Despite 2-0 start, Tom Allen sees plenty of places Indiana can improve
Indiana has started their season strong, but that hasn’t stopped head coach Tom Allen from pointing out where his team needs to improve.
The Hoosiers are 2-0, an impressive 36-35 win over then ranked Penn State and then a thorough performance against a surprising Rutgers team this past Saturday. At 2-0, Indiana may not yet be knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff but with a game this Saturday against No. 23 Michigan, a statement could certainly be made that this non-traditional powerhouse might be for real.
Beating a blue-blood like Michigan would do that, although Allen cautioned that his team is far from a finished product heading into the third week of the season.
“And so just feel like it is about continuing to find ways to stay on the field and get your playmakers the football. That is really what it comes down to, offensively. Most efficiency in the red zone is huge,” Allen said during his weekly press availability.
“We have gotten better on third downs, has not been an area that we have been good enough and right now, I want to see us continue to work on running the football better. We had some good runs and did some good things in the run game at key times, but there are a lot of variables that go into that and I just thought we were a little sloppy, the penalties and snap over quarterback’s head. We had not had one of those since I have been here that I can remember. And those things do not happen very often. And so, we killed that drive and some penalties really set us back and did not allow us to finish with touchdowns. We still got points on those red zone trip, but we still need to continue to get more touchdowns. So, that is really the key.”
On his weekly radio show Wednesday night, Allen touched on a few more areas the Hoosiers can improve.
Tom Allen on the penalties IU suffered from vs. Rutgers. He was most disappointed with the two unsportsmalike conduct penalties. The players responsible were punished:
"Every day in practice, they had penalty runs. … We had to fix that. That's gotta change." #iufb
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) November 5, 2020
Indiana is tied for third in the Big Ten in scoring offense, ironically with the Michigan team they face this Saturday.
Tom Allen on Michigan:
"Their running backs, they've got four of them, and they are all really good. Definitely the most good backs we've seen. Them and Ohio State probably have the most on their team that we'll face."
Allen also points to their speed on defense. #iufb
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) November 5, 2020
Indiana and Michigan will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday.