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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2019

Tom Allen

Bloomington, Indiana

Michigan - 39, Indiana - 14

TOM ALLEN: Congratulations to Michigan. They're a good football team, they played well. So, disappointed. Got both sides of the football. Didn't play well. Didn't play like I expected us to, and wanted us to, and so that's on me. I'm the head coach and that's my responsibility. So questions.

Q. You guys were averaging, like, right at 33 points a game. You get 14 early and then nothing else. Was it guys going down, the injuries? Was it you guys not executing? What do you attribute it to?
TOM ALLEN: I think a lot of it was their D-line really was dominant, I thought. They gave us a lot of trouble. Didn't allow us to get things the way we wanted to get them done in terms of time to throw. Really very disruptive. And I think that was probably a bigger variable than anything. So I mean guys get injured, other guys got to step up, that's part of it. So I think it was more them than us.

Q. Coach, Patterson had a lot of stuff through the air, a lot of big, long balls, one-on-one coverage on the outside and that. Was it just poor technique? Poor coverage? Poor speed?
TOM ALLEN: We'll go back and watch, but we knew they were going to have, I mentioned it, that was one my concerns was their receivers versus our secondary, just a matchup. We play a fair amount of man and those guys have to win those one-on-ones. We didn't win very many of those and that to me was the biggest frustration was you got to win those. And they're going to win some, but we got to win some, and we did not win enough of those. So there's obviously technique involved. You got to do a great job of bodying guys up and positioning yourself to go get the football. And they got some big guys, the size is a big variable and a lot of speed to go along with that length. So, but I just was not pleased with the way that we competed for those footballs. To me, we got to come up with some of those. We got to get some breakups on some of those key ones. And we mixed in some zone and it hurt us a little bit. But at the same time you're trying to balance to get pressure versus coverage and all that dynamic. So just got to, we attacked and that's what we do and we gave up unfortunately too many big plays that you can't be giving up. And a couple of them really to me were just we didn't execute the scheme properly. So and some of those we got beat one-on-ones. So it probably is a combination of both. They were just better than us tonight, unfortunately.

Q. Injuries-wise, I guess in particular how is Matt Bedford, but then some of the guys that kind of kept having to go out and come back and go out, come back, do you feel they're good?
TOM ALLEN: I really don't know for sure. I think that the two that I don't know about for long-term here for next week is going to be Bedford and Stevie. I don't know. We'll know more tomorrow. But I think the rest of those guys seemed to be okay. The ones that might have gone out at times.

Q. What do you make of the two-point conversion by Harbaugh? And then afterwards, what was that post-game handshake? Is there something going on with you two?
TOM ALLEN: No, no. It was efficient. But it wasn't, I mean, I don't know. There's nothing with he and I. I got a lot of respect for them. But two-point play, we didn't get lined up. Well, I'll take that back. We didn't execute. They had not shown that before but it was just other people do it too. So that one of the backs was suppose to fire and take the quarterback on that but didn't do it. But, no, they're just competing trying to score points and do what they need to do, so it's all good.

Q. Peyton got hit in the second series, came back in in the third series and led you to a touchdown. Was he okay after that?
TOM ALLEN: He got hit pretty hard. But he's a tough old kid now, so I don't think it affected him. If it didn't he never said anything. He's not one to complain. But it was kind of more of a, got hit in the rib area. But he's going to be fine.

Q. In the aftermath of this loss, what does the next week look like for you in terms of making sure your team doesn't --
TOM ALLEN: Yeah, it's huge. When I talked to our players, just very blunt. This is, this was not what we wanted but how are you going to respond? What's your reaction going to be to this setback? The reality is we can't do anything to change what just happened, so we're going to focus completely on the task at hand. And we all understand what's next. We got a chance to get our 8th win of the season and we got a chance to win the bucket back. So those are two huge things that we are going to put a huge premium on and this football team will be ready. So very much, the focus, we're not going to spend a lot of time on this game, to be honest with you. We're going to move forward, move ahead because we know what's coming.

Q. Just kind of more of a future question, but they were able to get pressure with just four guys, you guys had to blitz a lot. How much, I guess, the challenge is to try to get those D-line guys, those difference makers so that you don't have to take those chances that you had to all night?
TOM ALLEN: It's a huge priority, there's no doubt about it. So that to me is the next step for us to be able to rush teams with four and have guys that can win one-on-ones off the edge and create pressure without having to blitz as much. So that's recruiting, it's player development and that's the objective, for sure, and a huge priority in this next class.

Q. The injuries today kind of make the score understandable? Are you on board with your lack of depth and that's what happened out there?
TOM ALLEN: Well, no, I'm not going to -- they beat us. So we just, it's part of it. There's no question that it does take its toll, but you have, we got to get to where we are. I said it very clearly, we're not where we need to be depth-wise. We're getting closer, absolutely, but we're not there yet and so it's about recruiting, player development and continuing to stay the course. It's perseverance and passion towards what we're trying to accomplish here. So I think there's no question that it gets exposed, this time of the year it gets exposed in these types of games, against this type of talent and the caliber of a team that we're playing, so we have to stick to the plan and keep getting better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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