Indiana Offensive Coordinator Walt Bell Reviews Week 1 Loss to Ohio State
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00:00 In terms of the challenge you faced play calling,
00:02 I mean going against out of state,
00:04 you're promising to play two quarterbacks.
00:07 They're both young.
00:09 What are the challenges of that?
00:10 How do you think you kind of,
00:11 you did personally when you rewatched it
00:13 and kind of got a look at how the game flowed?
00:15 I mean, what were your kind of thoughts on your play calling?
00:18 First thing, just from a quarterback standpoint,
00:19 I thought, you know,
00:21 both of them did the most important thing
00:22 and that was avoid catastrophic error.
00:23 Now we had some pre-snap error.
00:26 You know, I think both of them had one apiece
00:28 that we had a third down and one issue
00:30 where we missed a shift in a trade
00:32 which caused a false start.
00:34 We had another issue pre-snap,
00:35 but really other than those two things,
00:38 they played pretty clean.
00:39 You know, and so that's the biggest thing
00:42 is there was no catastrophic error.
00:44 From a play calling standpoint,
00:46 going into the game, you know,
00:47 the most important thing was we wanted to stay in the fight
00:49 as long as possible.
00:50 You know, and so it was a long, it was slow,
00:53 it was going to be a grind.
00:55 From an analytics standpoint,
00:56 we were going to go for a bunch of fourth downs,
00:58 so that's, you know, some of the third down decision making
00:59 is to get us to a fourth and two,
01:01 get us to a fourth and three.
01:04 You know, and so we were exactly where we wanted to be
01:06 going into half.
01:07 It was a one possession game.
01:08 That's exactly where we wanted to be.
01:10 You know, if you look at the history
01:11 of Indiana and Ohio State,
01:12 the second quarter is when there's been a big lift.
01:14 You know, and Coach Deal, you know,
01:17 who is always in our building, always around,
01:19 you know, I think it was in the last four or five years,
01:21 it was like 86 to 15 or 86 to 14
01:25 if you add the totality of the second quarters.
01:28 You know, and so defense is playing great.
01:31 And, you know, the whole, you know,
01:33 we just want to keep staying in the fight as long as possible.
01:35 You know, now where some decisions I regret,
01:38 you know, is early in the second half.
01:41 You know, we had momentum, we got a big stop.
01:44 I think the first third down,
01:47 back to what we call quarterback draw,
01:48 we kind of have what we want, don't really hit it right.
01:51 And then the next third down, you know, we throw a ball
01:54 and we have a miscommunication
01:55 between quarterback and a wide out.
01:56 But again, that's coaching, that's not on them.
01:58 You know, we got to make sure that they understand the plan
02:00 and that they're doing right.
02:01 So, you know, and then really after that,
02:03 they score again, game starts to get away.
02:05 And so, but in the first half,
02:08 I thought we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.
02:11 You know, and now it's just, we got to improve,
02:12 we got to be better, you know.
02:13 And from an improvement standpoint, you know,
02:16 I know people look at the rushing yards and the statistics,
02:19 but just how much better, you know,
02:21 or how much better our offensive line was.
02:22 You know, quarterback got hit twice, the whole day,
02:26 you know, and so, and then the sack that we had,
02:28 really that's more quarterback air than anything else,
02:31 you know, and so I thought those guys really improved.
02:35 We took care of the football, you know,
02:37 and we just got to keep getting better every week.
02:39 What were the head-on metrics that you think
02:41 that you're going to make in terms of --
02:43 Yeah, I mean, just, you know,
02:44 in your fourth down decision-making,
02:45 you know, the same analytics that everyone in the world is,
02:48 you know, you hear about it so much,
02:49 but, you know, we're going to be really aggressive,
02:53 you know, and a great example is Philadelphia.
02:56 You know, they played in the Super Bowl a year ago.
02:57 They ran the ball on third down more than any team in the NFL,
02:59 you know, and why?
03:01 Because they want to play more fourth downs than anybody
03:03 in the NFL, you know, and so your yard markers,
03:05 when that's going to transpire, those change each week,
03:07 but, you know, we're going to be aggressive.
03:09 When you're actively still evaluating
03:13 two quarterbacks going into a season,
03:15 obviously, you know, you had, you know,
03:17 Brendan started last week, Taven's starting this week.
03:19 Just does it get tricky to kind of evaluate them
03:21 when, you know, the game plan you're going to have on them,
03:23 you know, game one against, you know, a top-five FBS team,
03:27 and then game two, you're seeing them
03:28 just against a different level of opponent in FCS school.
03:31 Does that make it a little trickier to evaluate them?
03:34 No, I mean, I think they're both good laboratories.
03:37 You know, I think Brendan played --
03:39 or Taven played 29, Brendan played 28.
03:41 Maybe it's vice versa. I'm not sure.
03:43 But they both pretty much played the exact same amount of plays.
03:46 You know, different situations in the game.
03:49 You know, there's a good mix of that.
03:51 You know, the biggest thing for us
03:52 is both of them had really good fall camps.
03:54 They're both really good football players.
03:56 It would not surprise me down the line
03:57 if both of them don't have a chance
03:59 to play in the NFL someday.
04:01 I know that's heaping amount of praise
04:02 that they may not live up to, but they're both really talented.
04:06 It just so happens we have them both at the same time
04:08 and they're the same age.
04:09 You know, and so both of them had great fall camps.
04:12 You know, both of them were around 70%
04:14 on the hands through fall camp,
04:15 didn't really turn the ball over, you know,
04:16 and they both earned the right to have the opportunity to play.
04:19 That and the fact that they're so young,
04:21 you really don't know until the lights go on.
04:23 You know, and we've all seen guys that get better.
04:25 We've all seen guys that, you know,
04:27 kind of become a shell of who they are.
04:29 And I don't think either one of them did that, you know.
04:31 And so we've got, you know, another game to look at,
04:34 you know, and then we'll just keep evaluating as we go.
04:37 Yeah, Coach, on the two quarterbacks,
04:43 take us through each one.
04:44 What are two or three things that would really help
04:46 each one take key steps
04:48 to maybe become the guy moving forward?
04:50 Yeah, I mean, you know, with Tavin,
04:53 he's for a tall, long kid,
04:55 he's a way better foot athlete than you expect him to be.
04:59 He takes a great deal of pride in his work.
05:02 You know, I mean, he puts a lot of internal pressure
05:04 on himself, which can be good and can be bad.
05:07 That and he can distribute, you know,
05:09 he can spin the football, you know.
05:11 And the thing about Brennan is they're very similar.
05:14 You know, Brennan can hit spots.
05:16 Brennan can distribute the football.
05:17 He's a big physical runner.
05:19 You know, when we took Brennan out of high school,
05:21 it was after the first signing day,
05:22 after I had gotten hired.
05:24 You know, the majority of quarterbacks in America
05:25 are signed somewhere else.
05:27 You know, and the reason that we took him
05:28 was because he was a big physical runner.
05:31 You know, and that's what you saw on his tape.
05:32 You really didn't know about the distribution skills.
05:34 You know, and then we got a chance to see him go live
05:36 and we felt much better about that.
05:37 But, you know, they're very, very, very similar.
05:39 You know, and the differences
05:42 aren't in their learning ability.
05:43 They're both really smart.
05:45 They both retain information well.
05:47 They both are composed.
05:50 You know, there's just subtle personality nuances.
05:52 But physically, they're very, very similar,
05:54 which helps, you know, because it's not like
05:57 you have to have two distinct plans, you know,
06:00 which is hard.
06:01 I guess a personnel question,
06:08 but at least for some of the game, if not --
06:10 I don't know, this keeps turning to me.
06:11 Forgive me.
06:13 If not all the game, we saw Khalil at right tackle
06:16 and Matt Bedford kicked inside to guard.
06:19 Was that maybe because of some of the option stuff?
06:21 Was it by design because of Matt coming back from injury?
06:24 Was it Ohio State?
06:26 I mean, just kind of what led to maybe flipping those guys
06:28 from where they've played in the past?
06:30 No, you know, with Coach Bostad, those guys, you know,
06:32 they end up playing in a lot of spots, you know,
06:34 and not necessarily because, you know,
06:36 it helps them learn anymore.
06:37 It's just, you know, the amount of repetition
06:39 and time on task.
06:41 At some point, somebody's got to get a breather.
06:42 Somebody's got to kick in.
06:43 Somebody's got to kick out.
06:44 I mean, there's a lot of reps in a practice setting,
06:47 you know, and about midway through fall camp,
06:51 you know, that transition kind of transpired.
06:54 And I think some of that had to do with also,
06:56 you know, with Max Longman being out
06:59 for the last week or so of fall camp, you know,
07:03 and so it's just trying to get the best five on the field,
07:05 you know, and Matt's a class act.
07:07 You know, that's the one thing that I think is important
07:09 that everybody understands about Matt Bedford
07:11 is just how all in he is about Indiana.
07:14 You know, you're talking about a guy
07:15 that's got NFL potential
07:16 that you ask to move to guard a week and a half
07:18 before the season knowing he's going to tackle us all night.
07:20 He'll say, "Yeah, I'm good. Let's go."
07:22 You know, and so he's a special kid,
07:25 and he's willing to do whatever it takes
07:26 to help us be the best that we can be.
07:28 I think Tom on Saturday after the game
07:33 said that you guys were a little bit more conservative
07:36 than you wanted to be, maybe,
07:37 even in some of the situations that you were in.
07:39 Is that partly quarterback related
07:41 and something that would gradually increase
07:43 as the quarterbacks become more comfortable in the offense,
07:47 or is that just more situational?
07:48 Both. You know, I think --
07:51 You know, I told Tom when we walked off the field,
07:53 you know, I mean, number one goal is to stay in the fight.
07:55 You know, we want to make it a 60-minute game,
07:58 you know, and especially with kind of the history
07:59 of this rivalry and how it's transpired,
08:01 and we accomplished that, but we played pitter-pat too long.
08:04 I played pitter-pat too long.
08:06 You know, at some point, you got to go be aggressive,
08:10 you know, and really the biggest thing,
08:13 if you take three downs out of the game,
08:15 you know, if we execute a little bit better
08:17 on the fourth and two,
08:18 you know, we have the ball down there tight.
08:20 You know, you're probably going into halftime.
08:21 It's 10-7.
08:22 You know, maybe we have a lead, or it's 7-6,
08:23 and it's a one-point game.
08:25 I had a little bit of an execution deal there
08:26 that we can clean up, you know, and then the two-third downs,
08:29 you know, to start the second half.
08:31 You know, we've got what we want.
08:34 We're in a good spot. We just don't do the job.
08:36 On Saturday, we heard that rhythm was kind of challenging
08:44 with the kind of rotation you all had under center.
08:48 Is there any concern from your, I guess,
08:51 vantage point about maybe seeing a representative sample
08:56 kind of with that rhythm maybe altering play?
08:59 None.
09:01 Hey, Walt, with Bradley Archer, what are you seeing from him?
09:10 What are you -- what's his ceiling?
09:12 What do you hope to see from him?
09:15 He's been a wonderful addition.
09:17 You know, he's big. He's strong.
09:19 Really, really, really smart. Does a great job in line.
09:24 You know, catches the ball well.
09:26 You know, in terms of the role he was asked to do on Saturday,
09:28 that was going to get in there with the angry eight,
09:29 mix it up, and block those really good defensive ends.
09:32 But he has been a great addition for us.
09:35 Great kid. Doesn't say a whole lot.
09:36 Shows up, works hard every day, and knows what to do.
09:39 Coach, so you mentioned Bradley there.
09:45 I think I'm looking at it right.
09:46 I don't think any of your tight ends on your offense
09:48 finished the game of reception.
09:50 I might be remembering wrong,
09:51 but I think one pass went toward there,
09:53 and it wasn't completed.
09:54 Is that a hope of yours that, as the season goes,
09:57 and as your offense, like, as the quarterbacks improve?
09:59 Yeah, I think the biggest thing for us
10:01 is just going to be, you know,
10:03 when do the opportunities present themselves?
10:05 How much do we need them in pass protection?
10:08 You know, and just as those guys continue to develop,
10:10 because it still is a young room.
10:12 You got a bunch of young guys, you know,
10:13 which Bamba's still young.
10:15 Stein is still young. Brody Foley's still young.
10:18 You know, Bradley's an older guy that's played some ball.
10:21 But really, it's just whatever the game plan
10:22 allows us to do with those guys.
10:25 Yeah, just when you think about Jalen Lucas
10:28 and kind of how you're getting him the ball,
10:31 I guess I know I recognize
10:32 you're playing a really talented defense,
10:33 but when you looked back, did you --
10:35 did you like kind of the ways you were using him,
10:37 or did you feel that there were ways
10:39 that you could maybe maximize what he can do?
10:41 No, I mean, he had, between special teams and offense,
10:45 he had 13 to -- or 11 or 12 touches in the first half,
10:49 between special teams and offense.
10:50 We want to try to keep him around 20.
10:52 And then we lost him to Kramps for two or three drives
10:56 there in the second half.
10:58 You know, and so he was going to be on pace for 15, 18.
11:02 You know, and again, from a game-plan standpoint,
11:04 number one against those guys, you got to protect the passer.
11:08 You know, and so that means the ball's got to come out.
11:10 It's got to be quick game.
11:12 Really push the ball down the field, you know, with him.
11:15 Got to be a little careful.
11:17 You know, but it's going to be work every week
11:19 to find a way to get him the ball.
11:22 I guess sort of a philosophical question.
11:24 You've talked about how your offense,
11:27 the way it operates, it can run as easily as it can pass.
11:29 But you guys obviously threw it a lot more than you ran it
11:33 in terms of where you lined up in the Big Ten last year.
11:35 As you maybe sort of shift some of your thinking
11:38 in the offseason, shift some of your thinking in the preseason
11:40 and start putting together
11:42 maybe some more run-oriented packages,
11:45 were there pieces of your past as a coach,
11:47 coaches you'd worked with in the past,
11:48 head coaches you've worked with in the past
11:50 that you maybe leaned on a little bit
11:52 in just sort of maybe tweaking some of that stuff?
11:55 I wouldn't necessarily say coaches that I've leaned on
11:57 or worked with in the past.
11:59 Now, you know, I played for Larry Fedora,
12:02 coached with Larry Fedora at Southern Miss, North Carolina.
12:05 You know, Larry was known as a spread one back guy,
12:07 but at the same time, he's also the offense coordinator
12:09 at Air Force at one point.
12:11 You know, and so we even at Southern Miss
12:14 and even North Carolina, you know,
12:16 especially when we have Mark Weese Williams,
12:18 you know, who kind of came right before Miss Trubisky.
12:21 When I was at Arkansas State, you know,
12:23 there was always an option element, you know,
12:26 and if anything else, just to eliminate pressure,
12:29 you know, and make things simpler, you know,
12:32 because when you run the option, you know,
12:34 if that is a part of the plan, you know,
12:36 you're really going to limit the defense.
12:38 They're always going to have to have somebody inside
12:39 and outside the quarterback and somebody for the pitch.
12:42 You know, what that does is it creates a back-end structure
12:44 the majority of the time that's much simpler
12:46 to see in the throw game.
12:47 So, hopefully that more than anything else
12:50 will alleviate and make some things easier
12:51 on those young quarterbacks.