things that have not been accomplished in a number of years here, and that is the goal for us.

And then the last thing defensively, I think overall, we want to change the outcome of close games, and that's what we want to be responsible for. We want to put that on our shoulders. That's a team effort, but we have to do a good job in that regard.

Excited to get going for this year. Questions?

Q. Tom talked about working together at Ole Miss (indiscernible) how much did that kind of prepare you going forward, going from being a position coach to now you're leading an entire defense?
KANE WOMMACK: Yeah, it was a good question because at 26 years old I felt like I had about all the answers and I was ready to go. I think as I reflect back on that, I was ready to a point to be a defensive coordinator at that point. Part of that was just spending time in this system. When you grow up in this system, it doesn't change. You don't go from one defensive system to another. The terminology, all those things are just built into who you become, know what I mean, so that learning curve of always being around this system under my dad, and then you're around good coaches.

I thought the best thing that my father did to graduate assistants is he always treated us like full-time coaches. So my last year at Ole Miss I got to coach a position, I was a full-time guy, I got to game plan. I was heard, know what I mean? And that's what I try to do with our graduate assistants because they are an extension of us in terms of on-field coaches, and they themselves can do the same thing.

Q. In terms of your approach, how aggressive do you want to play defense, including how much do you want to blitz?
KANE WOMMACK: Well, I work for Tom Allen, so I'll play pretty aggressively defensively, or I won't have my job. We've made no bones about it, we are an aggressive, attacking defense. I think you have to be so intentional about creating negative plays for the offense, I'm blanking here on the stat where I got this from, but there was a team that did a study this off-season, it was like, if you create one negative play in a drive, you have a 75 percent chance of holding them to a field goal or less, or getting off the field. You talk about creating one negative play in an entire drive, those odds, we've got to be able to do those things.

At the same time we have to be very intentional about limiting the opponent's big plays. Notice I didn't say eliminating, right, because they're going to hit a 15-yard comeback every now and then when you're an attacking defense because your corners are playing over the top, right. We can't get frustrated with that as players, coaches, fan base. We've got to understand what we're trying to do that every now and then they're going to hit a play. We just can't give up the big plays for touchdowns and create enough negative plays of our own.

Q. How much do you talk to your dad, if at all? You talked about growing up in that system, always kind of carrying it with you to different places you've been, now you're a defensive coordinator in the Big Ten. Is it something where you bounce ideas off him fairly often? Is it something where maybe you want to kind of see things through your own lens?
KANE WOMMACK: Yeah, I talk to my dad a whole lot right now, but mainly it's about fishing, his grandsons and taking care of my house, because those are the things that he cares about right now.

That being said, he will come in fall camp. He'll spend about three or four days with us. He'll give me a full analysis of where he thinks we are from a personnel standpoint and just where we are schematically, which will be really exciting. We'll wait probably a week into camp and then bring him in for about three or four practices there.

During the season, I feel like it's kind of like mother bird that you go and flap your wings and you do your thing. When Tom and I both left to be defensive coordinators, him and I talked a ton in the off-season. We would talk on Thursday and Friday nights, but it's kind of one of those deals that once you get into the grind, you're bunkered down with the people that you're here with, and I feel like we have enough pieces in place here that I just communicate with our guys for the most part during the season.

Q. With better depth at all three levels now, how much does that play into allowing you to be more aggressive with fresher guys and taking that approach that you're going to play a lot of guys to keep everybody fresh?
KANE WOMMACK: Yeah, so that's a -- you've got to be careful in how you manage that, right, because when you play more players, that means that you have to disseminate the reps among those players to get them ready for a season, right. In doing that, you've got to make sure that we're not doing too much so that each player gets the reps that they're actually going to transfer over to game day. So that being said, we want to be multiple and aggressive, but I think we have spent countless hours this off-season making sure that we are simple enough that our players can go execute and yet multiple in the way that we should ourselves to an offense and the way we present ourselves to an offense.

There's a fine line there, but I do think we can take advantage of that in being aggressive, but at the same time you've got to make sure all those reps are being disseminated properly.

Q. Tom talked about not sitting in some of those meetings during the spring. How does that help you take a leadership role?
KANE WOMMACK: Well, I think Tom being a defensive coordinator himself, he knows how important it is to build that camaraderie in a staff, especially when he was the defensive coordinator previously, right, those guys. He's a defensive coordinator and their head coach. So it was important that we felt -- that was something that we talked about, and I totally value what he was able to do is we were able to build that camaraderie and that chemistry in the room without him, okay, because like it or not, when the head coach walks in the door, you just get a little bit tighter, know what I mean. So for us to kind of say, this is what we want to do, and then for me to be able to go to him and say, listen, this is what we're thinking, I want to keep you updated and this and that. It's all about communication at the end of the day. And I thought him and I had great communication, but he also allowed me to build that chemistry with the defensive staff, and that is probably paying off as big as anything going into this season.

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