What Matt Guerrieri Said About Indiana Football Defense After Loss to Ohio State
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00:00 Let me ask Coach Allen about the defensive line too,
00:02 but just in terms of maybe its impact, its flexibility,
00:05 some of the individual one-on-one battles guys
00:07 were winning just as you grade that group.
00:09 How pleased were you with what you saw from their efforts?
00:12 Yeah, I was really pleased with the effort.
00:14 There's plenty for us to coach and clean up,
00:17 as is with most opening games, but from an effort standpoint,
00:21 what Coach Randolph's been able to do with those guys
00:23 and the new faces and learning our scheme
00:27 and implementing it, really pleased with it from there.
00:31 So Andre Carver's obviously disruptive that game,
00:33 and he said post-game, like he's an experienced guy,
00:35 like he's seen things before.
00:36 How does that help you, that experience,
00:38 just as a play caller?
00:39 Yeah, it helps a lot.
00:40 That's something that we talked about going into the games,
00:42 was we have a lot of new faces,
00:44 and some of those guys have played
00:46 and some haven't played, right?
00:47 So that's one of my big things in the box.
00:49 I ask guys all the time,
00:50 "Anybody have big eyes down there?
00:52 You know, what's the look in their face?"
00:54 And Andre definitely is a guy
00:55 that is battle-tested, and I think that showed.
00:59 Mike, you're on your left.
01:00 You said --
01:02 Wanted to ask you about two guys.
01:04 First was Aaron Casey.
01:06 Was he the best defender on the field on Saturday?
01:08 And then, in Philip Dunham,
01:09 how much have you seen him progress in the last six months
01:12 and your relationship with him kind of taking over that room?
01:14 Yeah.
01:16 What have you seen from him?
01:17 For sure, two guys who definitely stood out.
01:18 Ace, to me, played fast.
01:21 He's got great talent. He's shown that before,
01:23 but he has a really good understanding
01:25 of what we're trying to do schematically,
01:27 and he's taken lead of his leadership role,
01:30 and he flew around and made a ton of plays.
01:32 I mean, you guys saw it.
01:34 You know, that Philip Dunham, that play that he made,
01:36 I could show you 50 times already on the practice field.
01:39 You know, so I tell guys all the time,
01:40 "If you do it in practice, you're going to earn
01:42 the opportunity to go play meaningful snaps,
01:44 and whatever you do in practice is going to show up in the game."
01:46 But he's become more consistent.
01:48 I mentioned that in the previous press conference,
01:50 but he's become more consistent.
01:52 He's matured. He's bought in.
01:54 He's doing a good job.
01:57 Kind of alongside Aaron, you know,
01:58 Jacob had a strong game, too.
02:00 I know he had that PBU in the end zone
02:02 that kind of saved the touchdown.
02:03 Just what do you see from him?
02:05 How do you feel like he settled into his first game here?
02:06 He did a good job.
02:08 You know, pleased with his progress throughout.
02:09 Again, you have a new face who's learning a new system,
02:11 you know, so any time it's the first live bullets,
02:14 you know, how guys are going to respond and react,
02:17 and, you know, he put a lot on his plate,
02:18 and he's responded, and, yeah, you know,
02:20 you mentioned a really nice play.
02:22 He made in the back of the end zone.
02:23 But, yeah, pleased with his progress,
02:25 and I expect that every week.
02:28 They moved the ball some into the red zone
02:30 and into your side of the field a lot,
02:31 but a lot of times your defense stepped up,
02:33 forced quite a few field goals.
02:35 Did you -- Were you pleased with how they played
02:37 in that kind of short end of the field,
02:38 and what do you think they did well there?
02:40 Yeah, that to me is purely mentality, you know,
02:42 and Ohio State's an explosive offense.
02:43 You guys know that, and they made yards at times,
02:46 but our guys were able to bow up there.
02:48 You obviously would prefer them not to get there, right,
02:50 and we had some opportunities on possession downs
02:52 to stop them before that, you know, but our mentality is,
02:56 you know, I don't care where the ball is.
02:57 Give us an inch, we'll defend it, right,
02:59 and it doesn't matter if it's on the one
03:00 or if it's a backed-up situation, right,
03:02 so that's our mentality is put the ball down.
03:04 Whatever the situation, let's bow up, but especially there.
03:07 You know, there's a lot of pride from Coach Allen
03:09 from a system standpoint of red zone,
03:11 score zone defense here,
03:12 and I think our guys, you know, answered that.
03:15 [Indistinct]
03:17 On Saturday, Tom mentioned how he felt fatigue
03:20 kind of set in on the defense in the second half.
03:22 How do you manage, you know,
03:23 getting those guys' endurance in the right place,
03:25 especially if the offense isn't moving the ball much?
03:28 Yeah, I mean, you control controllables.
03:30 You know, for us, it's how you build depth.
03:32 That's earned, you know, from the practice field.
03:35 If guys, you know, earn the right to be playing in the game,
03:37 then we're going to put them in the game.
03:38 You know, it's our job to get those guys
03:40 ready from that standpoint,
03:41 so you want as many guys as possible to be able to play,
03:44 and that helps you in situations like that
03:46 to, you know, prevent fatigue from that standpoint,
03:49 but, yeah, it's what are our rotations.
03:51 We've had a lot of conversations about that defensively.
03:53 How do we keep guys fresh, and then who are the guys
03:56 that, you know, we got to get to that point
03:58 where we trust them in the game.
04:00 Mason, Jeff, obviously you oversee a lot of the defense,
04:03 but you also have a close relationship
04:05 with the defensive backs,
04:06 tall task with the OSU receivers.
04:08 How would you grade how they handled the challenge of OSU
04:10 and kind of specifically some of the new faces
04:13 that you have in that room?
04:14 Yeah, for sure.
04:15 You know, the biggest thing to me,
04:17 as I said this before, from a defensive back is mentality.
04:19 I mean, you could talk about skills or talent
04:21 or that type of stuff.
04:22 Mentality to me is the biggest thing,
04:24 and I thought our guys did have mentality in that game.
04:27 It was far from perfect.
04:28 There's plenty to clean up.
04:30 I think they did have an understanding of the game plan
04:32 and what Ohio State was trying to do from that standpoint,
04:35 but I was pleased from a mentality standpoint.
04:37 I guess overall it felt like your pass rush
04:49 was relatively improved as opposed to last year.
04:53 Obviously Andre Carter was phenomenal for you up front.
04:56 When you kind of look around that room in general,
04:57 though, you've got a lot of experience up front.
05:00 Kind of how would you assess, maybe fill up
05:02 in the overall kind of, I guess,
05:05 showing that you're line in front seven in general?
05:07 For sure.
05:09 It starts with effort up front,
05:10 and I think those guys have worked really hard in camp.
05:13 And schematically, we have some, you know,
05:16 guys that have some skills,
05:18 and how do we try to put them best in position
05:20 to be able to make plays?
05:21 So that's, you know, obviously part player-led
05:24 and part coach-led in trying to put that together.
05:27 But I am pleased with the effort from that standpoint,
05:29 and we have to continue to grow, you know,
05:31 our patterns and our rush packages
05:33 to, you know, best exploit what, you know, offense is doing.
05:39 Talking about, I guess, all three levels,
05:41 just how pleased are you, maybe not just
05:43 some of the performance, but depth,
05:44 and the fact that in the secondary,
05:46 in the line in particular, it seemed like you could rotate
05:48 through a couple lines of guys
05:51 and still be getting sort of similar impact,
05:53 similar play performance?
05:55 It's been part of our challenge to the guys, right?
05:57 You earn the right to play by how you practice,
06:00 and our guys have practiced hard.
06:02 So anyone that you saw in the game,
06:04 that meant we trust them as a staff.
06:06 The players trust each other from that standpoint.
06:08 So the only way that depth is real on game day on Saturdays
06:12 or Friday night this week is it's earned in practice,
06:15 you know, and so that's the biggest thing to me.
06:17 So I'm always pleased from a depth standpoint
06:19 as long as we have guys that we're able to roll,
06:21 because if not, that means that those guys
06:23 haven't earned it from that standpoint.
06:24 So any time that you see a guy that's in the game,
06:26 that means that we trust them and expect them
06:27 to be able to go do their job.
06:29 Seth, you're right, your first game calling the defense here.
06:32 Just, you know, how long did it kind of take you
06:34 to start to really get a feel and feel like you were,
06:36 you know, nailing the calls there,
06:38 and just how do you kind of handle the adjustments
06:39 as the game went on?
06:40 Yeah, it's a great question.
06:42 It's the first time, you know, that I've been part
06:43 of this defensive staff from that standpoint.
06:45 So that's -- we do a lot of mock games,
06:46 and we do a lot of long-night conversations
06:49 to make sure everybody's on the same page.
06:50 But I thought from an adjustment standpoint,
06:53 communication, it was clean, and that's a testament
06:55 to the defensive coaches who are down on the field
06:57 with those guys.
06:58 You know, I thought, you know, from that standpoint,
07:00 it was good, and that's our job,
07:03 just to have guys ready to play, to adjust,
07:05 to have the guys believe and be able to go play hard and fast.
07:09 Mike, from the left, when you watched back the film,
07:14 did anything stand out to you
07:16 that you didn't notice on Saturday?
07:17 You know, kind of curious, were there surprises
07:19 or something you didn't see?
07:21 I'm just kind of curious when you kind of had some distance
07:23 from the game, what you thought.
07:25 Yeah, it's a great question.
07:26 I don't think much was missed.
07:27 You know, I thought we were on it from, you know,
07:29 what was happening schematically and adjusting
07:31 and things like that.
07:33 But it's about details and execution.
07:35 You know, there's critical moments in that game
07:36 that our details and execution
07:38 weren't what they needed to be to win the game.
07:40 You know, so that's a big thing for us is every little thing.
07:43 You never know the play that's going to win or lose the game.
07:45 Right? So that's been on our guys
07:47 is, you know, close isn't good enough.
07:50 Right? And how do we, you know, hold them to,
07:54 you know, seven points instead of ten points?
07:56 How do we finish? What are the critical errors?
07:58 Where were the penalties that showed up?
07:59 Right? That's, you know, a lot of the conversations
08:01 that we've had from that standpoint.
08:03 So just highlighting those things and showing the guys,
08:06 and again, take the emotion out, be objective.
08:08 This is the reality of the situation.
08:10 How do we get better?
08:12 You know, so I was pleased with the effort
08:12 from that standpoint,
08:13 but the details can be better.