Ad Disclosure
What Indiana head coach Tom Allen said ahead of game vs. Ohio State
Published:
The Indiana Hoosiers football team has done its part in 2020, and now they’ll have to face the consequences.
The Hoosiers are 4-0, having knocked off both Michigan schools in dominant fashion over consecutive weeks, and Penn State to open the season. They’d never beat both the Nittany Lions and Wolverines in the same year. Indiana held serve against a feisty Rutgers team and have walked themselves right into a Saturday showdown with the scariest gunfighter in the Great Lakes region.
Indiana is packing up like the Road Warriors to face the Ohio State Buckeyes on the banks of the Olentangy. Both teams are ranked in the top ten, and FOX College Football has made it their game of the week, but the Buckeyes are used to being there, Indiana is not.
The game not only will be the Hoosiers stiffest test of the season, it may in fact be their first as each of their previous victories has become less impressive as their opponents continue to lose. The combined record of the teams the Hoosiers have beat is 3-13.
Indiana’s head coach Tom Allen talked about what has been and what’s to come during his Monday afternoon press conference. Some of the highlights are laid out below.
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328382928787820545?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328383156718891012?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328383804990509057?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328383991746072615?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328384550339276810?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328384880904900609?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328385137030127618?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328385346254598150?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328386344062750720?s=20
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328386966803582979?s=20
Indiana coach Tom Allen on Ohio State: “Tremendous amount of respect for Coach Day … Excellent football team. Arguably the best quarterback in the country. Justin Fields is a special, special player … Elite players that are well-coached and extremely talented.” pic.twitter.com/C1wRIye8R4
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 16, 2020
Tom Allen on Justin Fields: “He's just extremely poised.” He also said Ohio State is giving Fields excellent pass protection. “He's had a ton of success throwing the ball. He's gotten better.” Said facing Fields will be “definitely the hardest test we've faced this year.”
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 16, 2020
On whether being a three-touchdown underdog will give Indiana extra motivation this week, Tom Allen responded, “You shouldn't need extra motivation to play the Ohio State Buckeyes.” He said, “We're used to being told we don't measure up,” but his team is already highly motivated.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) November 16, 2020
Tom Allen getting extremely emotional talking about his high school coaching days and his son Thomas’s injury this week. “I know what he’s been through…he’s a tough sucker.”
— Dylan Sinn (@DylanSinn) November 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/PaulEGable/status/1328388333387599872?s=20
Tom Allen, getting teary about his journey as a coach, and about his son's injury, and how it all adds up to being a heavy underdog v. Ohio State "We're going to compete, we're going to fight, I don't care what anyone says about this doggone game." #iufb
— KevinBrockwayGators (@KevinBrockwayG1) November 16, 2020
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.