INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 10, 2022

Rod Carey

Press Conference

ROD CAREY: Hi. How are you guys, girls, if we have any in here?

Real quick, I'll just say a couple things, then I'll take any question that you want.

The last time I was in this room up here, I've been here, now this is my second time, there's only one other time I was here, and that was for Coach Mallory's funeral. That brings back some heavy heart. Certainly puts me back in that state of mind.

As well the situation that has come about, why I'm standing here in front of you guys, I have a real heavy heart about for our O-line players and for Coach Hiller.

There isn't anything easy about what happened. We know the profession. We understand the profession. But those are real relationships and those are real people with a family that is fantastic in Coach Hiller, and a man who is fantastic. I think the world of Coach Hiller.

Yeah, I got a little bit of a heavy heart today. Then you guys decided to do this up here today, so that even made it worse (smiling). That's where we're at.

But, okay, with that we'll open it up for questions. Go ahead and fire away.

Q. Outside of obviously this building, what has it been like being back in Bloomington? What impact do you think you can make on this O-line?

ROD CAREY: Question one, what has it been like being back in Bloomington. Surreal. I've been in this profession a long time, from the time I got done playing here. I went and coached right away in high school. My journey started in coaching.

Unfortunately a lot of different events that were going on down here with alumni, things I couldn't come to because I was a little busy at the time.

A lot has changed. There are some things I certainly recognize and some things I certainly don't. It's been a real surreal experience with the town.

Say the second question again?

Q. The impact you can have on the O-line.

ROD CAREY: I don't know, to be dead honest with you. I don't know. We're in the middle of a season. This isn't a wave your magic wand and all of a sudden everything is better.

I certainly am not a miracle worker as far as trying to get production out. There isn't time. We got to play Maryland in five. But I know this: I'm going to try because Coach Allen asked me to try.

Let me say this, too. Maybe saying more than I should, but I'm saying it anyways. If it wasn't for Coach Allen, this university, I wouldn't have done this because this is a hard situation. I'm not saying because of anything other than because it's a hard situation. But he asked, so I'm going to do it, I'm going to try.

The kids were great today. Yesterday was extremely hard on those kids. I tried to get out of the way. Then today we got business to do. So they were good. I was pretty happy with day one for what it is.

Q. What is your approach? Fundamentals, saying we're not going to reinvent the wheel, let's try to make sure we're doing the basic things well?

ROD CAREY: Yeah, that's the base of it, right? There's no time to change a scheme or do things. There are maybe things we can do in setup to help scheme, which we certainly will do that, get that done.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the setup before from a naked eye. But I know me coming in here, I got to be me. So fundamentals will be the big thing. The change in practice tempo will just be me. Not that there wasn't tempo before or anything bad before. I got to be me. So there are going to be some differences from that side of it.

Q. What was your job like as quality control on defense? How drastic of a change is today from two days ago?

ROD CAREY: Yeah, okay, let's go backwards. Drastic change. And the quality control, when Coach Allen called, Tom called, I asked him, What was your vision?

He goes, I don't really know.

We just kind of worked through it together. I really enjoyed what I was doing. I was on the defense. I was learning a lot. Quite frankly one of my fears was I was learning more than I was giving, but I was certainly giving an offensive perspective to the defensive guys. They seemed to like it. So I was really enjoying that with that whole thing.

No, now you're stepping into a position coach. Certainly haven't been a position coach in a long time. But being a head coach for the last 10 years, you're around it so you know how to step back into that role.

So we're doing that, so it's a big difference.

Q. Maybe even stepping back from offensive line, looking at coaching, what is your approach to coaching and teaching the game?

ROD CAREY: Yeah, good question.

You're a teacher. That's what you got to be. You got to teach the game of football. The good thing is that our guys have a great understanding of football. Really have done a good job in identification and targets.

Some of the execution hasn't been at the highest level that we all want it at. But that's part of teaching to. How do you teach execution? That's repetition. That's where it crosses over into coaching.

To play offensive line, it's about resistance and repetition. That's about as easy as you can put it in general terms. It's big men trying to move other big men all the time. That's what we're trying to do.

Q. You obviously played here. Do you have any favorite memories from being here? You said the only reason you're doing this is because it's Indiana, because Tom Allen asked you. Why does this university mean so much to you?

ROD CAREY: I have a lot of favorite memories. Probably none of them are appropriate for this conversation, okay (smiling)? I'm worried about all you guys putting your hands over your ears, especially Don back there (laughter).

Yeah, a ton. Obviously the pat answer is all the relationships. Being back here, there were some guys I haven't talked to in 30 years. It's like we picked up where we left off. A lot of guys I kept in contact with through the course of the years. It's the relationships and also the time spent, the things we did.

What was the second part? Why is it so special to me?

Q. Yes.

ROD CAREY: I mean, when you pour your heart and soul into a place, the whole reason I'm in coaching is because of Coach Mallory and his coaches. They did for me what I'm trying to do for other people.

When you come back to the place where that started, because this is a hard profession, it's gotten harder. I'm not complaining about it, I'm telling you what it is. But we do it for that love.

When you come back to a place where it started, it means something. This is a special place. Do things a little different around here, and that's all right. If it ain't bad... Different is just different. Make sense?

Q. Your three years as a starter at center were influenced by George Belu. How much of that influence did you take with you? Do you still practice today with George and Coach Mallory?

ROD CAREY: Yeah, like I told the guys, I said we're going to be on the sled every day. What do you think I did when I played? I was on the sled every day.

Yeah, obviously parts of the game have changed as the game has changed. Some of the technical aspects of it. But the fundamentals are certainly the same. A lot of those things that I did I'm doing now.

I've kept in contact with Coach Belu through the years. Haven't talked to him for a little bit now. Coach Stripling started out being my only coach before I went over there. Had Coach Uzelac for a year. Then back to Coach Belu. Certainly all three of them really shaped me. All the coaches did.

I remember as a freshman. Joe Novak was a defensive coordinator. I didn't think he even knew my name. Listen, wasn't anything soft about any of those guys. Came up, gave me a shot in the ribs, said, Let's get going. Talked to me about 30 seconds. Made a difference certainly.

Q. You seem extremely candid and very relationship oriented.

ROD CAREY: That's pretty deep, man, for right away (smiling).

Q. When it comes to the guys you're coaching with, the guys that you're going to be coaching, how important is it to establish a working and trusting relationship?

ROD CAREY: I mean, it's everything. There ain't nothing else, but it's everything. There's no substitution than time. I haven't had any time with these guys. I've been on the defensive side. Quite candidly in my role I wasn't around a bunch of players. We got to do both. We got to get ready to play and we got to get to know each other. So we're we go.

Q. (Question regarding the importance of assistants.)

ROD CAREY: Are you asking or telling me I have the same mindset (smiling)?

Q. Asking.

ROD CAREY: Yeah, obviously. I think everyone has a job to do, and you go do your job. We all believe in Coach Allen. Quite frankly, getting to know him has been one of the pleasures of my coaching career because we got all different types of characters in this coaching profession. He's as genuine as they come, man. It's been a joy.

So, yeah, if I can help him, I'm going to help him.

Q. I recognize it's a loaded question after a couple days, but as much as you're willing to share, what are your impressions of your guys?

ROD CAREY: You get past the emotion a little bit, which is hard in the 24 hours now that we've had with them. They're a bright and an intelligent group. Identification and marking from some technical align stuff has not been the problem. It certainly has not. That means they're really smart. So that's my first impression of them.

I think they want to be good. That's a big-time quality to have. Ask me that in about a week, I'll be able to tell you a lot more. Otherwise I'd just be making stuff up right now.

You guys good? Thanks. See you, boys.